Our last major MAKEcation initiative this year is a family challenge contest, sponsored by Maker Shed, with some sweet prizes. Here’s your challenge: Choose a piece of technojunk, some cast-off electronics that you’re willing to take apart (modem, cassette or CD player, printer, VCR, scanner, answering machine, TiVo, etc.). DO NOT touch TV sets and […]
Yes, sometimes simplicity is king. But other times, you want your tools to have so many moving parts and adjusty bits that people will stop and stare. If you find yourself in the latter position, this freaky Expand-O pliers from Strong Hand Tools may be what you need. via Toolmonger
What maker doesn’t love zip ties?! They’re useful for cable management MacGyvering things, and holding your robots together. We’ve posted these leafy ties by Lufdesign before, but now they’re for sale and not just a concept. [via inspire me now]
A trowel is such an inexpensive tool, it’s hard for me to imagine making my own for anything besides the experience of making and having made it myself. Still, I can see why someone might want to make this one described by Instructables “PVC whisperer” Thinkenstein: It starts from ubiquitous scrap material, looks good, and is made using an unusual process that involves softening PVC pipe under heat (a delicate trick, safety wise) and forming it by hand.
Electronic component shortages may last through 2011 via Chris… Memory chips and other fundamental components such as resistors and capacitors are in short supply after their makers slashed output, fired staff, put equipment purchases on hold or went out of business during the recession. In contrast to what happened in 2001 after the dot.com crash, […]
Interesting concept from Peter over at the RepRap: Builders blog, who has successfully made some cuts in a CD case using an experimental 1W laser cutter with a Z-axis control that allows the laser diode itself to reciprocate up and down, kinda like a saber saw. This action moves the beam’s focus, where it cuts most effectively, up and down through the material at each point along the cutting path. I have wondered about dynamically-variable-focal-length CNC lasers before, and although I’m probably in over my head, here, it seems like there should be some way to do it optically without having to physically move the whole laser head up and down. Everyone’s a critic! Nice work here, Peter. [via Hack a Day]
In the Make: Online Toolbox, we focus mainly on tools that fly under the radar of more conventional tool coverage: in-depth tool-making projects, strange, or specialty tools unique to a trade or craft that can be useful elsewhere, tools and techniques you may not know about, but once you do, and incorporate them into your […]
