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Keep your bands straight with Adafruit's Ohm Sweet Ohm cross-stitch kit (video)
Doesn't it just seem like yesterday when Grandma used to embroider your resistor charts for you? But now that you're grown up, Adafruit wants you to cross-stitch the Ohm Sweet Ohm color band guide yourself with their handy kit (dog not included). Spec-wise, it's loaded up with 16 skeins of floss, two size 24 tapestry needles, 15 x 18-inch 14-count aida cloth and a 6-inch "super grip lip" embroidery hoop, all for $29.95. You'll also get a full color printed pattern with instructions on making the project, then how to mount it on the wall or sew it onto Spot's favorite pillow. So if you can never remember whether yellow in the C-band is four significant figures or five, and want an Ohm-y reminder -- then check the video after the break for more info.
VCR head gets Frankenstiened into a beefy momentum scroll wheel
We've seen a fair share of VCR hacking in our day, but this momentum scroll wheel built from an old VCR head by Instructables community member Osgeld sets a new bar for jerry-rigging dead technology. Apparently the project arose from a desire to find a 21st century-approved use for the circular part that was gathering dust after being stripped from a spare Sony VHS player. The result is a bulky, yet useful, scroll wheel that can easily be set into motion and sustained via its own inertia to keep spinning for long periods. That feature could prove useful to anyone saddled with a mountain of video editing work, or even you lazy folk just hoping to flick less while reading the web. Unfortunately, a quick glance at Osgeld's DIY tool and part lists indicate you'll need to do quite a bit more than ransack a tape player to get this job done right. But then, when do the good things in life ever come easy?
