“A canoe made of birch bark… the most convenient and lightest of all means of travel. The bark of one birch tree is usually enough for one canoe; they have such a sensible shape that they float on water as easily as a cork” (J. Catlin, 1841). A canoe of the North American Indians can Read more…
You know that feeling when you open your apartment door and immediately run into a mess of sneakers, slippers, and a pair of boots that simply have nowhere to go? That was exactly our situation. The hallway is small, there’s no shelf, and long boots were lying around wherever they happened to land, as if Read more…
For a motorist, a roof rack is not only a convenience but also a number of related problems. First and foremost — maintaining proper aerodynamics. The fact is that even when unloaded, despite its seemingly openwork appearance, a rack creates additional “sail area,” increasing wind resistance even at low speed. That means extra fuel consumption, Read more…
My first pendulum saw was made from drawings proposed by V. Zaitsev in the magazine “Modelist-Konstruktor” No. 12 for 1985. Indeed, for working with metal using a cutting wheel this tool is simply indispensable, but for working with wood the saw must also be given longitudinal motion. Therefore I had to make another version. The Read more…
When notes, photos, and ticket stubs pile up on the desk again and the fridge magnet can no longer cope, it is time to make something beautiful and useful. A honeycomb-shaped wall board is exactly the kind of craft that genuinely improves everyday life rather than simply filling a weekend. You get an organizer, décor, Read more…
This small cart, similar in shape and size to an ordinary wheelbarrow, differs from it in that it has two wheels and a tipping body. Its other feature is as follows: the chassis is designed using metal angle bars 30×30 and 25×25 mm (previously forming the frame of an old bed). Chassis construction The chassis Read more…
One timber beam and a canvas bag (a bag with a round bottom) measuring 550×1400×1450 and 250×1400 mm — that is what this svertboat turns into if you take it apart and pack it for transport. Compactness was achieved by making the hull three-section. Each section can nest inside another, like the familiar “matryoshka” dolls. Read more…
The magazine “Modelist-Konstruktor” has already described motor winches more than once — fascinating soil-cultivation mechanisms that have been gaining increasing popularity among amateur designers in recent years. And indeed, the merits of this excellent device are indisputable. The point is that a winch (by the way, one of the oldest mechanisms in the history of Read more…
Readers of the magazine “Modelist-Konstruktor” are offered a simple wheel-and-ski snowmobile designed for travel along snow-covered country roads and even open snowfields. The snowmobile is three-point, with two rear driving pneumatics and one steerable ski at the front. Compared with other machines of this type, the snowmobile’s design is extremely simple, which makes it possible Read more…
The apricot is a valuable fruit crop that came to us from Central Asia. However, not all of its varieties are suitable for drying because of the low content in them of the substance whose main component is sugar. These are, as a rule, early-ripening varieties. To obtain high-quality dried fruit, it is desirable to Read more…
