Magic Glowing Ice Orb – PK ring triggered

Sorry for the lack of posts. I had to take a spur of the moment adventure. But I am back to reality now (i think) and with a title like “Magic Glowing Ice Orb” you can tell we are desperate for new material around here. So heres a shot in the dark.

I came across this old video at metacafe that shows you how to implant a superbright LED into a water balloon and freeze the balloon for a sweet glowing orb. However, the wires are hanging out. That just won’t do. An “LED Throwie” is in order here. If you have never heard or seen and LED Throwie, you must check out the video above. Its basically just an LED with a 3v coin battery rigged to it thus eliminating the wires. Instructions here. “But then the thing will always be on and my battery will die” you say? There may be a solution. Hanzablast over at meta cafe has a great video in which he uses a reed switch for a door alarm. Hanzablast makes great detailed tutorials and you can also check his instructables page where I am almost certian he will have a plethora of reed switch projects and information on how to use them. Basically the reed switch is just a switch triggered by a magnet. When the magnet is near, the switch is activated. Rig the reed in, tie a string going from reed to throwie to out the inlet of the balloon, fill er up, and I imagine you would have a pretty fly lil glowing orb triggered only by you and your PK ring, or strong earth magnet. The idea is to suspend the reed as close as possible to the bottom wall. I am not sure of the sensitivity of the switches but I would try to get at least within 3/4″ of the wall for start. Also keep the throwie as close to the center as possible. If I can dig out the materials in some free time I will give this a go and report results. In the meantime we invite our viewers to do the same and if desired, show us what you came up with at admin@phatus.com

NOTE: You may need to waterproof the battery first. Check out this instructable that telittleone found on this subject.

Posted in General, News | 8 Comments »

DIY Mini Deck of Cards

Give this a try
3 Files (all are in OpenOffice’s Calc format)

1) MiniDeck-Faces

2) MiniDeck-BlueBacks

3) MiniDeck-RedBacks

3 Steps
1) Get your favorite cardstock paper and print file 1.
2) Flip paper and print either file 2 or 3 (note: your paper may already be flipped after the printer gives it back to you).
3)Cut.

If you are feeling really creative, try applying a finish to the sheet as per the “Finish It!” chapter in the PGCGC before cutting.

If you do not have openoffice see this post.

Here are the files in OpenOffice’s xls export 1 | 2 | 3

Posted in Free Magic Tricks, Gaff Material, General | 2 Comments »