The use of cellular machines such as biomolecular motors and microtubules for nanofabrication of a wide range of nanoobjects in an engineered, cell-free environment is discussed. Use of cellular machines is advantageous as they can work in parallel, their size is in the nanometer range, they work with a high energy efficiency and their application is potentially cheap. The biomolecular motors are complexes of two or more proteins that convert chemical energy into directed motion. Microtubules are stiff, hollow cylinders with diameter 25 nm, composed of tubulin dimers. The general setups for using motor proteins outside cells, called motility assays, for DNA manipulation are described.