Homemade Submarine...

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Homemade Sub Is No Barrel Of Laughs

When Tao Xiangli started collecting some old oil barrels and a few tools from a second-hand market no one in their wildest dreams expected he would create a submarine! The incredible underwater feat is fully functional - with a periscope, depth control tanks, electric motors, manometer and two propellers.

The amateur inventor, who works as a labourer during the day, has spent 30,000 yuan ($4,385) on his creation. It has taken two years for Xiangli to finish the vessel but he predicts it can reach a depth of 10 metres in water.

[luke]

i so need one of those

[Skylace]

We all live in a homemade submarine. A homemade submarine. A homemade submarine

[SpursFan1902]

LOL! That's so cool...kinda tight, dark and cramped though, huh? I don't know how comfortable I would be in it...

[SquareEyes]

It's rubbish! I want to go to 11 metres!!

[faceless]

11 Metres? He'd need to reinforce the hull to do that

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Canal barge transformed into German U-boat replica
Lock and load: A canal barge has been turned into a scary-looking German U-boat.

It’s a sight that will leave Thermos flasks trembling in the hands of canal-boat owners the length and breadth of the country. The real German U-boats sank 3,000 allied ships during the Second World War, but although this boat is fitted with torpedo tubes, they’re thankfully not capable of firing anything!

The captain of the menacing vessel is Cyril Howarth, 78, who had it constructed at a Liverpool boat yard. It’s one hull of a barge – and it didn’t come cheap. It cost around £50,000 for the U-boat structure to be fitted onto a traditional narrow boat.

It’s pictured here stalking the Leeds-Liverpool canal and Mr Howarth says it certainly spooked a few locals when it was launched. He said: ‘The submarine has a conning tower and torpedo tubes... there is just some electrics to sort out below decks. You should have seen the faces of the locals when they woke up and found a battleship grey German navy U-boat in their midst. It is the culmination of a 12-month dream for me. I have always studied naval history, in particular the role of the submarine. I know they were the enemy but they were brave sailors after all who spent week after week underwater.'

Mr Howarth’s creation isn’t going to float everyone’s boat, but it’s certainly made a big splash.

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A Chinese man stunned his colleagues by walking into his office in Shanghai wearing an Iron Man armour suit he had made himself. Telecom worked Wang Kang, 25, walked through his company's corridors, visiting the different departments. He claims his armour has proven to be a success, with his bosses praising him and women falling in love with him.

I can just imagine all the women swooning! haha

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Homemade Tank
A man has spent the past seven months building a tank at his home in Hangzhou, capital of southern China's Zhejiang Province. According to Hao Jinxi the tank is a copy of a Russian T62 and measures 6.24m long and 3.27m wide. However, the steel plates used by Hao are just 3cm thick, which is only 1/10 of the thickness of the plates on an authentic Russian tank. That's why, while the Russian T62 tank weighs in at 45 tons, Hao's tank only weighs 10 tons. Hao spent 800,000 Yuan (£80,000) making the tank.

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Book-Tank

Raul Lemesoff, an Argentine art-car artist, has taken a 1979 Ford Falcon that used to belong to the Argentine armed forces and turned into a 'Weapon of Mass Instruction.' Armed with 900 or so books Lemesoff travels the streets of Buenos Aires and beyond offering free books to all. He sees his 'Weapon of Mass Instruction' as a "contribution to peace through literature."

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Who ya gonna call? Fan restores Cadillac as real-life Ghostbusters car

Wacky supernatural enthusiast Paul Harborne has restored a battered old Cadillac into an exact replica of the iconic Ghostbusters ECTO-1 vehicle made famous in the 1984 box office smash. Mr Harborne has spent over £50,000 on the project and juggled working part-time as a security guard to turn his dream into a reality.

After an extensive worldwide search, the 49-year-old from Sedgeley, West Midlands, managed to locate one of only six 1959 Cadillac models just a few miles from his home in Leicester. The restoration enthusiast has spent years attempting to create an 'authentic Ghostbusters experience' for fans after hand-making the majority of the car's interior features from hand. And the sci-fi fan, who has also previously restored an A-Team van, admitted it has been a long struggle giving the worse-for-wear orange car a new lease of life.

'It was a complete wreck as it had been abandoned,' he said. 'It's extremely rare and very hard to restore. It's certainly been a challenge - 50-year-old Cadillacs are hard work!'

The original vehicle, driven by eccentric Bill Murray and his fellow ghost hunters, is considered by fans to be a cross-over between an ambulance and funeral hearse. And Mr Harborne explained the extensive amount of work which has gone into creating the astonishing replica. There are 158 miles of wire in the roof to power the four lightbars and rotating beacons on top,' he said. I've also managed to get scrolling LEDs for the sides which spell out "Ghostbusters - We're back". There are four speakers in the hearse as well as two DVD players so you can not only watch the film, but also hear it when you're inside and out. I've set up an iPod so that there are also genuine sirens and sounds coming from the car.'

He plans to hire out the vehicle, complete with fancy dress outfits, so fans of the film can go on their own ghostbusting adventures. And he also hopes that if a third Ghostbusters film is ever made, his creation might have a starring role.

The Cadillac as it was...

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Reliant Robin owner declares war with half-track version of three-wheeler
8 June 2012

A Reliant Robin owner fed up with Jeremy Clarkson ridiculing the car has got his own back by building an armed version complete with machine guns. The Top Gear star has mocked the three-wheeler and repeatedly rolled them over on his BBC2 show. But Bernard Reeves, 67, decided to go to war with the television motormouth after he was given a Reliant Robin by an elderly neighbour.

Retired restorations specialist Bernard stuck the Robin in his garage and spent six-months converting it into the world’s most unusual military-style vehicle. The result is the ‘Rugged Robin’ - a go-anywhere Reliant complete with tank-like tracks and heavy artillery including a Browning 50 calibre machine gun. It also has a Vickers machine gun and two sub-machine guns and Bernard claims it is capable of around 50mph over wet ground.

Bernard, from East Sussex, said: 'The Reliant Robin is a handsome little car which has been much loved by the thrifty working man and the young driver just starting out. But it has become the butt of ridicule and bullying, particularly by one Jeremy Clarkson, a public school buffoon who really should know better, the blighter. He kept on pushing them over - he’s been so mean to them. So when the lady across the road gave me a Reliant I thought I would do something silly with it. I decided to put some tracks on it and it worked, it is fantastic to drive and will go anywhere - it is like a normal car.'

The mean machine has its original 850cc engine but Bernard has borrowed a number of parts from other vehicles for the rest of the off-roader. It has the rear-axle from a Bedford van, Land Rover gearbox mountings, a front-wheel from a Hillman Imp and suspension coils from a Honda 90. Bernard says it cost next to nothing to build, with most parts coming out of skips.

The grandfather says the car could be driven on the roads as vehicles with tracks don’t require MOTs. He added: 'I have had so much fun with the Rugged Robin and when I took it to the War and Peace military show it went down really well. People were falling about loving it. Everyone seemed to like it.'

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And here's a cool site - this is just one section, have a rummage through the rest for some great examples of home-made homes...