Make: Online : Most useless machine

Most useless machine

Inspired by Claude Shannon's Ultimate Machine, Instructables user SaskView designed this excellent most useless machine.

I can sympathize with the poor box not wanting to be disturbed. I know I do the same thing with my alarm clock every morning. Maybe if someone gave it some coffee, it won't be so grumpy? [via neatorama]

UPDATE: Learn how to make your own Useless Box in MAKE, Volume 23, on newsstands July 27.

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Oldest comments listed first.

Posted by: Njmalhq on January 4, 2010 at 8:03 AM

Golden Oldie ...

I have distant memories of a version of this machine in Laithwaite's "The Engineer in Wonderland." Which BTW is an awesome book (pulished in the 60s), I'd love to find a copy today.

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Posted by: Laura on January 7, 2010 at 11:09 AM

It's not completely useless...it makes me laugh, a little.

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Posted by: Karel on January 24, 2010 at 4:26 AM

Lego Prototype

I just made a prototype out of Lego. It is an analogue version, so no electronics, just two switches and the rest are all standard Lego parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmLukG0iXRE

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Posted by: Matt Mets on January 25, 2010 at 7:25 PM

Awesome, thanks for sharing!

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Posted by: John Gomm on August 7, 2010 at 10:49 AM

My Version

I rotated the design so it would open as a normal box, and then realized that I liked it better upside down. I hacked off a Barbie's arm for style points and used boiling water to soften and reshape it (cooling in ice water fixes it pretty well). Everything used was found or scrounged, so it only cost me time and sanity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyIDDnlH6G8

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Posted by: Dug North on August 9, 2010 at 8:00 PM

Dug North's version of The Most Useless Machine

Hey all! I created one of my own with a few modifications. Instead of a simple wooden box, I used a decorative miniature trunk. Rather than the pusher coming out of the top of the box, I oriented mine to open the chest and come out of the front. Finally, I replaced the simple pusher with a small human-like arm that I carved from basswood. The fist comes out and assertively punches the switch.

A video of my version of The Most Useless Machine can be seen at: http://blog.dugnorth.com/2010/08/dug-norths-version-of-most-useless.html

Enjoy!

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Posted by: Matt Mets on August 10, 2010 at 11:45 AM

Oh, that's awesome! Thanks for sharing!

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Posted by: Dug North on August 10, 2010 at 12:10 PM

Thanks,Matt! I have a few additional ideas I'd like to implement to make it even better. I'd better finish a few other projects first, however!

-Dug

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