There was an interesting piece on NPR this morning about power tools for the Amish. The Amish have traditionally been farmers, but land has become prohibitively expensive to purchase, so many are turning to woodworking to earn a living. Since their homes are not wired with electricity, their table saws, drills and sanders are retrofitted with gas engines and compressed air tanks.
At last, Tolkien meets capitalism.
Special effects specialist Edwin Wise has contributed several projects to the pages of MAKE over the years, including the classic animatronic Flying Crank Ghost, the sound wave visualizing Chladni Plate, and the PVC air cannon Boom Stick, to name a few.
Natalia Buckley is a hacker, designer, and creative technologist. She’s originally from Poland and now live in Brighton on England’s south coast, a city famed for its appetite for experimentation. “I’m just making speculative things, that don’t necessarily fully exist in the real world, but help us learn something,” she says. “I’m a social observer. The sole reason I make things is to learn something about other people. Because I find other people fascinating. My work in technology is basically about people. People constantly interact with technology and I can make technology to watch them do stuff!”
Ask MAKE is a monthly column where we answer your questions. Send your vexing conundrums on any aspect of making to askmake@makezine.com. If we don’t have the answer, we’ll scare up somebody who does. Tracy Wood said: “My problem is I start projects and don’t finish them!! ;(“
John Yard is a tinsmith, a trade for which there is now only an occasional call these days. As a maker of forms and shapes in sheet metal, he transforms things from two to three dimensions—with a very light touch. He’s looking forward to doing some tinsmithing demonstrations at the Adelaide Mini Maker Faire on April 6.
Vermont-based freelance reporter and maker Bob Parks has been contributing to the pages of MAKE since Volume 01. He’s profiled makers as diverse as special effects innovator Glen Derry and synthetic biologist Drew Endy, and is the author of the very first MAKE-branded book we published (in 2005), aptly titled Makers: All Kinds of People […]
