The electronics came from Amazon Prime. $157.98, delivered in two days, and nobody asked me a single question.
Three weeks of free YouTube tutorials. Four jigsaw blades open one after the other, half a second apart, same as the military one. I built it as a sculpture. In Ukraine they build the same kind of thing as weapons.
Now I can't unknow how easy all this is to get.
THE RECEIPT
Week one I took a fan housing from the basement and a traffic cone from the street. The Arduino Uno, four micro servos and a voltage regulator came from Amazon Prime, the same delivery chain people in Ukraine use to modify drones.
Week two I did the same Arduino tutorials millions of kids do. digitalWrite(LED, HIGH); delay(500); turns into servo.write(90); delay(500); and nothing else changes. The code doesn't care if it's blinking a light on a toy robot or swinging a blade.
Week three it worked. Every time a test went right I was proud of it and a bit sick about it at the same time.
Ukraine already shows where this goes: cheap parts, free tutorials and a 3D printer at home add up to weapons anyone can build. That's happening now.
I use the same tools at work every day. Same suppliers, same tutorials, same way of solving problems. I already know how to do this. That's the uncomfortable part.
“Amazon is the delivery truck. The tutorials are the training. Nobody has to hide anything, it's all just there.”
SAME ANSWER
That August Joe Rogan was talking about the R9X to more than 11 million subscribers, Ukraine was posting drone footage and there were reports of Iran 3D printing parts. It was everywhere.
I started building without a real plan, just to see if I could.
Testing is where it got to me. Once you know how to do this you can't forget it, and millions of people are learning the same thing in classes that call it just skills. What bothered me most was the language. They call the R9X "humane", for a weapon that kills people with blades. Use the right technical words and anything sounds fine.
I didn't copy the 500 ms from the military one. A cheap micro servo pulls 200 mA when it stalls, so four at once spike to 800 mA and the regulator can't take it. You fire them one after the other, 500 ms apart. The real R9X uses the same timing because the physics is the same for everyone.
Same problem, same answer, whoever's building it.
I posted it to a few subreddits in August and September 2025. Every post got taken down within hours or days. Maybe someone saw the point, maybe they didn't want the trouble, maybe it was a bot. The thing still works and the receipt still says $157.98.
A fan housing from the basement, a traffic cone off the street and $157.98 of Amazon electronics. Three weeks of the same tutorials kids do.
Cutaway showing the salvaged fan housing and the servos that open the blades. All the electronics came from Amazon Prime, the same delivery chain used for drone mods in Ukraine.
Four jigsaw blades open in an X, one after the other, half a second apart.
Front view with blade deployment mechanism.
Materials: Salvaged fan housing, a traffic cone off the street, Arduino Uno R3, four SG90 micro servos, LM2596 voltage regulator, four 24cm jigsaw blades
Cost: $157.98 AUD from Amazon Prime. The fan housing and the cone were free.
Build time: Three weeks, part time
Skill needed: Two to four beginner Arduino tutorials.
Blades: They open one after the other, 500 ms apart, run by the Arduino.
Why 500 ms: Each servo pulls 200 mA when it stalls, so four at once is 800 mA and the regulator can't take it. They fire one after the other. The real R9X uses the same timing. I didn't copy it, the physics is the same for everyone.
Code: The same Arduino tutorials kids use to blink an LED. digitalWrite(LED, HIGH); delay(500); becomes servo.write(90); delay(500); and nothing else changes. The code doesn't care what it's moving.
Status: Works. Every Reddit post about it got taken down in August and September 2025.
Context in Series
#3 of 12. The telegraph was about the pieces of me inside. This one is about the systems around me, and how I'm in them too. I already knew how to do this, and I used the same tools I'm pointing at to prove it.
$157.98 and three weeks. Amazon, YouTube, Arduino tutorials, all cheerful and helpful, and all of it adds up to weapons you can build in a garage. I can't unknow that now.
Next is the Ghetto Blaster Mouse: what you do when the tools are dirty, you're dirty, and the only way to keep going is to use them anyway.