LASER TURRETThe Builder: Troy Powe r s
@troy.powers.innovationsPowers is a small-town wind turbine technician
by day, and a mad scientist by night, fashion-
ing futuristic devices that, he says, “give the user
superpowers.” (Think: lightsaber hilts that act as
heatsinks for high-powered lasers, and functional
hovercrafts). For this challenge, Powers worked
from a short parts list: a single 2x4, a small piece of
sheet steel, some skateboard bearings, a terminal
strip, a spool of wire, two linear actuators, a laser
diode, and homemade driver—“I don’t expect that
everyone just has those parts lying around,”
he admits. He built his menacing laser weapon in
one weekend.
“Many times, the things I want to have don’t
exist or are very expensive,” Powers says. “So the
easiest way for me to acquire them is to build
them myself.”WAVY AMERICAN FLAGThe Builder: James Crowley
@crowleywooddesignsAs a detective with the New York
City Department of Environmental
Protection Police, Crowley honed
his DIY skills while thermoforming
Kydex holsters for his buddies on
the force. After that, he moved on
to making wood flags. He chose the
#PopMechChallenge to tackle his
most ambitious version yet.
Crowley drew a wavy pattern
on medium-density fiberboard and
cut it out using a bandsaw. Then
he applied the pattern to the 2x4,cut it, and offset the pattern by 1
inch with each new stripe. Crow-
ley clamped the flag stripes and
used an angle grinder with a sand-
ing flap disk to knock down the
high points of the wood, and blend
it all together. As for the stars—
“the most time-consuming part of
the build,” he says—Crowley used
a Dremel rotary tool to hog out
each one.
Crowley spent just $30 to make
his flag before flipping it for a tidy
profit to a fan, who now proudly
displays it in their Jersey Shore
beach house. “Knowing I made this
with my own hands is a very satis-
fying feeling,” he says. COURTESY26 May/June 2020
Pro Challenge
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