DIY

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

Latest in DIY

A homemade Battlestar Galactica flight simulator.
Aviation

A better way to play Battlestar Galactica

By Chuck Cage

An Arduino-powered LED photo cube.
DIY

Build it: a smart, ambient LED

By Dave Prochnow

The Windows XP logo, the Windows logo, and the Ubuntu logo.
DIY

Mod your PC for triple boot: a PC for all seasons

By Dave Prochnow

A beverage can over a flame, with smoke nearby. The can contains liquid nitrogen boiling at -320 degrees Fahrenheit, and liquid oxygen is dripping off at -297 degrees. They burst into flame when they hit a burning paper towel.
DIY

Gray Matter: Flaming oxygen drops

By Theodore Gray

A 1-ounce bar of fine gold, with the Credit Suisse name on it.
DIY

How to make convincing fake-gold bars

By Theodore Gray

Some white wires connected to a microcontroller.
DIY

Mod it: the incredible two-headed AVR programmer

By Dave Prochnow

A robot lion head mounted as a hunting trophy on a white wall.
DIY

Robot taxidermy

By Dave Prochnow

John Carnett riding his motorized homemade all-terrain skateboard along a sidewalk in Philadelphia.
DIY

A motorized skateboard for speed-happy gearheads

By Doug Cantor

Tom Tlalim wearing all black and his W_space Wiimote suit, standing on a rooftop at dusk.
DIY

Dancing a song with the full-body Wiimote music controller suit

By Andrew E. Rosenblum

Build Your Own Almost-Real-Time, Worldwide Tracking System
DIY

Build Your Own Almost-Real-Time, Worldwide Tracking System

By Dave Prochnow

A hand holding an orange cordless screwdriver that's on top of a screw partially sunken into a sheet of plywood.
DIY

Make an instant-charge screwdriver

By Dave Prochnow

A homemade 5-volt power supply.
DIY

A rechargeable, pocket-sized 5-volt power supply

By Dave Prochnow

A propane torch blowing gas onto a catalytic converter, heating the ceramic red-hot.
Climate Change

Gray Matter: Fire without flame

By Theodore Gray

Ralf Ottow stands outside at night, pointing a huge beam of light into the sky, with the moon in the background.
DIY

Handheld sunbeam

By Gregory Mone

5-Minute Project: LED candles
DIY

5-Minute Project: LED candles

By Mike Haney

A white RC Hummer with a fuel cell on top.
DIY

How to make a fuel cell-powered RC car

By Dave Prochnow

A person grinding real titanium against a grindstone, producing white sparks, and also grinding steel, producing yellow sparks.
DIY

Gray Matter: Titanium or plain ol’ steel?

By Theodore Gray

A homemade rocket-powered Star Wars X-wing fighter in a desert.
DIY

Star Wars builders use the Force

By Gregory Mone

Holiday project: Dot-matrix LED ornament
DIY

Holiday project: Dot-matrix LED ornament

By Dave Prochnow

scientist injecting turkey
DIY

Turkey Day chemistry in the kitchen

By Tamara Holt

Colorful flames on wood.
DIY

Gray Matter: How to make colored fire

By Theodore Gray

A white doorbell with wires coming out of it, on plywood.
DIY

Build It: Hack your doorbell

By Dave Prochnow

Here come the Halloween hacks
DIY

Here come the Halloween hacks

By Abby Seiff

One person holding a TV remote while another person grabs it to try to take control.
DIY

Jam it: The TV remote control jamming circuit

By Dave Prochnow

Burning steel wool against a green background.
DIY

Gray Matter: Burning metal

By Theodore Gray

Four laptops of varying sizes, plus two smaller devices, in a circle on a wooden floor.
DIY

5-Minute Project video: Parabolic cookware WiFi antenna

By John Mahoney

Two paper printed circuit board patterns.
DIY

pPCBs (paper printed circuit boards)

By Dave Prochnow

Clockwise from bottom left: white sodium acetate crystals, a pile of raw white sodium acetate, and a person wearing black gloves pouring a white bottle of water into a lump of solid white sodium acetate.
DIY

Gray Matter: Transform hand warmers to liquid ice sculptures

By Theodore Gray

A wiring diagram for an OnStar GPS hack.
DIY

Raising GPS from the dead

By Dave Prochnow

The blue flame of a blowtorch heating up a block of quicklime.
DIY

Gray Matter: How to make a lamp out of lime

By Theodore Gray

A DIY solar-powered electronics charger.
DIY

The DIY solar charger

By Dave Prochnow

The interior parts of a DIY vertical wind turbine. Illustration.
DIY

Going with the wind

By Doug Cantor

Mod your keyboard, steampunk style
DIY

Mod your keyboard, steampunk style

By Doug Cantor

From left to right: A person wearing blue gloves pouring a glass full of acid into a strainer over a sink to catch a penny; a glass of acid with a penny in it; a person wearing blue gloves filing a penny on a file atop a white surface.
DIY

Gray Matter: Pretty penny

By Theodore Gray

Shaun Baker in a jet-powered kayak on a river.
DIY

The jet kayak

By Gregory Mone

A small processor running Linux.
Computers

The $72 PC

By Dave Prochnow

A spinthariscope.
DIY

Gray Matter: Atoms and eves

By Theodore Gray

Supercharge a paper airplane
DIY

Supercharge a paper airplane

By Dave Prochnow

A dashboard-mounted computer in a car.
DIY

A DIY dashtop computer

By Damien Stolarz

A homemade nuclear reactor.
DIY

Teen builds basement nuclear reactor

By Gregory Mone

How 2.0 Blog against a black background.
DIY

14 things geeks can teach the world

By John Mahoney

Game on
DIY

Game on

By Mike Haney

A white corded phone and answering machine.
DIY

H.20 challenge: Save a lost message

By Mike Haney

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DIY

Episode 31: Homemade Zamboni

By Jonathan Coulton

Five drinking glasses filled with clear liquid on top and blue liquid on the bottom, linked together to create a gravity-cell battery.
DIY

Gray Matter: A tall glass of juice

By Theodore Gray

A DIY wall-mounted laptop.
DIY

The wall-mounted PC

By Popular Science Team

A diagram showing how to build a touchless iPod remote.
DIY

The touchless iPod remote

By Dave Prochnow

A rocket-powered belt sander with a skull on it.
DIY

The craziest race

By Gregory Mone

A periodic table poster.
DIY

Gray Matter: An elemental fascination

By Theodore Gray

A diagram for making a cellphone "cantenna."
DIY

Make a cell ‘cantenna’

By Mike Outmesguine

An explosion of fire and smoke creating table salt to season a bag of popcorn in a lab.
DIY

Gray Matter: Making salt the hard way

By Theodore Gray

A WowWee Roboraptor with a flame coming out of its mouth to toast some charred marshmallows.
DIY

A fire-breathing bot

By Dave Prochnow

A monkey mask on the ground next to a skinned robotic monkey head.
DIY

Scare tactics

By Theodore Gray and Paul Wallich

A bowl of mercury with a wire connected to a battery hanging from a hook and rotating around a magnet in the mercury.
DIY

Gray Matter: Playing with poison

By Theodore Gray

Ice cream made with a fire extinguisher in a goblet next to a napkin and a spoon, with dry ice vapor all around.
DIY

Gray Matter: Dry ice cream

By Theodore Gray

An original black Xbox hooked up to a flat-screen TV and displaying Xbox Media Center (XBMC).
DIY

Xbox media monster

By Mike Haney

A yellow homemade ROV in some murky water.
DIY

The homemade spy sub

By Gregory Mone

Schema for a backyard theater projector on wheels.
DIY

Build a backyard theater

By Mike Haney

Heavy ice cubes at the bottom of a glass of water, and regular ice cubes floating on top.
DIY

Gray Matter: Ice capades

By Theodore Gray

A solar-powered WiFi extender near someone using a device in a hammock outside. Illustration.
DIY

Network your backyard

By Mike Outmesguine

Network Your Backyard: Detailed Instructions
DIY

Network Your Backyard: Detailed Instructions

By Mike Outmesguine

A model rocket with a red body and gold tip and fins, with flames coming out the back, against a black background.
DIY

Gray Matter: Rocket food

By Theodore Gray

A person holding a paint roller with a roll of paper towels on it and using it to spin nylon thread out some some chemicals in a wine glass.
DIY

Gray Matter: Stir up some nylon

By Theodore Gray

The inside of a cable box.
DIY

Hack your cable box

By Mike Haney

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