"The most useless machne ever"

[akumabito]

The Most Useless Machine EVER!	DQ

Complete instructables here.

I mean.. really.. makes you wonder how we managed to live our lives for all these years without, no?

[Atterton]

I wouldn´t mind having one, and then putting a label on it which said "Do NOT press this button".

[akumabito]

"When you really need a momentary switch, but all you got is a toggle switch"

Would make for an interesting doorbell switch

[Lucius Voltaic]

That's epic.

[Dr cornelius quack]

Fabulous!!

When can we expect the MKII version with a proximity sensor that causes the mechanism to slap your hand away before you press the switch?

[Drew P]

that is brilliant-I cannot stop laughing

[Mad Maudlin]

I saw one of these somewhere else, entitled "the Stop-Bothering-Me machine". It's kind of cute, don't you think?

[Captain Quinlin Hopkins]

Good for a giggle at least.  Would be fun to leave one of these out in public with a camera going to capture the look on people's faces.  I quite like it,

[Artorius]

I love it! I love it! I love it!

I want to build thousands of them in thousands of styles and put them everywhere!

Great link thanks! 

[jringling]

I have to make one of these... I will play with it for hours....

[Achrist]

I need to install these in my house! My wife always complains I leave the lights on. That would solve the problem !!!

[The Inventor]

This is Brilliant!
I posted it to the robotics team I belong to and think I shall construct atleast one in wood and another in brass / copper ?

Thank you for spreading the joys of this invention.

[Captain Quinlin Hopkins]

You know, several of these, linked in the same container, with DPDT switches could make for an interesting interactive puzzle box.  Instead of having the arms push up a trap door, have them flush mounted with a proper arc to turn off the switch in the same manner, then go flush again once retracted.  That could be quite fun.   Mixing up the switches and having several positions for each to function, when the arm comes up it resets that switch to starting.   You could double your fun by having one arm for each switch direction, so that tripping one switch might turn another on or off, depending on your need.

If anyone here is into puzzle boxes I hope you can get the concept and run with it.  No one makes an interactive box of this nature that I've seen.    

[akumabito]

The Most Useless Contest EVER!	DQ

[Endeavour Cull]

This is one of the most useless, but humorous inventions ever!!!

Definite another 'want one'- device.

[rovingjack]

hm might have to add that to the 'to make' list. only I'd likely make is something that moves a bit more slowly, and make the switch seem to do something completely unrelated.

so for instance the switch turned on a light or something and some little creature came out of a trap door and flicked it back off.

[Capt. Dirigible]

In Romania they have  loads of  handicraft stalls selling..well 'souveneirs and novelties' would be the polite description but ..'cheap tat'  is what we tend to call it. One of these items is a small box (about the size of a matchbox) the side of which slides open. Inside in a curved piece of wood shaped and painted to look like a snake. It's hinged in a way, similar to this device, to suddenly pop out when the side is slid back. However those wacky, fun loving Romanians add a small sharpened metal spike to the end of the snake, like a tongue, and when the snake pops out the metal spike stabs your thumb like a snake bite!

[suriehl]

Now that was useful for a good chuckle.  Thank you for sharing.

[Mechanism Man]

Fabulous!

[MWBailey]

You know, several of these, linked in the same container, with DPDT switches could make for an interesting interactive puzzle box.  Instead of having the arms push up a trap door, have them flush mounted with a proper arc to turn off the switch in the same manner, then go flush again once retracted.  That could be quite fun.   Mixing up the switches and having several positions for each to function, when the arm comes up it resets that switch to starting.   You could double your fun by having one arm for each switch direction, so that tripping one switch might turn another on or off, depending on your need.

If anyone here is into puzzle boxes I hope you can get the concept and run with it.  No one makes an interactive box of this nature that I've seen.    

Might potentially make a devilishly-difficult combination lock, since it would keep resetting itself...

[patron_vectras]

The Most Useless Machine EVER!

I found this link on a facebook fan page made for "the ultimate machine"

http://www.kugelbahn.ch/sesam_e.htm

a more artsy version ;]

[DonQuijote]

In Romania they have  loads of  handicraft stalls selling..well 'souveneirs and novelties' would be the polite description but ..'cheap tat'  is what we tend to call it. One of these items is a small box (about the size of a matchbox) the side of which slides open. Inside in a curved piece of wood shaped and painted to look like a snake. It's hinged in a way, similar to this device, to suddenly pop out when the side is slid back. However those wacky, fun loving Romanians add a small sharpened metal spike to the end of the snake, like a tongue, and when the snake pops out the metal spike stabs your thumb like a snake bite!

i see you have visited my country, sir. indeed, that is the first thing i thought of when i first heard of this useless but very funny apparatus.

of course, being funny makes it arguably useless, since it fuels our humour, and inhances the well-being of hordes of honorably and honestly humouros humans, but that is another discussion.

[Capt. Dirigible]

i see you have visited my country, sir. indeed, that is the first thing i thought of when i first heard of this useless but very funny apparatus.

Bună ziua. Da, patru timp din 1993.
 My Romanian is very limited so please don't reply in your native tongue..I probably won't understand. I'm just glad someone else knew what I was talking about when I described the 'snake in a box' toy! I have one at home, somewhere, that I bought back in '96.

[theDapperDocent]

I actually saw one of those "snake in a box" toys just this past weekend.   I took my girlfriend to Epcot for Valentine's weekend and in the India section we saw boxes being sold much like the one you described, sans sharp metal.

[DonQuijote]

i see you have visited my country, sir. indeed, that is the first thing i thought of when i first heard of this useless but very funny apparatus.

Bună ziua. Da, patru timp din 1993.
 My Romanian is very limited so please don't reply in your native tongue..I probably won't understand. I'm just glad someone else knew what I was talking about when I described the 'snake in a box' toy! I have one at home, somewhere, that I bought back in '96.

yeah. i shan't reply. it is not funny to talk foreign languages on forums where nobody understands.
Unlike the german-speaking around here, that can have some fun among eachother. i would like to thank all of them though, that they do not exagerate and that they also translate everything of any interest into english. i can testify to that, since i speak german almost to perfection.

and contributing something on-topic: i was considering buildong one of these devices for myself. my fisrt thought was "MICROCONTROLLER", but then it seemed like overkill and i thought of how i could do it with three switches and a normal DC-motor. updates will follow.