Rich Decibels created a tutorial for designing and laser cutting a project enclosure. He covers everything from designing the circuit boards to visualizing the project in SketchUp, exporting the panels to Inkscape and then lasering the enclosure.
For those of you with an overwhelming desire to build your own subatomic particle accelerator, look no further than this Instructable by Xellers, which shows you how to convert a wine bottle into a cathode ray tube (CRT). Of course, that’s not all you need: other ingredients include a two-stage vacuum pump, a neon sign […]
As I develop new projects for my classroom this summer, a recurring theme has been to explore just how many times it takes to get a new design right. As far as I am concerned, nothing ever works properly the first time, and it is useful for students and new learners to a subject to recognize this. Programmers call this the iterative process, Engineers use the Engineering Design Process, both of which are relatives to the scientific method. Sure, just about anything can be fixed with duct tape and zip ties, but to get beyond a temporary kludge, you will need to put some time and thought into analyzing the problem and crafting a proper solution.
Kids and cheap RC cars is a bad mix. In reality kids cannot control these things. They end up slamming the car into things, and keep pressing “forward”, even when the poor vehicle is facing a wall. With the purpose of preparing you for some nifty programming tricks in the next episode of The Latest […]
Ever since the release of the Redpark Cable for iOS and Brian Jepson’s Make: Project, this bundle has been scarce. We just received a shipment of parts so the Redpark Breakout Pack for Arduino and iOS is currently back in the Maker Shed! For those that missed it, this cable along with the P4 RS232 adapter lets you talk to microcontrollers and sensors with your iOS powered device without jail breaking!
Calling all parts recyclers, pick-and-pull repurposers, and lovers of all things metal! Back in MAKE Volume 17, John Todd shared a veritable catalog of ways to remove various substances, from rust to paint to petrified grease, from metal. John breaks down mechanical methods, chemical methods, and the electrolytic method, complete with a how-to for building […]
Looking for that classy Dr. Who touch? Simon Jansen made TARDIS cufflinks from an N-scale model train Police Box. It just took some light metalworking (basically using a razor saw) and painting, and the cufflinks nicely match his TARDIS MAME console.
