DIY Life

There's nearly nothing so frustrating as a clothes dryer which returns your freshly washed laundry in the same condition as when you put it in there. Most of us know the feeling we get when we stick our hand in the dryer expecting warm fluffy towels only to find a cold wet lump of terry cloth fabric.

There are three main conditions which most commonly cause this problem to occur. Your dryer vent could be plugged up, your heating element could be failing, or your dryer drum may be refusing to turn. A few tests and observations can quickly reveal the source of your trouble.

We got a Wii for Christmas and our whole family is having a blast with it! It's light and easy to pack around if you want to bring it to a friend's place or a party. If you are taking your Wii out of the house regularly, be carefully, and protect this new favorite toy (particularly the sensor bar).

This homemade Wii sleeve is the perfect way to cart your Wii around and stay confident that it's well protected. Your sewing skills don't have to measure up to your gaming skills to pull this one off. It's simple, using just a few materials and a bit of time. Here's what you'll need:

1. 1/2 foam
2. Cotton fabric (1/2 yard)
3. Thread
4. Velcro

The full instructables explains each step and gives pictures to help you along the way. This one is definitely going on my project list for the new year.

Your vacuum works hard, picking up crushed fishy crackers from under the couch, sawdust shavings from your latest DIY endeavor, and everyday particles of dust and dirt that find their home in yours. With a little love, you can keep your vacuum working stronger and longer. It doesn't take much, just a bit of consistent maintenance.

This article about how to maintain your vacuum cleaner takes you through the steps of proper at home vacuum cleaner maintenance. Check it out for in-depth instructions and instructional pictures. Here is my summary of their main points and the most important things to keep on top of:

If you've got an idea that needs some advanced manufacturing techniques, Ponoko might be just what you've been looking for. This wine rack is a nice sample of what they can do. Each piece is cut by a powerful laser, and shipped flat. On arrival, you assemble it - just like one of those wooden dinosaur models.

For now, they're offering custom laser cutting for your product. If you want to get started, grab their download their making guide. To create your design, you'll need some vector graphics software like Adobe Illustrator. You'll need to create a login, but then you'll have to wait a while - the site is getting so much traffic that the login page reports that it's too busy to me in... yet.

Today's prize is a scrapbooking wonder: the Cricut machine. Pronounced like the jumping bug, a Cricut comes in handy if you're tired of using scissors to laboriously carve out letters for scrapbooking, cardmaking or anywhere you need paper letters and shapes. The Cricut is easily transported and stored, like a little papercutting robot. Using cartridges and dies you can combine and scale things to get new shapes and sizes. The keyboard on top tells the machine what to cut, and there a loads of extra cartridges (not included in our prize package) for adding new fonts later.

To enter today's giveaway for a chance to win a Cricut machine, simply leave a comment on this post during the entry period. Today's entry period, like all during our Toolstravaganza giveaway, is 5AM to 11:59PM Eastern (although your entry today, August 9, will be to win the Cricut machine). Full rules after the jump, or on our Toolstravaganza page. Good luck and happy scrapbooking!

In fact, Fab@Home is more than printing flashlights. The project is designed to help you create a fabber: a 3D printer or rapid prototyping machine. This is a dream for DIY folks who need some plastic part, because a fabber can "print" nearly anything by carving it out of material placed into the machine. in a sense, it is desktop manufacturing.

These machines exist already, but cost thousands of dollars. The Fab@Home project aims to liberate this arcane process, and encourages experimentation with materials. The site offers instructions for building your own fabber, but the kit looks like a best bet, costing less than a decent PC. One day the creators hope to build a machine capable of creating anything by feeding all materials needed into one Jetsons-esque contraption. In one end you feed it wood, glue and instructions, out the other end pops a coffee table. That's the theory, anyway. For now the software isn't even Mac or Linux-compatible.

Get a taste of what you can do right now with the already quite sophisticated (and fun) fabbers on Fab@Home's Getting Started page.