Start Slideshow
DIY Bionic HandsSun Jifa with his DIY bionic hand. You have to hand it to plucky Sun Jifa - who refused to let being left massively disabled by a freak explosion lose is grip on the family farm. Sun, 51, lost both his hands when a bomb he was creating for blast fishing in Guanmashan, Jilin province, northern China, exploded prematurely. "I survived but I had no hands and I couldn't afford to buy the false hands the hospital wanted me to have - so I decided to make my own," he explained. Sun spent eight years making prototypes before finally creating a pair of metal hands which can grip and hold thanks to a series of wires and pulleys inside the shell. "I control them with movements from my elbows and I can work, love normally and feed myself just like anyone else," explained the real life tin man. "The only drawback is that steel is quite heavy so they're tiring to wear and get hot or cold in the extremes of summer and winter," added Sun. Now he plans to develop the design for other similarly disabled people. "I made this from scrap metal for virtually nothing. There is no need to pay hospitals a fortune," he said.1
Sun Jifa DIY Bionic HandsThink you're a pretty good do-it-yourself-er? Think again. The Daily Mail reports that after losing both of his hands and forearms in an explosion (he created a homemade bomb that detonated prematurely), 51 year-old Sun Jifa decided he wasn't done building stuff. Instead of feeling discouraged when the hospital suggested prosthetic arms he couldn't afford, Jifa set to work assembling his own. Eight long years later, he completed the ultimate DIY project by building a working pair of prosthetic hands without the aid of fingers.2
DIY Bionic HandsDIY Bionic Hands at work. You have to hand it to plucky Sun Jifa - who refused to let being left massively disabled by a freak explosion lose is grip on the family farm. Sun, 51, lost both his hands when a bomb he was creating for blast fishing in Guanmashan, Jilin province, northern China, exploded prematurely. "I survived but I had no hands and I couldn't afford to buy the false hands the hospital wanted me to have - so I decided to make my own," he explained. Sun spent eight years making prototypes before finally creating a pair of metal hands which can grip and hold thanks to a series of wires and pulleys inside the shell. "I control them with movements from my elbows and I can work, love normally and feed myself just like anyone else," explained the real life tin man. "The only drawback is that steel is quite heavy so they're tiring to wear and get hot or cold in the extremes of summer and winter," added Sun. Now he plans to develop the design for other similarly disabled people. "I made this from scrap metal for virtually nothing. There is no need to pay hospitals a fortune," he said.3
