CarCareKiosk is a free to use website that offers users video tutorials on various car repairs. What sets the site apart from other mechanic video tutorials is that special attention is paid to the car. Thus you know exactly which the car model the tutorial is for. After watching regular video tutorials you might have thought “My car isn’t wired like that!” with this website you can find tutorials precisely for your car.

Features:

• A user-friendly web service.
• Offers video tutorials on car repair.
• Has a large collection of tutorials on various car models.
• Lets you search for tutorials for the car model you own.
• Similar sites: AutoMD Auto Repair, RepairPal and VehicleFixer.

Check out CarCareKiosk @ www.carcarekiosk.com (By Umar from AllthatIsApple)

As of now, there are 27 available designs in the Furniture Design Bank. The designs are made using Google Sketchup and you can download them in Google’s 3D warehouse. This way, you can view them on your own computer, although you need to download and install Sketchup first (you don’t have to learn how to use the program, you just need it for opening the files). Also, the designs are also made to the scale in inches, so that you have a guideline on the dimensions of the materials.

The designs presented in the Furniture Design Bank are very simple so that even beginner DIY’ers will be able to do them on their own. The materials for the furniture can also be substituted. Lastly, the equipment required to make these furniture are just the basic ones and you don’t need fancy tools to make them.

Features:

• Browse various furniture designs.
• Designs are simple and can be made by entry-level DIY’ers.
• Designs are created to the scale in inches.
• View the 3D designs using Google Sketchup.
• Furniture designs can be made with variable material and basic woodworking tools.
• Similar Tools: IKEA Hackers, SnapShop Showroom , and A Simple Measure.

Check out Furniture Design Bank @ www.furnituredesignbank.com/Gallery.html

IKEA Hackers is a great website to visit if you want to make something creative and useful out of IKEA parts. On the homepage you will find user-submitted accounts and pictures describing their IKEA creations. You can search for specific projects by browsing categorically or by using the supported keywords search feature.

You can also visit the site’s “Instructables” section to get how-to guides on different creative furniture pieces.

If you ever need any special help, you can log onto the site’s forums and interact with more experienced IKEA furniture enthusiasts to get advice and suggestions.

Features:

• A user friendly website.
• Helps people share details of creative IKEA furniture creations.
• Lets you browse and search others’ IKEA creations.
• Provides how-to guides.
• Has a forum that helps interact with others and get furniture building advice.
• Similar tools: IKEA Fans and IKEA SpaceMaker.

Check out IKEAHackers @ www.ikeahackers.net (by MOin from ThumbPress)

The website provides detailed step-by-step instructions along with photos to construct many types of  boats for various purposes. The interface and navigation is a little sub-standard but if you are a boat lover that won’t keep you from devouring the plethora of information this resource contains. It also has general articles about materials, methods and accessories related to boat building and several other useful topics.

Features:

• Learn how to build boats.
• Step-by-step instructions with photos and drawings.
• Reference articles about materials and methods.
• No registration required.

Visit FreeBoatPlans @ www.koti.kapsi.fi/hvartial

Fixr is a free and simple to use website that lets you post up a house improvement or maintenance task and then get bids from contractors. The idea is quite simple: contractors compete for the tasks that you post and you select whichever contractor you feel is best. By going through the contractor’s bids, their reviews, and interacting with them through the site, you can reach a good decision.

Another cool thing about the site is that it provides a detailed info about work you need done and give you detailed labor and total work cost estimates.

While the site is free for job posting users, it charges nearly a 5% fee to service providers in case they secure a bid.

Features:

• A user friendly web service.
• Lets you find contractors for home repairs and improvements.
• Lets contractors bid for your jobs.
• Helps house maintenance contractors compete with each other and find new jobs.
• Similar tools: DiyOrNot.

Check out Fixr @ www.fixr.com (By Umar from TechcityInc)

Start by choosing the category of projects such as electrical, landscaping, plumbing and so on. Each category contains a wide range of projects and clicking on each project will display the details of the project, the estimated amount of time required, the cost to do it yourself and the cost to hire a professional. The project cost can be customized to your area by entering your zip code.

Features:

• Decide between DIY or hiring a pro.
• Around 15 project categories and hundreds of projects.
• Get estimated number of hours and cost for each project.
• Customize the cost by entering your zip code.
• No registration required.

Visit DiyOrNot @ DiyOrNot [Via LifeHacker]

To create your own sundial, start by typing your address or just your city into the text field. This will bring you to your exact location in Google Maps. Then select the face of the building where you intend to place the sundial. The coordinates and the wall declination will mark where you should put the sundial exactly so that it can accurately tell the time.

Finish it off by selecting a banner, checking the DST option if necessary, and choosing your time zone. You now have a cool PDF sundial that you can print-out and assemble. This tool is a great way to rediscover how people told the time during ancient times.

Features:

• Google Maps mashup lets you create a printable sundial based on your location.
• Custom sundial printed from PDF.
• Cool resource to learn how sundials work.

Check out Damia’s Create your vertical sundial @ www.sundial.damia.net/vertical/sundial.php

iFixit is a free to use website that has free online repair manuals on a variety of topics. The site started out with guides for iDevices (iPhone, iPod, iPad) but has now expanded over to other areas. Commonly faced problems are comprehensively covered and provides readers with in-depth knowledge of their belongings.

iFixit has been divided into three major portions: Parts, Repair, and Answers. Parts is an online parts shop related to Apple products; Repair has repair guides; Answers lets users ask any repair question for other users to answer.

Features:

• Totally free.
• Simple interface in which everything is easily findable.
• Gives users a way to learn while repairing things themselves.
• Users can share their knowledge by writing and contributing their own repair guides.
• Spare part store also available.
• Similar tools: Easy2DIY, VehicleFixer, BicycleTutor and RepairPal.
• Related articles: 5 Sites To Learn How To Repair Your Own Computer, 3 Sites That Show How To Fix Your Broken iPod.

Check out iFixit @ www.ifixit.com (via CrunchGear)

The application is simple to use, just launch the editor and upload an image of the room. Once the image is online start applying different colors on its walls. You can also sign up for an account and save images online.

ColorJive offers both free and premium accounts, the free account lets you paint as many images as you want, however imposes a restriction of at most 3 colors per image. It also lets you store only one image online. The premium account doesn’t have such restrictions.

Features:

• Paint your rooms online and decide what wall color is the best.
• Apply any color you want.
• Editor toolbar includes undo, brush, eraser and bucket paint tools.
• Free account lets you paint as many images as you want (with a limit of 3 colors per image).
• Premium account with more features available.
• Similar tools: Interior Paint Calculator.

Check out ColorJive @ www.colorjive.com

Using the app is easy and there is no need to sign up. Start the diagram creator and start selecting different objects (backgrounds, cameras, persons, lighting sources, lighting modifiers, props, accessories, bouncing and reflecting equipment) from drop down menus. Drag selected object onto grid and position and rotate them in anyway you like. When the diagram is ready it can be saved as JPEG or PNG image. In order to share the diagram with others, get the URL and forward it to others.

The site is still in beta, so there are some bugs to be fixed, and more features are on the way.

Features:

• Lighting diagram creator.
• Create and share as many diagrams as you like.
• Drag and drop interface.
• Export your diagram to JPEG or PNG.
• Share diagrams by forwarding URL
• Free, no sign up needed.

Check out LightingDiagrams @ www.lightingdiagrams.com