Solar & astrophysics test engineer Hank Hancock saw a comment on our Mini-Trebuchet post about how to improve the throw distance, and put up his hand to try it out. We sent him a kit, he’ll be building and documenting the before-and-after effects of adding wheels to the design.
Riley Porter’s sweet plotter is built out of Contraptor beams and lasercut panels, and uses a custom stepper controller called TinyG that he created with maker Alden Hart. Next: can haz CNC?
Steve Roberts, the “high-tech nomad,” shows you how he built his mobile lab and makerspace.
Apparently there was some kind of giant rocketship at Maker Faire this year. Did anybody else notice this? I tend to tune everything else out when there’s funnel cake around. We should probably put it in a more prominent location next time.
Anyhoo, if, like me, you were at the Faire and happened to miss the 40-foot-tall gleaming aluminum spaceship in the middle of the grounds, on the program, and on all the posters, don’t fret: There are plenty of groovy photos and videos whooshing around the tubes, and if you find yourself unsatisfied by two-dimensional simulacra you could always purchase one of Raygun Gothic crewman Alan Rorie’s kit models of the craft. He’s got
beautifully-printed pepakura
for $12.50 and laser-cut plywood for $50.
Sylvia’s Super-Awesome Maker Show: Episode 01, Drawdio – outstanding! Super Awesome Sylvia builds the Drawdio by Jay Silver from the kit by Adafruit! This doesn’t include a complete tutorial on bulding the kit, as Ladyada has done such a good tutorial [here]… Drawdio kit, available in the MakerShed.
MAKE subscriber Nick Santillan of Vancouver, BC, an ID student at the Emily Carr University of Art & Design, created this CNC for his thesis project. I decided to tackle on making CNC machine by allowing people to be more experimental with them to progress CNC technology from the bottom-up. The end result is a […]
For those who aren’t up on their tradecraft, a “dead drop” is a place where spies or other clandestine-y folks drop off items for later retrieval by other agents. A “dead drop spike” is a particularly ingenious little container devised for the purpose. Basically, it’s a hollow metal spike, with a threaded watertight closure at the top. You put your top-secret microfilm or whatever inside the spike, take it to your dead drop, and stomp it into the ground with your foot. Then you cover it up with a rock or a piece of trash or whatever. The lid has a pull-loop built into it, so that when your contact comes by later to clear the drop, he or she can grab the spike by the loop and yank it out of the ground again.
