Life Hacks: The King of Random?s Tips and Tricks to Make Everyday Tasks Fun and Easy

by Grant Thompson, Instructables.com

Overview

For the past few years, Grant Thompson has spent his weekends starting fires, building cannons, and experimenting with dry ice and liquid nitrogen. He’s made pumpkins explode, defied gravity, and discovered countless ways to make everyday life easier using ordinary items such as butter, suntan lotion, cupcake wrappers, and aluminum foil. His discoveries and experiments, many posted online to sites such as YouTube, have earned him the title of the King of Random.

With the help of the staff at Instructables.com, Thompson has compiled the best of his weekend projects in Life Hacks. With life hacks from the King himself, you’ll see how easy it is to have better summers, less stressful holidays, and cooler—literally—birthday parties.

Following Thompson’s instructions in this book, you’ll be able to:
Make dry ice with a fire extinguisher
Create carbonated ice cream
Start fires with plastic water bottles
Charge your cell phone—using your own energy
Build working speakers for less than $1
And much more

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629145884
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	09/02/2014
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Instructables.com is a bona fide Internet sensation, a web-based community of motivated do-it-yourselfers who contribute invaluable how-to guides to the site on a wide range of topics, from gardening and home repair to recipes to gadgets that defy categorization. The site hosts more than 100,000 projects. More than 15 million people visit the site each month, leaving comments and suggestions on the ever-growing list of do-it-yourself projects.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Section 1 Summer Hacks 1

Ten Life Hacks You Need to Know for a Better Summer! 2

How to Make a PVC Water/Air/Vacuum Pump! 8

Smash the Summer Heat with These DIY Water Weapons! 14

Homemade Sparklers for the Fourth of July! Improvised Handheld Fireworks 17

Section 2 Food Hacks 21

Make an Edible Apple Swan! 22

Healthier Living by Making Butter (Shaking Cream into Butter) 26

How to Make a Self-Freezing Coca-Cola (or Any Instant-Soda Slurpee) 30

Make It Rain Down Chocolate for Real! How to Make Your Own Pneumatic Candy Cannon! 34

Make a Butter Candle, MacGyver-Style! 38

Fight Club Soap (Bacon and Drain Cleaner Soap)! 42

Section 3 Special-Occasion Hacks 49

Ten Life Hacks You Need to Know for Christmas! 50

Pie-Rotechnic Thanksgiving Dessert (Mega Dangerous)! 55

Top Nine Ways to Fold Awesome Holiday Napkins! 58

How to Make an Exploding Pumpkin Face (Blast-O-Lantern) 63

How to Make Carbonated Ice Cream, "Halloween-Style" (Dry Ice Cream)! 65

Things to Do at a Birthday Party with Liquid Nitrogen! 69

Section 4 Money-Saving Hacks 77

How to Make a Super Secret Safe for Less Than $3 78

$5 Home Theater for March Madness 83

Make a Real Working Speaker for Less Than $1! 88

How to Make a One-Way Check Valve for Cheap! 93

Section 5 Water, Ice, and Dry Ice Hacks 99

Awesome Tricks and Pranks with Dry Ice! 100

Instant Ice: How to "Water-Bend" in Real Life 104

How to Make Dry Ice with a Fire Extinguisher! 108

How to Convert Water into Fuel by Building a DIY Oxyhydrogen Generator 112

Section 6 Energizing Hacks 117

The Scariac (Poor Man's Variable Power Controller) 118

Make an Emergency Phone Charger, MacGyver-Style! 120

How to Make Batteries from Spare Change 124

330-Volt "Shocking" Electric Deck of Cards (Electric Shock Kissing Prank)! 127

Section 7 Metal Hacks 133

Making an ARC Welder (Part One) 134

Making an ARC Welder (Part Two) 139

Homemade Stick Welder from Microwave Parts! 145

How to Make a Spot Welder for Cheap! 150

How to Make the Metal Melter 158

Section 8 Miscellaneous Hacks 163

How to Make Char Cloth with a Tuna Can 164

How to Make Slime (Ninja Turtle Ooze) 168

How to Make a Gravity Puzzle (Brain Game) 171

Turn a Mousetrap into a Powerful Handgun 175