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It may not be quite capable enough to let you build your own Weighted Companion Cube, but those looking to try their hand at a DIY CNC milling machine won't likely find many more straightforward options than the MTM Snap. Built by Jonathan Ward of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, the machine itself is constructed from some high-density polyethylene parts milled on a ShopBot (which simply snap together as the name suggests), and it's controlled by an Arduino board that lets you operate it from any Mac, Windows or Linux computer. Unfortunately, you can't simply buy a kit and piece it all together, but Jonathan's made all of the plans for building your own available, and says it shouldn't cost you any more than $700 from start to finish. Head on past the break for a video of the finished product in action. Make Arduino Blog ,  MTM Snap

Have you ever thought to yourself, "my CNC mill is pretty cool, but I really want to make it more awesomer"? Well, first, "awesomer"  totally  isn't word, and second, have we got a hack for you! A reader wrote in to the DIY hub Adafruit to show off his CNC being operated by a PS3 Sixaxis controller -- mimicking features found on high-end machines that allow you to trigger jobs from a distance and manually control the mill. Best of all, it's a pretty simple mod that uses a program called QtsixA to map the gamepad as a keyboard and mouse, allowing you to interact with a Linux box running EMC2, which is used for controlling the mill, lathe, plasma torch, or a number of other fun and dangerous tools. Check out the video after the break. Adafruit dammitdarrell (YouTube)

So you've built your own homebrew CNC mill and want to test out some recent modifications? That's a question few ever have to ask themselves, but DIYer Jamie Nasiatka recently did, and came up with the bright idea of making his very own Weighted Companion Cube. As you can see above, things turned up pretty well, and you can check out the complete build process at the source link below -- yes, it lights up, and changes colors. Let's just hope no one tries to throw this cube through a Portal t-shirt. Hack a Day Baka-Mecha