DIY Projects

How-To: Elegantly simple squirrel-proof bird feeder

How-To: Elegantly simple squirrel-proof bird feeder

I love this bird-feeder tutorial from Instructables user me13lake. It’s not flashy (indeed, with a title like “Small simple horizontally mounted squirrel resistant/proof bird feeder that requires no specialist tools to make,” I’m guessing it was written by a scientist or engineer) but it’s well thought-out, easy and inexpensive to make, and it looks like it would work very well. The clear squirrel-guard rotates freely so they can’t get a grip, and can be made from a 2-liter plastic bottle. Or you could try cutting one from a glass bottle.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan16

Cardboard chair process video

This process animation makes it look easy. There should be a zillion different variations on the design of a chair like this. It looks like a good way to work with the concepts of compression, tension, torsion and shear with students as they design and build their own furniture. Have you used cardboard furniture design/build projects in a classroom setting? Let us know in the comments!

Continue Reading Chris Connors4

How-To: Flock clock

Instructables user mrigsby writes: The Flock Clock uses male and female drinking birds to display time. Binary addition of the female birds (left to right) yields the hour. Binary addition of the male birds (multiplied by five) yields the minute–within five minutes. An Arduino processor provides the signals needed to drive Peltier cells which heat […]

Continue Reading Becky Stern4

How-To: Knit stretch sensor

Hannah Perner-Wilson uses conductive yarn to make a stretch sensor, here’s how: Use a circular knitting machine to knit a stretch sensor with regular and conductive yarns in five minutes! The values of the sensor range from roughly 2.5 Mega Ohm when relaxed, to 1 Kilo Ohm when fully stretched. The stretch sensing is actually […]

Continue Reading Becky Stern