DIY Projects

War and Peace Bookend

War and Peace Bookend

Over on CRAFT, MAKE contributing writer Scott Bedford offers a great little illustrated tutorial for hacking your own action figure into a spirited bookend. Check out the post on CRAFT, or head over to Make: Projects for a PDF of the build. Can’t wait to chop up some zombie Barbie bookends! Scott’s illustration style is […]

How-To: Car Battery Welding

How-To: Car Battery Welding

Welding! Welding is a glorious, mystery-infused, thoroughly bad-ass way to stick things together. Welders move in their own cloud of mythos and danger- they are dirtier, tougher, and sexier than any other kind of maker, and the things they build are big and strong and hold our world together. This positive stereotype permeates at all levels of pop culture: if a character is introduced while welding, you immediately know that they will be some kind of blue-collar superhero, or some kind of cliched contradiction- the welder quoting Hegel after winning the bar fight, or the classic trope of seeing a welder at work, and then they flip off the helmet and OMG IT IS A GIRL! A GIRL WELDING!

LED Party Scroller

LED Party Scroller

Brian, aka Plasma2002 of San Francisco build this LED scroller that displays messages SMSed to a Google Voice number. I’ve always loved the idea of sending messages to the big screens you usually find at concerts and other large events. I figured it could be scaled down, while still being just as entertaining. It may […]

FabFi: CNCed Wifi Antennae

FabFi: CNCed Wifi Antennae

FabFi is an open-source, FabLab-grown system using common building materials and off-the-shelf electronics to transmit wireless ethernet signals across distances of up to several miles. With Fabfi, communities can build their own wireless networks to gain high-speed internet connectivity—thus enabling them to access online educational, medical, and other resources. [Via Ponoko]

Best MAKE Erratum Ever

Best MAKE Erratum Ever

Everybody makes mistakes, and we’re no exception. After each issue has gone to print, we usually find out we’ve made a mistake or two and post our errata on the magazine volume page and in the Letters section of the subsequent issue as “MAKE: Amends.” For our current volume, we just got perhaps the best […]

Skill Builder: Fabricating Project Boxes from PCB Cladding

Skill Builder: Fabricating Project Boxes from PCB Cladding

Here’s something I didn’t know about. Radio geeks and hobby audio enthusiasts use PCB copper cladding material to fabricate handsome project chassis. The main method of assembly is soldering. In this PDF tutorial from QRP Builder, a small chassis for a radio transceiver is built. Some really good tips in this article about building such project boxes and making sure the results are handsome.