Want to know how to build your own tree leg dining table?

How about a greenhouse in your northern back yard?

Do you know how to perfectly poach an egg?

YuKonstruct can show you.

The Whitehorse makerspace is showing anyone with internet access how to make hundreds of cool projects through Instructables.com, an online trove of tutorials (“instructables”) for all things DIY (do-it-yourself).

The YuKonstruct team is so prolific that they stand to win the grand prize in this year’s international Instructables Makerspace Contest.

But wait – what is a makerspace anyway?

A makerspace is a kind of communal workshop for tinkerers and innovators to invent, build and share tools.

It’s a place members can go to experiment and collaborate on all kinds of projects, from electronics to carpentry to halloween costumes.

At it’s core, a makerspace is about sharing – sharing knowledge, enthusiasm, and the equipment to turn wild ideas into real, useful stuff.

“YuKonstruct itself, the makerspace, is all about sharing ideas, space, equipment and the ideas and resources to do the stuff you want to do,” said Adria Collins, YuKonstruct program and volunteer manager and makerspace contest team member.

In the same sharing spirit, Instructables launched it’s second makerspace contest, challenging makerspaces from around the world to produce as many step-by-step instructables as they can in three months.

The best instructables are featured on the homepage and one of the grand prizes goes to the team with the most featured projects.

At stake is more than $50,000 in prizes that would make any eager maker’s mouth water.

There’s an Epilogue Zing laser cutter, a desktop 3D printer, robotics equipment, giftcards, clothing, and so much more.

“Instructables is totally part of our mission and values and everything because it can give the resources to help people do projects,” said Collins.

“We want people to come to YuKonstruct or go online and have that ‘Oh!’ moment, ‘I can do that.’”

In total, 1,530 instructables were uploaded to the site in just three months.

While the official results won’t be announced until Sept. 13, by the contest’s close at 11:59 on August 31, YuKonstruct was way ahead in the featured category.

The team, lead by Allison Button, made a whopping 262 instructables, of which 195 were featured.

To put this achievement in perspective, the team tailing YuKonstruct – Sweet and Sour from New Zealand – has 106 instructables,102 of which are featured.

Hub Makerspace out of Dominican Republic uploaded 321 instructables, but only 50 of those were featured.

There are 75 teams in total.

“Being part of an international competition and then winning it from little old Whitehorse is pretty exciting,” said Collins

YuKonstruct was especially gung-ho this year, after narrowly missing out on $4,000 worth of equipment in last year’s inaugural makerspace contest.

With 252 instructables, the team was just two instructables shy of second place out of 49 teams.

“This year it was like ‘Man, we came so close last year, let’s do this, let’s win it’,” said Collins.

This year, the team gathered from 7 p.m. until midnight on the eve of the closing day to pump out enough isnstructables to secure a win.

“We were up and we were working hard until midnight,” said Collins

“We’re really, really glad that all our hard work paid off.”

Indeed, YuKonstruct has been winning prizes throughout the contest’s three-month run.

It was the first team to reach 100 featured projects, for which it won a 3D printer, a $100 gift certificate for 3D printing, a $500 gift certificate for robotics parts, and a science experiment kit.

Some YuKonstruct members entered other contests on the site beyond the makerspace contest, and have won a drone, tablet, Dremel rotary tool, computerized telescope, Leatherman multitool, books and T-shirts.

But there’s no denying it: knowing the team won the coveted grand prize for most featured instructables after last year’s near-win tastes extra sweet.

“It feels really good to have that big win,” said Collins.

“Not to mention the prizes are awesome and were really excited to have new equipment to offer to our members.”

To get a sense of what makes YuKonstruct so stellar, here are some of the most popular instructables they made this summer:

• A wireless all-sky camera that takes pictures of the entire sky over an extended period of time. The camera can be used to photograph meteor showers, starry skies and northern lights.

• A low-cost passive solar water heater that can warm 45 gallons of water to 15 degrees celsius. The maker used the water in the garden.

• A laser-cut plywood Plinko Game that is equally entertaining as a kid’s game or drinking game.

“It’s been a really, really great summer of getting people involved,” said Collins.

“It’s just such a cool competition.”