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• 

  Recycled bicycle parts by julienjaborska

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 9:00pm MST

  
  These are lovely. Recycled bicycle parts by julienjaborska.
  

  
  
  

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• 

  Spacewalkers take tinkering to new heights

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 7:30pm MST

  
  Astronaut Bob Behnken participates in a spacewalk during STS-123. Image courtesy of NASA.

  Imagine having your workshop traveling at 17,500 miles per hour more than 200 miles over the Earth as you work through grueling, painstakingly-planned out steps of a project with specialized gadgets like a massive Pistol Grip Tool. STS-130 mission specialists, Bob Behnken and Nicholas Patrick will be doing just that tonight, as they begin the first of three complicated space walks for this mission. And while they've each trained for months, poring over checklists and practicing in NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab, it's in their personal experience as tinkerers and builders on Earth where their skills are firmly rooted.

  "As a kid, I was always taking things apart," said Behnken, the lead spacewalker on this mission. "I was the boy who would come to your house and take your bicycle apart and then have to get invited back the next day to put it back together again."

  Behnken grew up outside of St. Louis, where his father was a construction worker and where he frequented his local Radio Shack as a boy to pick up Heathkits and equipment for making projects around his house.

  "I just had that interest in doing things that was from figuring out how to do it and then going out and doing it."

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• 

  MAKE Volume 21: Traditional cigar box guitar builds

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 7:00pm MST

  

  Back in MAKE Volume 04 (2005), we ran a project for making an electric cigar box guitar. In the newest issue of MAKE, Volume 21, our editor in chief Mark Frauenfelder offers a DIY on making a classic cigar box guitar, and we've had a few people commenting on the article page and sharing gorgeous images of the guitars they've built. We love when that happens, so I wanted to share a few of them here. What I like most about this project is that everyone has their own distinct take on it. Seen above is Jason Hitesman's CBG. You can see more shots on his photo stream. Below are front and back shots of Jake Sunding's cigar box mandolin (build notes on his blog), inspired by Mark's article:

  One more for now. Here is Dan Morrill's CBG build. Love the surrounding workshop in this shot:

  

  Have you built one? Share your pics with us in the comments and/or add them to the MAKE Flickr pool! And if you don't already have Volume 21, you can pick it up at fine newsstands near you, order it from the Maker Shed, or subscribe.
  
  

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• 

  Come and check out our new Makers Market!

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 6:00pm MST

  

  If you've been following our exploits closely in the last year or so, you've likely caught wind of us working feverishly on something called Makers Market. After lots of heavy lifting and obsessive constructing, arranging, merchandising, and labeling, we're ready to throw open the gates and show off our little marketplace. We think of it as sort of an online Farmers Market for cool geekery (and other "maker-made" goodies), or a "curated marketplace of wonderful science, tech, and artistic creations created and sold directly by some of our favorite makers from around the world," as the official statement reads.

  Here are some additional details:

  A collaboration between MAKE and Boing Boing, Makers Market brings together our favorite entrepreneurial makers and artists selling products and services directly to DIY enthusiasts... Most of the sellers you'll discover in Makers Market are makers whom we've come to know through our work producing MAKE, Boing Boing, Make: Online, CRAFT, Maker Faire, and Make: television. Each seller is selected by the staff at MAKE or the Boing Boing crew. The products are "Maker-Made," either made by, rebuilt by, or substantially produced by the maker selling them. Each maker has their own storefront showcasing their work and sell their products, hosts their own blog, posts pictures and videos, and communicates with their customers and the DIY community at large. MAKE provides the web service, the tools, and the community. Sellers are responsible for doing their own product fulfillment and bringing their unique character, energy, and DIY spirit to the marketplace.

  So, come on over and check it out! We're really exciting about this. It's still very much in early beta, so we appreciate your continued patience as we get everything in order.

  If you're an indie maker and have a product or service you think you'd like to sell, visit the "Seller's FAQ." Nominating yourself is easy and just takes a few minutes. We'll review your information and generally get back to you in a day or two.
  
  So, come on, let's go shopping!

  Here are a few of my favorite items in the market:

  Atari Punk Console Kit, Rotobotmouse , BYO Tinysaur Deluxe: T-Rex

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• 

  Bringing old cassettes back from the dead

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 5:00pm MST

  

  Reader Craig Smith sent me an email about this recent little fix he discovered for time-worn cassettes:

  I was in my basement shop when I found a box of cassette tapes that were the soundtrack to my youth. Since the seldom-used tape deck was removed from the upstairs entertainment center, I set it up in my workshop system. But something was wrong. So many of the tapes sounded flat and warbled. Turns out that many of the felt pads that keep the tape tight against the playback head had fallen off and were missing.

  
  The solution: I rummaged around until I found some thick stick-on felt pads that often come with ready to assemble furniture. After some trial and error, I cut a rectangle about 3mm by 4mm. Peeling off the adhesive backing paper, I put it in place with a pair of tweezers. Since my tweezers are somehow magnetized, I did it with the clear plastic leader pulled away at the end of the tape. The sound is as good as I remember. Time will tell if the adhesive surface will hold, or if a dab of glue is required. VIVA LA 1980s!

  More:

  • How-To: Hack a Magic 8-Ball

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• 

  Lightning Talks at HacDC, Tuesday Feb 23

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 4:00pm MST

  

  HacDC's (Washington DC's premier hackerspace) next Lightning Talks evening will feature an eclectic lineup of a dozen five-minute talks on anything and everything that's pressing on the minds of today's thinkers and tinkerers, from rapid boat construction to innovative DIY manufacturing. The talks run about 90 minutes total.

  There are currently several speaker slots still available, and they need your brilliant ideas, whatever they may be. For more information, contact obscurite@hacdc.org ASAP to secure a spot. Here for more.

  HacDC Lightning Talks
  7:30 - 9:30PM, Tuesday Feb 23, 2010
  HacDC @ St. Stephen's Church
  1525 Newton St NW
  Washington, DC 20010
  

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• 

  Post-apocalyptic Wizard of Oz minis

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 3:28pm MST

  

  Nomad painted these awesome Road-Warrior-meets-Toto mashup minis. The figures themselves are available from Studio Miniatures. As an encore, might I suggest The Wizard of Oz gang as characters in the HBO prison drama Oz? Or vice versa? [via Neatorama]

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• 

  Ask MAKE: Cleaning an old motor?

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 3:00pm MST

  

  
  Ask MAKE is a weekly column where we answer reader questions, like yours. Write them in to mattm@makezine.comor drop us a line on Twitter. We can't wait to tackle your conundrums!

  

  Andy writes:

  Recently I acquired a vintage Leslie speaker cabinet. The speaker cabinet uses ac motors to turn baffles and horns to create a Doppler effect. Upon opening up the speaker, I found that the motors were working, but very dirty and coated with gunk. What is the best way to clean a motor with an excess of build up?

  Congratulations on your acquisition! Since the motors seem to be working fine, my guess is that it might be best to clean them cosmetically, but not to try and take them apart and rebuild them. Even though they are electrical devices, you should be able to clean them like anything else, using some form of solvent and a brush. Just make sure to let them dry out completely before you power them up!

  I would start a mild detergent (soap and water). If that doesn't do the job (which it probably won't), try mineral spirits or a specialized electric motor cleaner. The biggest things I can think to look out for when using a solvent to clean the motor are that it doesn't damage the varnish on the motor windings or get into any greased bearings. The varnish is used as a coating on the motor windings, to keep them from touching each other and shorting out, so removing it would not be a great thing to do. If the motor does have greased bearings, you might want to lubricate them as well.

  I've taken apart a few motors, but admittedly don't have a lot of experience in this field. Does anyone have a favorite technique or solvent that they use to restore vintage machines like this?

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• 

  Creative cassettes & mechanical mods of Tapetronic

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 1:30pm MST

  Mike Una points out the action-packed tape deck manipulations of French musician/bender Alexis Malbert, better known as Tapetronic. Very cool to see the focus of hacking turn a bit more toward the cassette itself, rather than just the playback mechanism. More over at GetLoFi.
  
  

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• 

  Guest editorial: Dr. AnnMarie Thomas

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 1:00pm MST

  Enclosure: [download]

  

  Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (February 18th) carries a special importance. Somehow, we're failing our girls when it comes to engineering. A recent study showed that while women earned 58% of all bachelor's degrees, only 21% of engineering bachelor's were awarded to women. Furthermore, women make up only 26% of the science and math workforce. What can we do? We asked Dr. AnnMarie Thomas, a professor of engineering at the University of St. Thomas, to give her thoughts. -- John

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• 

  How-To: Kids' dining footrest

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 12:00pm MST

  

  Instructables user wramey writes:

  This cheap and easy addition to our dining room chairs prevents kids legs from dangling uncomfortably. It won't get all their wiggles out, but it will help them sit more comfortably... and now that our kids can sit more comfortably facing the table, they get less food in their laps and on the floor and we all enjoy meals more.

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• 

  Playing Rock Band with a real guitar

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 11:00am MST

  Alan wrote in to tell us about Open Chord, an open hardware conversion kit that lets you play Rock Band and similar games using a real guitar. We've seen no shortage of DIY rock band guitar mods, however his uses the actual strings on the guitar, rather than adding extra buttons for each note. I'm not a guitarist, however it seems like this could be a fun way to practice fingerings. You could hook it up to an advanced version of Frets on Fire, and you have yourself a Mavis-Beacon style guitar tutor, or even convert it to output MIDI, and use it to play your favorite synth.

  More:

  • Another real Guitar Hero
  • HOW TO - Make a DIY PS2 Guitar Hero controller
  • Ultimate Guitar Hero mod
  • Frets On Fire - free Guitar Hero-like game your play with a keyboard

  Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!
• 

  Robots versus pirates!

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 10:09am MST

  

  A Russian firm is selling a system of ship-mountable auto-targeting water-pumping robots with the dual purpose of fighting fires and repelling pirates. BotJunkie's Evan Ackerman explains:

  The robotic water cannons (six on each side of the ship) are controlled by a central computer, using TV cameras to target pirates approaching the ship. The robots shoot streams of water at 40 liters per second out to a range of 70 meters, and can wash away potential boarders and even sink small boats. This is a defensive technique that is already used against pirates, but having robots do the shooting helps keep the people who would otherwise be wielding the fire hoses safe.

  My biggest concern with this system would be that the pirates could use their Electro-Bolt plasmids to temporarily short out the automated turrets, then hack them to turn against their masters. I mean, just looking at them, it's pretty clear these things are based on Rapture-style hydro-tube technology.

  [via BotJunkie]

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• 

  (H)ear piercing

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 9:07am MST

  

  These are concept shots of a hearing aid based out of a gauged ear piercing plug. From Core77:

  The Deafinite Style is a concept from Munich-based Designaffairs STUDIO that turns a hearing aid into a piece of jewelry, provided you're up for a bit of lobe stretching to get started. The main advantage they propose (aside from an instant hipster-grunge-punk look) is the opportunity to embed the TriMic System -- a highly effective directional microphone system made from 3 individual microphones -- into the plug, helping people who suffer from severe hearing loss.

  What do you think? Is this a practical solution for aging lobe-stretchers? One more image after the jump.

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• 

  Minne-Faire: A Twin Cities mini Maker Faire this Saturday

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 8:00am MST

  

  Twin Cities Maker is going to have a Mini Maker Faire at the Hack Factory on February 13th, 2010! Come one, come all! We're planning to have the fun start at 2 PM with local makers exhibiting and playing in the newly acquired space. We will also have an Art Show and Party later that night for people to come and experience the space and have some refreshments.

  The lineup of makers includes a demonstration by Bill Gurstelle, the music of Tim Kaiser, air cannons, replica movie props, an arduino demonstration, a display by the local Tripoli rocketry club, art cars, a life-sized Operation Game as well as flamethrowers and pulse jets by local engineering firm CazTek.

  Interested in attending? The Hack Factory's address is 3119 E 26th St Minneapolis, MN 55406.

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• 

  Trilo-femoral-mechnicus

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 6:58am MST

  

  There's plenty of bad found-object and "junk" sculpture in the world. I know because I made most of it myself. But Jud Turner, whose skeletal "Bio-Cycle" made some waves when we posted about it last year, does it right. He's recently posted a bunch of new work to his website, e.g. the awesome mecha-trilobite shown above.

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• 

  Lego steampunk "Voyage to the Moon" model

  Posted: February 11th, 2010, 2:00am MST

  

  The 1902 French movie Le Voyage dans la lune provided one of most indelible science fiction images ever: the grimacing Man on the Moon with giant bullet-like space capsule in his eye. Guy Himber's excellent Lego steampunk adaptation evokes the same feel with panache. I love the barrel as the exhaust port! The sculpture won the award for 'Best Art' at the 2009 BrickCon Lego convention.

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