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Archive: How it's made

How it's made Home | Next >

May 27, 2009

Laser-cut gingerbread bridge

Via Boing Boing Gadgets comes this model of Berlin's Oberbaum Bridge, being cut with a laser out of gingerbread. The builder hasn't completed the whole thing, but has put up an Instructable slideshow showing his progress thus far.

Laser Cut Gingerbread Bridge

Inventaholic pulls back the curtain on inventing at Maker Faire

[Image from Inventaholic]

Perry Kaye is a great inventor I met at Maker Faire Austin in 2007. Recently, we have had several conversations about the process for bringing a product to market. He has set up a site around the idea of inventing for regular people.

Invention is not always about money. For many of us inventing is primarily the quest for discovery and advancement. Fun seeking also plays a major roll. No, it's not always about profit. Because attempting to monetize every inventive product is silly. Superman does not require a Visa Card before he'll rescue you.

And right now, the World needs an ocean of Super-men/women (i.e. heroes) who help first and worry about money later. How do we inspire philanthropic inventaholics?

[Image from Inventaholic]

One of the great things that I recall from our conversations is the idea of having a process for creating designs that solve a problem.

Identify the need. There is some problem that needs a solution.
Gather some information: What do you need to know about the problem?
Build a working prototype of your solution. Gather whatever materials make it work.
Test it out and get some feedback: How well does it work?
Then onto the manufacturing process: Identify the techniques and processes to actually make some working models of the device.
Create a process for making 5 to 10 copies of the design
Create a workflow for making 50 to 100 units of the design
Create another plan for making 500 to 1,000 units of the design.

By having a decent design, and a plan for making the design in various quantities, you can make your design in however many units you can sell. If you get an order for 20, run your plan for 10 twice. If you get an order for 4,000, run your plan for 1,000 four times. If you need more that that, hopefully you are making money off of it and can hire out for parts of the manufacturing process.

Well, you see, Perry is an Inventaholic. If you feel like you might or could be an Inventaholic, then make sure you come play with him at the Inventaholic Prototype Playground at Maker Faire.

May 25, 2009

Mendocino Motor: coming to Maker Faire

Appearing at the 2009 Bay Area Maker Faire is the Mendocino Solar Motor:

The motor is pretty easy to get right. The construction difficulty is not easy or medium -- definitely "hard." It is best if you have good soldering skills, and the ability to think about the theory of the motor so that you get the polarity of the cells correct. Make sure the current flowing through the bottom of the coil flows from left-to-right every time that part of each coil is closest to the base magnet.

The Mendocino Motor is a great project for teaching kids about solar, electricity, soldering and more. The Mendocino Solar Motor should be a great maker exhibit to check out. You may want to look at the complete list of the Bay Area Maker Faire 2009 exhibitors.

Back yard kayak

[Photo from Bouyant Safety Paddle]

Joe caught the kayak bug, but didn't want to pay to have one shipped to his home in Hawaii, so he made one.

In the summer of 2005, I bought a dealer demo Perception Sonoma 13.5 and a used Honda Element. I bought the kayak thru Ebay from Adventure Sports, and the Element thru Craigslist. After 18,000 miles and paddles in Arizona, Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia it was time to go home. Freight for the kayak back to Hawaii was more than $300 with packing. I decided to leave the kayak on Vancouver Island and buy or build one on Maui.

His build documentation shows the process he used to make is own kayak on the picnic table in the back yard.

Working outside, ventilation was never a problem. Wind, dust, leaves, insects, birds, chameleons, noise restrictions, sunlight, proximity to living quarters all impacted the build. Wind broke the EPS foam before I got started. Dust and leaves fell on the wet epoxy. A big, black bee burrowed into the EPS. Birds were always chirping and chameleons entertained me from the fence. I used hand tools whenever I could to prevent noise fines from the condo association. Sometimes I had to slather on the SPF and wipe sweat out of my eyes. Mrs. was constantly after me about EPS balls and glass threads on her fancy Indich carpet.

You can check out the rest of the story. Some of the build process would have gone better with a hot wire, and the choice of materials doesn't look like they are the way he would do it again. He did, however make a kayak that met his needs for practicing rolls. Have you made a kayak or other boat? Tell us the story!

[via DIY Happy]

May 24, 2009

Leather hip pouch from Urban Threads

[Photo from Urban Threads]

There is a nice set of instructions for the project on Urban Threads:

For embroidering or sewing on leather, you'll want to pick up some leather needles. The thing about sewing on leather is that the holes your needle leaves behind won't be invisible like when you sew on regular cloth, and you want a small, special needle to keep the damage and tear-age to your leather at a minimum. Large needles can actually perforate your leather enough that you basically just punch off a section. Not what we're going for here.

The photos and text are informative, and the design could be rolled out to meet many different needs.

Make a whole bunch to slip on a belt and you've got one sweet utility belt. A pouch this size will fit everything from credit cards and cash to a passport if needed, and makes a great travel pouch. Make a smaller, daintier one for more dressy outfits in need of a little spice. You can customize it to any shape or any need.

[From the MAKE Flickr pool]

May 22, 2009

They used to make spaceships here

As the current Space Shuttle mission (STS-125) comes to a close, the Shuttle is nearing the end of its functional life, its final mission slated for 2010. On a recent visit to Downey, CA, near Los Angeles, I had the chance to visit a series of buildings, now empty, that were the birthplace of the Shuttle, and before it, the Apollo spacecraft. In fact, it's the birthplace of the American aerospace industry. Today, these buildings bear the name Downey Studios because some of them are in use by moviemakers. Yet these still-standing hulks suggest the size and significance of what was once built there, and the echoes of engineers who lived out their careers there can still be heard. I met with members of Aerospace Legacy Foundation, headed by Gerry Blackburn, which exists in a few cluttered rooms on site. It's a home away from home for some of these retired engineers like Gerry, who worked here from the time he graduated high school until the plant, then owned by Boeing, closed in 1999. The foundation hopes to preserve the history of this site for future generations to learn how we made spaceships here.

Read full story

May 8, 2009

12 steps with Paul Polak

Last summer, I went with several youth leaders from Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn to hear Paul Polak speak. He was one of the opening speakers for the IDDS conference hosted by D-Lab at MIT.

He appeared on Fresh Air last year:

Paul Polak, founder of the nonprofit International Development Enterprises, has spent 25 years working to eradicate poverty in Bangladesh, India, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and other countries in the developing world.

His perhaps-surprising conclusion: Government subsidies for the rural poor often make things worse.

Instead, Polak teaches families and farmers -- many of whom live on a dollar a day and own perhaps an acre of land -- how to increase crop yields with simple technologies, such as cheap, foot-operated water pumps and inexpensive drip hoses for irrigation.

Paul Polak has been working hard and realistically to create solutions to some of the world's most challenging poverty.

Below are his twelve steps to Practical Problems Solving:

Step 1: Go to where the action is

Step 2: Talk to the people that have the problem and listen to what they have to say

Step 3: Learn everything you can about the problem's specific context.

Step 4: Think big and act big

Step 5: Think like a child

Step 6: See and do the obvious

Step 7: If somebody has already invented it, you don't need to do so again.

Step 8: (part 1) Make sure your approach has positive measurable impacts that can be brought to scale

Step 9: Design to specific cost and price targets.

Step 10: follow practical 3 year plans.

Step 11: Continue to learn from your customers.

Step 12: Stay positive: Don't be distracted by what other people think.

The work of Paul Polak is worth checking out, and his approaches could be adapted to many possible challenges in the world.

Bass string winding with antique machinery

Marc points this bit of maker zen documenting the how a string is wound on a circa-1850 machine. From the vid's author, Stefan Schafft -

Many people say to me, it is impossible to make good strings with such a machine.
But I can tell you, the strings are perfect. Ok, It takes a time but it`s great to work like in the 19th century

They certainly don't make 'em like they used to. Check out Discovery's video on the modern guitar string-making process -

May 6, 2009

3D-printed combination lock

Rob K636 posted this awesome 3D print job of a combination lock he's working on to the MAKE Flickr pool.

Combination lock

April 24, 2009

Wake up your fish feeder

Cheap automatic aquarium feeder on the go. - More DIY How To Projects

Zach, one of my 9th grade students showed me this last week.

Hey, maybe you should really mess with your fish by modifying this idea to feed them every time you download files to your thumb drive. It really could be feast or famine, depending on what your file habits are. If you want something more involved, then check out John Park's excellent VCR cat feeder build.

Maker Revolution this weekend in Cambridge

Jimmie has this followup on his announcement for Maker Revolution in Boston this Saturday and Sunday:

The event can pretty much be summed up as a two day extravaganza of makers, hackers, and artists getting together to share cool things they've made, and how to make them. There will be installation art pieces, workshops, and talks. You'll be able to both see an Arduino in use for an art piece, purchase one, and even learn how to use it. There will be workshops as well, so you can learn to circuit bend, or build your own TV-B-Gone with the inventor, Mitch Altman. The Makerbot will also make an appearance, and Bre Pettis will be on hand demonstrating rapid prototyping and how it can change your life.
A number of Boston area makers and artists will also be presenting,
showing off some of the their works. This is a good way to find out
about things going on in the area, and how you can become involved.
From building music and sound installations, to designing your own
video games, and even trying a shot of your own DNA. There is sure to
be at least one art piece or talk that you will find interesting. It
is also very conveniently located just a few minute's walk from the
Kendall T stop.

Watch here for updates! If you are going, add your photos to the MAKE Flickr pool.

Posted by Chris Connors | Apr 24, 2009 12:00 PM
Announcements, Arduino, Arts, Computers, Crafts, Culture jamming, DIY Projects, Education, Electronics, Events, Gadgets, How it's made, Kids, Makers, Music, Open source hardware, Robotics, Science, Something I want to learn to do... | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email Entry | Suggest a Site

April 21, 2009

USB tape drive

From the MAKE Flickr pool

Alan from Hacked Gadgets has a clever way of repurposing a video cassette tape. This is a pretty good project, and he has a nice cave setup, too. His video shows what the project does, and he does a decent job explaining the reasons and theory behind the build.

This project turns a old VHS Tape into a USB storage drive. It looks like a normal VHS cassette tape except for the USB cable that sticks out of the shell. All of the project guts are hiding in the areas around the clear windows so that when you have a quick look at the front of the tape all seems normal. When plugged into a computer the VHS Tape Storage Drive will act as a normal USB drive except when the drive is accessed the tape reel will turn and the windows will light up. This will keep at least one of my VHS tapes out of the landfill.

In his Flickr set, you can see lots of the details and steps.

After you have converted your VCR into a cat feeder like John Park or James Larsson in MAKE, Volume 03, you might have a few extra tapes on your hands, so this is just one of the zillions of ideas we will need for all those surplus video cassettes.

April 18, 2009

NOVA teaches teachers

Image from NOVA on PBS

Looking for some great resources for your classroom? You may want to check out some of the fantastic tools provided by NOVA on PBS. You can check out their offerings by subject also.

They have a weekly feature, which right now is showing Car of the Future.

Activity Summary Student teams research and develop a proposal to decrease the carbon footprint of their city's public transportation system through the use of various new technologies and/or alternative fuels. Students prepare a report that explains why their transportation plan is the best one for their community.
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:

understand the pros and cons of adopting new technologies or alternative fuels to replace existing gasoline-powered vehicles.
describe the environmental impact of alternative fuels.

Suggested Time
Four class periods

It looks like there is quite a bit of depth to these classroom resources. Links, videos, background information, and more should help you to undertake some interesting and complex studies of contemporary science and technology.

These projects are mapped to the National Science Education Standards, but I still can't find a good online resource for state by state curriculum frameworks. The Massachusetts frameworks are something of a hodgepodge of formats, and it is difficult to link directly to each individual item. Generally, they are huge documents of dozens or hundreds of pages in pdf or doc format covering many subjects and grades K-12. With no web-friendly indexing ability, it is kind of difficult to map a project directly to the subject and level.

Have you used the NOVA teachers' resources? Where do you turn for curriculum materials? Do you keep online resources for your classroom? Let us know in the comments.

April 5, 2009

360-ified SG

Photo from adcurtin

This tip came in from the comments:

Here's my mod from back in the day before GH3 for x360 (I preferred the sg to the xplorer):

He goes on:

I hate the X-plorer with a passion, mostly the fret buttons, but the whammy bar and the part that gets in the way when I strum are also problems. I decided to get rid of all those issues by doing a total conversion. Since I do custom songs on PS2 and didn't want to lose the ability to do co-op on PS2 and didn't want to buy a new guitar, I decide to do a two-way conversion.

Nice work combining guitar controllers to get what you want before the corporations decide you need it.

Thanks Mike!

Laser-less tactile rubik's cube

Instructables Member GTIG has a well documented Instructable on creating a tactile Rubik's cube.

This cube brings a unique characteristic to solving a Rubik's cube that no other cube does... the ability to say "I solved it without even looking at it once."
Rather than building hand-eye coordination, it builds hand-mind coordination.

I find that solving this cube is a challenge above and beyond a normal rubik's cube. It takes me significantly longer to solve than a normal cube. But as a result my speedcubing times on regular cubes have dropped exponentially. Because it uses areas of my brain a normal cube do not (memory/perspective... seeing it in touch and shapes rather than eyesight and color).

The step with the technique for prepping the surfaces to accept the glue is good. If the cube or metal bits are too slick, the epoxy will not have enough grip.

When Danny was working on his lasered interpretation of the idea, he found this one helpful.

April 4, 2009

Bending sheet metal and tubing

These two production method videos just showed up on my favorite design blog, Core77. one is about bending sheet metal, the other about bending metal tubing. Interesting stuff!

Glowing cube

Intructables member Alex the Great has a clever Awesome LED Cube project.

Use the cube to slow, stop, or reverse time, or even turn ordinary technology into transformers. Your choice.

This project looks like a great way to introduce kids to a number of valuable skills we have covered here at Make: Online, such as electric circuits, LEDs, resistance, ohm's law, the design process, making structures, measuring for fabrication and more. Learners would need to get some familariity with some tools, like handsaw, hacksaw, aviation snips, soldering iron, utility knife, or maybe even a shopbot, mill or vinyl cutter.

Some of the concepts involved could be: making a three dimensional structure out of flat stock, designing for fabrication, designing a circuit, drawing a schematic. These ideas could be worked out in a variety of ways, from simple to complex, manual to automated.

Give the project a try and show us your stuff in the MAKE Flickr pool!

April 1, 2009

The Fuzz box documentary

An enjoyble clip from Fuzz: The Sound that Revolutionized the World where Beck bassist Jason Meldal-Johnsen
extolls the virtues of sonic chaos intercut with critics of the circuit bent sound. The documentary features countless interviews with boutique pedal makers that started as humble DIY-ers. The above clip also features a peek into the casual labs of Brooklyn stompbox crafters Death by Audio who share details on their production process. I had a chance to visit their Williamsburg HQ a while back and it's plain to see they love what they do. [via Synthtopia]

March 31, 2009

How bi-metallic coins are made

Core77 has a neat walkthough of the process required to make bi-metallic coins; how interesting! I agree with the author, I think the mistakes are possibly even more attractive than the originals!

March 29, 2009

Waffle shoes - Responding to a need

Image from InsideNikeRunning

Did you know that your sneakers are probably the result of a vision of insight at the breakfast table? Maybe you recall wearing shoes that looked like these back in the day. Bill Bowerman, was a successful track coach when he appropriated his wife's waffle iron one day after breakfast.

Bowerman and his wife often ate waffles for breakfast-not an unusual or special event for them. Yet one morning, while thinking about his shoe designs and eating waffles, Bowerman had a flash of inspiration. He ran into the garage with the waffle iron and poured rubber on it. With that one idea, Bill created Nike's now famous waffle sole. As it turned out, when placed on a lightweight shoe, the waffle sole gripped running tracks better than the established ripple sole. It soon became a major success story.

But makers beware:

Unfortunately, Bowerman's desire for perfection cost him his health - the effects of exposure to toxic chemicals in the adhesives caused irreparable damage to his nervous system.

While reviewing a textbook last week, I saw a reference to the waffle inspiration attributed to Bowerman's Nike cofounder Phil Knight. I hadn't heard the story at all before, and both Bowerman and Knight were unfamiliar names.

The inspiration moment is one that we should all be working towards as makers. We can nurture these flashes of insight, and do our best to capitalize on these glimmers of the future. Notebooks, blogs, Flickr collections, wikis and more are a great way to both explore and record our ideas. What are you doing to collect your greatest ideas? What can you do to develop your fantastic idea and bring it to market, or share it with the world?

You might also want to check out Adam Savage's article on moldmaking in MAKE, Volume 08, page 160. Let us know what you mold up!

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