Detachable concrete mixer

DIY concrete mixer with reverse drive: design

The concrete mixer is designed to produce concrete mix or cement-sand mortar. Its volumetric output is 15 ten‑liter buckets of mix in the ratio: 1.5 buckets of cement + 4.5 buckets of sand + 9 buckets of crushed stone (water not included) per batch, with a cycle time of 15 minutes (5 minutes each for Read more…

Plowing… with a shovel

Shovel-Plow DIY: Soil Tillage Tool That Eases Back Strain

I made this soil-working tool to lighten the hard work, since digging the ground with an ordinary shovel—constantly bending and straightening—had become harder and harder over the years. The device itself is a modest invention (an author’s certificate was obtained for it), but it is useful: now my back does not hurt even after long Read more…

School hydrometeorological station

School Automatic Weather Station: Diagrams

“The school automatic weather station, constructed by students of secondary school No. 5 in the city of Klin, is of technical interest. The precipitation sensor and its registration on the control panel are originally conceived and implemented. The wind direction and speed indicators, as well as the thermometer, are interesting. Such weather stations can also Read more…

Will heat and produce biogas

Biogas plant for producing methane from manure

Biogas. Used as far back as ancient China and then “rediscovered” millennia later as a “non-conventional, environmentally clean energy source of the 21st century,” it is attracting growing attention in our country too. Evidence of this is, in particular, the steady rise in publications related to biogas—including in the pages of Modelist-Konstruktor (see, for example, Read more…

Dump shovel

Improved Shovel: Dig Without Bending for Bad Back – DIY Tip

It would seem that a shovel is such a simple tool that changing or improving its design is hardly possible. A handle and a blade—that’s the whole device. Nevertheless, there are many variations of this rather ancient farming (and not only!) implement. And the search for its modernization continues. Including by our readers, as evidenced Read more…

Thermal Cutting Jigsaw

Electrothermal (hot-wire) jigsaw: build and use – DIY guide

A jigsaw is a common tool. However, when working with it, one often runs into certain difficulties: the blade breaks, slips out of the clamps, and when cutting along a curved contour it often twists, which makes it hard to keep the desired direction. It is much more convenient to use an electrothermal (hot-wire) jigsaw, Read more…

If you have slats, you don’t need boards

Cottage Furniture Set DIY from 20×30 mm Slats — Plans

For many years Modelist-Konstruktor has been introducing its readers to various furniture designs intended for do-it-yourself construction. Unfortunately, as reader mail shows, not all home craftsmen who want to get started can take on replicating them. This especially applies to residents of large cities. The main reason is a shortage of “building” materials or, at Read more…

Gasoline road

Rekord primus on gasoline: burner, wind guard, safety

The kerosene primus stove «Rekord» had been lying idle in my garden shed for a long time. At first I wanted to throw it away, since kerosene is hard to find even in the countryside nowadays, but then I changed my mind and decided to convert it to a more readily available fuel—gasoline. However, you Read more…

Balcony clothes dryer

DIY Balcony Clothes Dryer — Lifting Mechanism, Drawings

Most city dwellers living in apartment buildings usually dry their laundry on balconies and loggias. Ropes stretched low get in the way of placing flower boxes, a deck chair or other leisure items on the balcony; ropes stretched high cause inconvenience when hanging laundry and do not always ensure the necessary safety. All these drawbacks Read more…

From both sun and wind

DIY Garden Awnings & Canopies: Gazebo, Terrace, Windbreak Screen

On a summer cottage plot in bad weather you can take shelter indoors. However, even on a sunny day you sometimes want to hide — from the scorching rays. And if there are no large trees on the plot that would provide welcome shade, you don’t have to build a solid permanent gazebo, as is Read more…