Ever ruin a perfectly serviceable piece of toast by trying (and failing) to spread a little pat of rock-solid butter? [John Dingley] doesn’t! Not since he created the Butta Melta to cozily snug a single butter serving right up against a warm beverage, softening it just enough to get nice and spreadable. Just insert one […]
Many of us have boiled an egg at some point or another in our lives. The conventional technique is relatively straightforward—get the water boiling, drop the egg in, and leave it for a certain period of time based on the desired consistency. If you want the yolk soft, only leave it in for a few […]
Appliances fail, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end for them. This impressive hack from [solopilot] shows the results possible when not just fixing but also improving upon its original form. The toaster’s failed function selector switch presented an opportunity to add smart features to the function selection and refine control over its various settings. […]
The toaster is a somewhat modest appliance that is often ignored until it stops working. Many cheap examples are not made to be easily repaired, but [Kasey Hou] designed a repairable flat pack toaster. [Hou] originally planned to design a repairable toaster to help people more easily form an emotional attachment with the device, but […]
Air fryers are the new hotness in the kitchen, but are they actually any different than a convection oven? [Technology Connections] walks us through the design of these countertop appliances to find out. If you like your fries and chicken crispy instead of soggy, you traditionally had to eat out or spend the better part […]
When making a birthday cake a bit more personal, one can create a novelty themed confection appropriate for the lucky recipient. In the case of [Spencer Owen], who you may know as the creator of the RC2014 retrocomputing ecosystem, it was appropriate to have one of the little machines at work somewhere, so [peahen] did […]
While normally more comfortable with a soldering iron, [LucidScience] recently took a dive into woodworking and hardware store electronics to build a DIY proofing box. It’s a clever design that doubles as furniture, with some cool problem-solving along the way. While it might not be your typical hack, repurposing seedling heat mats and working with […]
Want to build your own espresso machine, complete with open-source software to drive it? The diyPresso might be right up your alley. diyPresso parts, laid out and ready for assembly. It might not be the cheapest road to obtaining an espresso machine, but it’s probably the most economical way to turn high-quality components (including a […]
Conceptually, cooking on a grill is simple enough: just crank up the flames and leave the food on long enough for it to cook through, but not so long that it turns into an inedible ember. But when smoking, the goal is actually to prevent flames entirely; the food is cooked by the circulation of […]