NEWS FROM THE FUTURE – United States Postal Service Scares You
I wrote a big ole' article about how the post office could embrace new technologies and get back in the game, unfortunately this video/ad was the most sent in link :( Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Yesterday, 6:00pm
Turning A One-Piece Wooden Lamp Shade From a Tree Section
Kiwi master craftsman Sren Berger is a woodturner, teacher, and inventor with 35 years at the lathe. It shows. In this amazing and slightly terrifying video, you’ll see him turn a giant tree trunk section that starts with the bark still on it, inside and out, until it’s perfectly smooth and translucent-thin. Inspiring and wonderful. [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Yesterday, 4:01pm
Kitchen Backsplash Counts out 159 Digits of Pi
Marie and Michael Porter of Minneapolis, MN, used colored marble tiles to create a gloriously nerdy Pi backsplash. [via Think Geek] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Yesterday, 2:00pm
Seriously Overengineered Mousetrap
Jake Easton’s Better Mousetrap is electrically and pneumatically powered, weighs almost six pounds, features a key lock switch and a manual safety, and strikes with 102 pounds of force. I think they foleyed that crunching noise in the video, however. Sounds like a bag of Fritos, to me. Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Yesterday, 12:03pm
In the Maker Shed: Tiny Cylon Kit
The Tiny Cylon Kit, available in the Maker Shed, is a fun and easy to solder multi-mode LED Larson scanner kit. Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Yesterday, 11:00am
Tony Cragg’s Dice Sculptures
Sculptor Tony Cragg created this dice-covered sculptures for Paris’s FIAC art show, which took place in October. Love to see this style with d20s! [via Colossal; photo courtesy of Daniel Milliner] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Yesterday, 10:00am
Robot’s Wheels Transform Into Legs
Well, more accurately, they transform into “whegs,” which look like legs, but are driven like wheels and don’t, as a rule, have powered joints. Apart from sheer novelty value, the advantage seems to be that Quattroped is capable of high “road speeds” when it’s on a smooth surface and in wheeled mode, but can transform [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Yesterday, 9:21am
Android Controlled Garage Door Opener
Relays can do cool stuff when you hook them up to the Internet. Check out XDA member JsChiSurf demonstrate his Android controlled garage door opener. Using an old Linux box connected to a serial relay, he's able to toggle his garage door opener using a custom app from his Android handset. Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Yesterday, 7:00am
Test Tube Chandelier
Named in honor of Madame Curie (whose full name was Maria Sklodowska-Curie), the Maria S.C. chandelier from Polish designer Pani Jurek allows for all kinds of interesting end-user customization options. And it’s hard to imagine an easier remake. [via CRAFT] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 2, 7:39pm
Dug North’s Dremel Tips
In response to the Make: Newsletter Special Edition (on Tips) that we sent out yesterday, MAKE pal, and automata artist, Dug North sent us a link to a piece he did on Dremel tips. The article is part of Dug’s Automata Tips, Techniques and Tricks, a series he’s doing on Cabaret Mechanical Theatre. 10: Carving [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 2, 7:00pm
How-To: Hack a Surplus Plutonium Probe for Military-Grade Gamma Ray Detection
The late unpleasantness in Japan has recently focused our attention on homemade radiation detectors. These are often lumped together under the term “Geiger counter,” but in fact there is more than one way to skin that particular cat. A “Geiger counter,” formally, is a radation-sensitive instrument that uses a Geiger-Mller tube to detect the tiny [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 2, 4:42pm
Displaying Phone Video on an RGB LED Matrix
Mike from Nootropic Design (maker of the delightful Defusable Clock) bought a LED matrix from Adafruit and used it to display video from his Android phone, with the help of a SparkFun IOIO board and an Arduino. I used the OpenCV library to convert the video frames to 16×32 pixel resolution to match the LED [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 2, 2:00pm
Easy Vacuum Forming with a Guy Fawkes Mask
My German pal Aram Bartholl shows you the principles of vacuum forming with his homemade rig for churning out Guy Fawkes masks. The video takes you to 28C3 and other public venues where visitors customized their masks while learning the process. Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 2, 1:00pm
In the Maker Shed: ShapeLock
The first time I used ShapeLock was my hotel room at Maker Faire: Bay Area. Ever since then I have been hooked to this wonderful material. But "what is it" you ask? Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 2, 11:00am
Pinewood Derby Instant Replay System
Boy Scout Adam Cole of Orlando, FL, used a PS3 Eye cam, laser pointer, Arduino, and a Processing sketch to create an instant replay system for pinewood derby races, to fulfill a requirement for his Inventing Merit Badge. Adam has been working on his Inventing Merit Badge since last summer. We discussed potential “problems” and [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 2, 10:00am
Make: Talk 003 – Larry Cotton, Multi-Maker
Here’s the third episode of MAKE‘s podcast, Make: Talk! In each episode, I’ll interview one of the makers featured in the magazine. Our maker this week is Larry Cotton, a long time contributor to MAKE. Larry’s a retired engineer and part-time math teacher who lives in New Bern, NC, and likes to listen to, write, [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 1, 9:38pm
Make Your Own Ultrasonic Bat Glove from Volume 29
When Steve Hoefer sent in his prototype of the Tacit haptic wrist rangefinder, we had a field day with it taking turns walking around MAKE headquarters with our eyes closed. Using it is super intuitive: with your hand extended, the servos vibrate as you get closer to an object, like a wall, and alert you [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 1, 9:09pm
Pocket Factory: It’s a Dirty Job, but Someone’s Got to Do It, Dispatch #2
We are Bilal Ghalib and Alex Hornstein, and we're traveling around the country for a month in a Prius full of low-cost 3D printers, starting a business printing and selling things on these machines. We think of ourselves as modern-day troubadours, moving from town to town with our moneymakers in our trunk, eliciting inspiration and fascination where we travel, and making a living for ourselves off of our ideas and our wits... Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 1, 7:00pm
NEWS FROM THE FUTURE – LCD-Equipped Wi-Fi Garbage Cans
The Daily Mail has more… I suppose there are sensors in there that are doing things like detecting pollution, harmful substances, etc, etc ? Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 1, 6:00pm
Zero to Maker: At Least I’m Not Alone
Turns out, a woodshop class isn't the best place to chat - noisy saws and vents, coupled with a constant vigilance over not losing a thumb. I was glad to see Travis again on Wednesday morning, with a window of relative quiet in the shop, and to hear more about how his journey was going. Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 1, 5:00pm
How-To: Make Your Own Aerogel
The folks at Aerogel.org are serious about it: The “Make” section of their exhaustive “open source aerogel” site will teach you how to make high-quality monolithic aerogel the way the pros do it, from building yor our own supercritical drying apparatus (“manuclave” is their neologism), to mixing up the wet ingredients, to actually performing the [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 1, 4:00pm
Hackerspace Happenings: The “Tons of Classes” Edition
Are you a hackerspace member with an event you’d like to publicize? Send it to johnb@makezine.com or tweet me at @johnbaichtal and I’ll post it. Also feel free to subscribe to my hackerspaces Twitter list. Hackerspace Happenings runs weekly(ish) Tuesday(i)s(h). Soft Circuit Saturdays at Philadelphia’s Hacktory We would like to announce a new monthly event [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 1, 3:30pm
No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Die
I can’t believe it took this long for somebody to do this with a laser cutter. You go, Martin Raynsford. [via Hacked Gadgets] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 1, 1:40pm
Submit Your Film for the Imagine Science Film Festival
Our friends at Imagine Science Films have launched an Open Call for the 5th annual Science Film Festival that occurs every October in NYC. Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 1, 1:30pm
Heart-Shaped Hack Box From Evil Mad Science Labs
A great how-to from our friends at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories: “A hack-box to go, filled with interconnects, LEDs, and love. Because, what better way to say I love you, than with the gift of electronics?” Make a Heart-Shaped Hack Box Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 1, 10:30am
Hiding a Bike Key on the Bike Itself
JaxPaboo, AKA Pat Booth of Odessa, FL, wrote an Instructable showing how to hide a bike key inside the fork of the bike, using a wine cork. (I wonder if painting the cork to match the frame would be a good idea?) Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 1, 10:00am
An Open Source Laser Sintering 3D Printer
Additive rapid prototyping in plastic materials is becoming quite accessible to home and hobby users. If you’re a hobbyist on a typical budget wanting to rapid prototype in metal, however, you’re limited to subtractive methods, i.e. CNC machine tools like mills and lathes, and even those are not exactly “cheap.” Professional 3D printing services like [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 1, 8:57am
DIY Outlet Shutoff Timer
Instructables user cbaabc73‘s created his own outlet timer from basic electrical parts that can be found in any hardware store. He made it because his wife would accidentally leave her curling iron on, but I think it could be perfect for a charging station so that your devices aren’t drawing vampire power after they’re done [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 1, 7:00am
Synchronized Nano-Quadrotor Swarm
It used to be that having your own quadrotor drone was cutting edge. Now that the average joe can pick one up at their local mall for a couple hundred bucks means that you've got to step your game up if you don't want to be seen as pedestrian. That's why today's aspiring UAV enthusiasts are working with swarms. Not just any swarms either, but swarms of nano-quadrotors. These days, budget conscious drone makers are going small to cut costs and shed ounces. Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Feb 1, 6:00am
How-To: Work with Shape-Memory Alloy
You've likely heard about shape-memory alloys (SMAs), metals that change shape when heated to an activation temperature. When cool, they are malleable and can be shaped like a typical metal. However, when heated to activation, they return to their preset shape. At the atomic level, the crystalline structure of an SMA changes with heat from one regular structure to another. Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 31, 8:30pm
What is the World’s Strongest Plastic?
It’s a simplistic question, possibly even naive. Put it to a chemical engineer or a materials scientist, and she or he will almost certainly not come back with a single answer, but with (at least) two questions: What do you mean by “plastic?” Do thermosetting materials like epoxy count? What about polymers that are reinforced [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 31, 4:21pm
The Modular Electronic Drums of Nick Yulman
Nick Yulman, of NY Soundworks, recently debuted debuted his Index Boogie performance piece at PS1. The piece consists of various solenoid-powered noise makers, which Yulman calls either "Surface Poppers" or "Drum Beaters". They're designed to be modular music devices that can easily be mated to virtually any inanimate object. Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 31, 3:00pm
Plywood Table is All Secret Compartment
Artists Naoki Hirakoso and Takamitsu Kitahara built this wooden surface called the Kai Table, complete with a bunch of “secret” compartments — probably more accurately described as storage compartments; they don’t seem too secret. [via Dornob] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 31, 2:30pm
Last Weekend’s Betaspring Hackathon: Netduinos, Arduinos, and Hungry Hippos
I spent the last weekend as an advisor to Betaspring‘s Digital Meets Physical Hackathon. The participants arrived Saturday morning and organized into teams. I stayed until about midnight, and returned around 10am Sunday morning, where I was able to help a couple teams get unstuck. It wasn’t that I was any smarter than them; I [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 31, 12:30pm
Tool Review: NWS Ergonomic Long-Nose Pliers
You probably have never heard of NWS before, have you? They’re a German hand tool manufacturer that produces some really sweet pliers and cutters. Today I’d like to focus on the NWS ergonomic electrician’s pliers (angled long-nose pliers), which are designed to be held and used with a straight wrist. Ergonomic and pistol-grip pliers can [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 31, 12:00pm
New in the Maker Shed: Membrane Matrix Keypad
The Membrane Matrix Keypad, available in the Maker Shed, has 12 buttons arranged in a telephone-line 3x4 grid. It's made of a thin, flexible membrane material with an adhesive backing (just remove the paper) so you can attach it to nearly anything. Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 31, 11:00am
EMSL Weighs in on Power Dissipation
I loved this fascinating post by Windell of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, all about managing power in electronics projects: An ever-present challenge in electronic circuit design is selecting suitable components that not only perform their intended task but also will survive under foreseeable operating conditions. A big part of that process is making sure that [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 31, 10:00am
Heirloom Quality Capacitive Touch Stylus
Check out this heirloom quality capacitive touch stylus from Talking Rock, Georgia maker Stephanie McLaughlin. Each stylus Stephanie makes is hand-turned on a lathe and made from quality materials. Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 31, 6:00am
Speedy PVC Sculptures
Just two of several very clever works from Korean Kang Duck-Bong that use lengths of PVC pipe cut, bundled, and painted to suggest fast-moving objects blurred by speed. [via Boing Boing] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 30, 10:49pm
Imaginary Doors
The doors most of use every day work just fine, by and large, and we tend not to think about them too much. And I’m not sure that this flip-flop single doorknob concept submitted by Australian reader Emily T. to Dave Delisle’s website Geek Ideas would really count as much of an improvement over the [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 30, 10:31pm
Smartphone-Controlled Ikea Lamp
This “Spoka” lamp from Ikea has been hacked with an ATtiny2313 and an RS232 bluetooth module, enabling you to control the lamp with an Android phone. Originally, the lamp has 2 modes, that you can select with a switch at the top (which can also turn it off): 1. slowly change between the 3 available [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 30, 9:30pm
Electro Wire Stripper
As soon as I saw this, I thought, “why didn’t I think of that!?” Thingiverse user Brian Beebe designed an Electro Wire Stripper, a wire stripper that indicates when you’ve cut through the insulation. As soon as each blade comes into contact with the wire, it closes the circuit to turn on the LED, letting [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 30, 6:30pm
MIT brings Google App Inventor Back As Open-Source Project
Google and MIT are pleased to announce the initial free and open-source release from Google of the App Inventor source code at http://code.google.com/p/app-inventor-releases/. Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 30, 6:00pm
How-To: PC Fan Stir Plate
Liam made this cool DIY variable speed stir plate for creating yeast starter for his homebrewed beer. To control the speed of the magnetic stirrer, he used an ATmega328 with the Arduino bootloader connected to a PC case fan. Liam even made use of the LEDs that you can sometimes find on fancy fans to [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 30, 3:30pm
Math Monday: Passing a Cube Through Another Cube
It is an amazing fact that it's mathematically possible to pass a cube through a hole in another cube of the same size. If you stand a cube up on a corner (with a diagonal vertical) and shine a light down on it, its shadow is a regular hexagon. If you calculate carefully, you'll find that a square face of the cube can fit inside this hexagon with a bit of room to spare on all sides. Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 30, 3:00pm
Seattle Mini Maker Faire Opens CfM!
OMG! Seattle, the city in which my apartment resides, is having its first-ever Mini Maker Faire, and I couldn’t be prouder. We’ve been working for long months in secret, planning with the city’s Science Faire Day, scheming layouts, and dreaming big. I’m so happy this has launched and now I can announce it to you [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 30, 2:30pm
Soft Circuit Suspenders Police your Posture
Tobias Sonne of Carnegie Mellon devised suspenders equipped with stretch sensors that detect differences in resistance depending on the user's posture. If there is not enough stretch in the suspenders, a buzzer gives haptic feedback, alerting the user to sit up straight. Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 30, 2:00pm
Argentium Silver
Human beings have been smithing silver for millennia. I was surprised to learn, therefore, that significant advances in silver metallurgy have been made as recently as the 1990s. Sterling silver, by definition, contains 92.5 wt% silver metal and 7.5% other metals, traditionally mostly copper. In 1998, however, Peter Johns of Middlesex Universaity obtained a US [...] Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 30, 1:18pm
Collapsible Knitting Needle
Brett Beauregard writes: "I needed a break. I’ve been working hard on the osPID for several months, and I just needed to not look at code or control algorithms for a little bit. Nothing says “break” like an out-of-left-field project." Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 30, 1:00pm
In the Maker Shed: ProtoShield for Ardweeny
I really like using the Adweeny for Arduino projects; it's small, it's easy to pug into a breadboard, and it's inexpensive so you don't mind permanently embedding it. But what if you want to make the Ardweeny compatible with shields? That's where this ProtoShield for Ardweeny, available in the Maker Shed, comes in handy Read more...
MAKE Magazine, Jan 30, 11:00am