World's Most Useless Machine

Unfortunately, dA is apparently too snobby to allow just anyone to upload videos, so here are some stills of the machine; head on over to YouTube to see it in action!

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This was a fun little project I did this weekend. It's the worlds most useless machine! You turn it on, annnnd.....it turns itself off! That's it!

Note: This is NOT my design, I got the original schematics from SaskView on Instructables.

It cost about $20 in electronics + shipping from Digi-Key (I used the 555 timer method, which is more expensive but you don't have to take apart the motor this way), plus a little $3 wood box I got from a local craft store (it's about 6.5" (16.5cm) x 4.5" (11cm) x 4.5" (11cm). Took about a day to do, did all the soldering by hand and glued everything in place with epoxy.

As soon as I can find something I like, I plan on changing out the wooden arm with a finger or something. I'm gonna try checking a few costume shops to see what I can find. What would really be great is if I can find something like an ape costume glove and use one of its fingers and fill it with some kind of foam to solidify it... we'll see what happens.

I will say this, it is a bit noisy, mostly due to the motor, but also partially because the wooden arm slaps the inside of the lid when it comes out to hit the switch. It will probably be a good bit quieter when I get a rubber finger to replace it.

The nicest part is it actually turns itself completely off once the arm fully retracts. There's no other switch you have to hit (the arm does this for you internally), so it doesn't waste power waiting for you to flip the switch.