DIY (Page 11)

PopSci's curated collection of life skills, tech tips, and hands-on projects we think you'll love.

Latest in DIY

The best angle grinders are a versatile tool for sharpening, removing rust, and more.

The best angle grinders

A laptop on a desk, probably with Apple apps for Windows installed

You can use many of your Apple apps on Windows. Here’s how.

WhatsApp's Delete account menu

How to permanently delete your WhatsApp account without losing your precious chats

By Sandra Gutierrez G.

The best monitor wall mounts of 2023

The best monitor wall mounts

By John Alexander

An iPhone charging on desk next to laptop, a situation in which if you changed your iPhone's charging sound, it may have triggered an automation.

Your iPhone’s charging sound is boring. Have it say ‘Gimme some juice!’ instead.

By Sandra Gutierrez G.

A DIY citronella candle in a small metal candle tin on a black surface outside.

How to Frankenstein old wax scraps into a totally new candle

By Rachel Feltman

A man use binoculars with the Facebook icon on the lenses looking out from a desktop computer screen.

How to see everything Facebook knows about you, and what you can do about it

Complete your tool set with one of the best impact drivers.

The best impact drivers

By Tony Carrick

Two women sitting on a couch using a Windows computer.

7 hidden Windows features you should be using

Supermoon and full moon closeup

The upcoming ‘blue supermoon’ will be the biggest of the year

By Rachel Feltman

A security camera peeking through an open door.

The Opt Out: Home security cameras guarantee surveillance, not safety

By Sandra Gutierrez G.

Person carefully hiking uphill

6 uphill hiking tips to prevent your legs from turning into jelly

By Alisha McDarris

People signing karaoke probably using their laptop

Host an epic karaoke night with just a laptop and a mic

Person smiling with airpods on

How to clean AirPods and other headphones

A person's hand holding an iPhone with the Instagram login screen visible.

How to deactivate Instagram because the Likes don’t love you back

By John Kennedy

A Facebook Like icon doing a thumbs-down, as you might do if you want to delete your Facebook account.

How to delete your Facebook account and take your data with you

By Sandra Gutierrez G., John Kennedy

Doxycycline antibiotic pill for STI and STD prevention on a coral background

This ‘morning after’ pill could prevent STIs from unprotected sex

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A laptop showing how to reverse image search on the Google image results page.

How to do a reverse image search

Brown-skinned child with black braids at the grocery store holding ripe fruit like pineapple and papaya in arms

Pick the sweetest, ripest fruit with this science-based guide

By Sara Chodosh

Phone showing Waze directions, probably using recorded voices for navigation

Anybody can be your travel guide with customized Waze voices

Keep your floors shining with the best floor buffers.

The best floor buffers

By Billy Cadden

A person sits with their laptop on their legs and Amazon open in their browser to figure out how to cancel Amazon Prime.

How to cancel Amazon Prime in 5 easy steps

By Sandra Gutierrez G.

The best power banks for camping

The best power bank for camping, tested and reviewed

A person signing a PDF document on their phone

All the ways to digitally sign a PDF

The best sewing machines for quilting

The best sewing machines for quilting

By Carol Benton

A person using Apple Maps in a park.

Switch from Google Maps to Apple Maps without losing your favorite pinned places

best smoke detectors sliced header

The best smoke detectors, according to experts

By Brandon Russell

A woman lounging on a couch with a silver Macbook on her lap, possibly considering how she can create shortcuts for macOS.

Master your Mac by creating custom keyboard shortcuts

A wooden DIY dead-blow mallet

Don’t buy a dead-blow mallet—build your own

By Jean Levasseur

An iPhone on a wooden surface with the sign-in page for Mastodon on the screen.

How to see what’s happening on Mastodon without creating an account

Laptop on a wooden desk near a window with a person's hands on the keyboard.

4 ways to run Android apps and games on your computer

food wrapped in aluminum foil

Scientists shake crumpled tinfoil to create electricity

By Charlotte Hu

A notebook with Spanish verb conjugations, written probably in the process of learning two languages simultaneously

You should learn two languages at once

By Amanda Svachula

Three young people of different races and genders standing on a sidewalk in a park during the fall, all holding their phones and laughing.

How to use AirDrop without opening your phone up to strangers

By Maddi Langweil

The Arc browser on macOS.

The new Arc browser will literally transform how you use the web

A smashed computer monitor on a floor near a discarded can—physical destruction is one way to permanently delete files.

Permanently delete files (for real)

A person sitting in a cafe at night, using a laptop.

5 ways to go back in time on the internet

An ultrawide monitor on a wooden desk in front of a window.

Make the most of your dual or ultrawide monitor setup

Amber tree sap dripping from a branch.

How to keep tree sap from ruining your car’s paint

By Maddi Langweil

antique store furniture

Pro tips for buying high-quality used furniture—and keeping it looking new

By Carla Delgado

The YouTube mobile app on a phone, with a Peppa Pig video queued up to download or watch.

How to download YouTube videos to watch offline

A homemade electrolyte drink that's a pale green lime color, on a cutting board next to some lime slices and sugar.

2 easy homemade electrolyte drinks that actually work

By Alisha McDarris

Deer tick passing tick-borned diseases to a young person by biting back of the neck

6 tick-borne diseases you really don’t want to get

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Hand wearing the Whoop 4.0 band

7 tricks to squeeze all of the benefits out of your Whoop 4.0 band

A shower of Perseids meteors lights up the sky in 2009 in this NASA time-lapse image.

Two full moons, colorful meteors, and an asteroid will light up August’s sky

By Laura Baisas

A redheaded person in a blue plaid shirt sitting at a desktop computer, doing work and trying to minimize distractions while working from home.

How to avoid distractions while working from home

By Whitson Gordon

A man holding a laptop in an airport and looking at the flight board.

3 ways to make your laptop battery last longer—maybe all day

Borax powder in multicolor scoops on a blue background

Don’t drink or douche with Borax, no matter what TikTok tells you

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A person demonstrating how to safely cross a river or creek in the outdoors

How to safely cross a running body of water on foot

By Alisha McDarris

A piece of toast with homemade vegan butter on it

How to make simple and delicious vegan butter

By Rachel Feltman

An iPhone connected to an empty can showing a failed call on the screen.

The Opt Out: Analog life is possible. But it’ll cost you.

By Sandra Gutierrez G.

A desktop computer monitor with a waterfront scene on the screen.

Your computer monitor’s colors look bad because you haven’t calibrated them

A WiFi sign in a cafe.

WiFi 5 vs. WiFi 6: Which should you choose?

By Harry Guinness

A close up on a squared joint in a piece of wooden furniture using dados.

4 ways beginner woodworkers can craft impressively square joints

By Jean Levasseur

A person using a Macbook laptop with a web browser open on the screen. The more efficiently they use their browser, the longer their battery will last.

The browser settings that could save your laptop’s battery

A middle-aged man wearing a green plaid collared shirt with a silver Macbook on his lap. He is grinning as he adjusts some hidden settings to speed up his macOS laptop.

4 tips and hidden settings that will speed up macOS

Making slime is quick and fun.

The easiest way to make slime

By Sandra Gutierrez G.

A person holding a phone in landscape view, with a YouTube thumbnail on the screen, showing the exaggerated expression known as YouTube face.

The extension that will banish ‘YouTube face’ from your browser

A MacBook opens in the dark probably after restarting and installing the beta version of macOS 14 Sonoma.

6 new features in macOS 14 Sonoma’s public beta you have to try

A car passenger appears to feel nauseous with her hand to her mouth.

What causes motion sickness—and how to avoid it

A man wearing a purple sweater in front of a desktop computer with his hand on a computer mouse, looking intensely at the screen.

3 ways to generate a table of contents for virtually any website

iOS17 public beta includes the contact poster feature that allows to set what you want people to see when you call them.

6 great features to try out in the iOS 17 public beta

A short-haired teenage boy wearing a black shirt and grinning with his head stuck in a metal fence.

Read this if you or someone nearby is stuck in a fence

By John Kennedy

Hands typing on a laptop.

Find any file on your computer