A life-size fire-breathing dragon. A fully robotic calliope band. A full-scale flight simulator built by teenagers. An entire herd of homemade R2-D2s. Electric cars, steampunk fashion, a robot petting zoo, a piano made of bananas, and a cardboard Trojan Horse. Plus a zillion different interactive attractions, classes, and events for kids of all ages. Yes, the Maker Faire is back in town, and only… → Read More
Rather than throwing a bunch of toxic, sharp computer parts into the landfill, BRC designs did what any green design firm would do: make a coffee table. The frame of the table was made from the computer towers, bent to form the basic structure. From there, computer parts were placed one-by-one onto the structure until completely covered. → Read More
I just love the stuff from Makezine — tinkering and programming bring back such good memories. If you like tinkering with little electronic devices and programming patterns, it’s definitely worth checking out the site. And, they just released their new LED Cube kit, inspired by the 3D Borg cube from Das-Labor, so it’s a good time to buy. → Read More
What would you do with the openFrameworks and an hour to kill? Would you create an application to detect when you’re smiling and automatically insert “:)” into whatever program is currently running? Theo Watson did, and called it Auto Smiley! 
He released it as open source! We can’t possibly have enough smiley icons embedded into our emails and IMs can we? I mean, we all spend all day… → Read More
Making clocks out of hard drives isn’t anything new. The hard drive platters make nice shiny backgrounds for your traditional analog clock, and provides just a little geek panache to an ordinary timepiece. This new strobing LED hard drive digital clock really takes things to the next level, though, as you can see in the video inside. → Read More
So this doesn’t really serve any practical purpose, but it’s definitely cool. One of the frequent contributors to Make just created a captive ring demonstration using an aluminum rod and a lathe. Pretty neat stuff. [via Make] → Read More
Who doesn’t want their own Tesla coil? Particularly if you can get one that isn’t incredibly dangerous or expensive to build. Well, this electrical savant built one in the 8th grade using vacuum tubes and a microwave oven transformer. → Read More
This is the kind of device I would think to find in the Delorean from Back to the Future. Christopher Lloyd would look all crazy-eyed at you and say something like “They weren’t counting on this little puppy!”
“What is it, a tactical nuke?” I’d ask, ever thinking of Starship Troopers. “Even better,” he’d say, eyes crazier than ever, “I went back to 1998 and got a can of Josta!” → Read More
MAKE calls it an XY table, and I can sort of work out what that means. It’s like a giant Etch-A-Sketch, but it doesn’t sketch or etch. It just kind of moves around on a… is that a skateboard? And why does the contraption sound like the beginning of that one Air song off of Premieres Symptomes? I must be dreaming. Get it together, man! → Read More
It’s only deadly to paper, but hey. We here at CrunchGear love our coil guns. Tesla coil guns, Wiimote coil guns, robot coil guns, we’ll take ‘em all. What can I say, it’s just good fun for the whole family! This one is for baby. → Read More
Not much of a story, really. Once upon a time, a guy thought, “Couldn’t a ‘pager motor’ power a tiny drill?” And it could. The End. → Read More
Our buddy Phil Torrone at Make built one of these Walker Bots using a laser cutter and some servos. The sound it makes as it comes at you is truly creepy and you can be assured the robots will use this noise as a method to terrorize the populace as they begin their first assault. They may be small but those feet are very sharp and I blame Phil for encouraging the growth and evolution of these… → Read More
Take one part Junkyard Wars, add a smattering of Pimp My Ride, and toss in some Monty Python, Rube Goldberg, and a little steampunk gothic burlesque and you get Transmutant, “a collective of multi-skilled professional artists, performers, event organisers, sculptors, musicians and technicians who have joined forces to offer your event a whole sphere of services to take it beyond your wildest… → Read More
Not much detail here, but some creative soul squeezed a Fender amp into an old cigar box. Although not entirely practical, it’s a fine example of a good way to re-use something you’d otherwise discard. Remember, re-use is better then recycling; and reduction in consumption is better than both. → Read More
Finally, a DIY project that seems fairly simple to do: take a piece of wood, cut several holes in it, and make it look like an owl. Then wrap your portable MP3 player earbuds around it. Isn’t it cute?! → Read More
I made my feelings on the Puma known— to both our listeners on the weekly podcast. This alternative to the multi-thousand-dollar fantasy weirdo-cycle relies only on your own two feet. Kind of like walking, which would be cheaper, but less awesome. → Read More
It’s been a few years since we first heard of small devices that can amplify small signals called “tubes.” Interestingly, work on these tubes could now cease thanks to something called the “transistor,” a miniature version of the tube.
This solid-state device accepts a small signal and amplifies it for use in music playback and, potentially, the Internet. This MAKE magazine video describes the… → Read More
Some time ago, a fun little project was put up on MAKE: attach a vibrating motor to the head of a toothbrush, power it, and watch it zoom around. Fun, right? So much fun, in fact, that toy and book makers Klutz (with Scholastic) decided to make their own and market it under the same name, with no credit to its creator. Really, guys? → Read More
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2439769&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1 Check out this preview of the Make: television program coming in January to public television. Paul Da Plumber from Cyclecide has made a bicycle-powered rimshot from recycled materials. Now if only he would make that into an attachment… → Read More
MAKE has added Chemistry to their set of gift guides, and that’s just awesome. I know I had a ton of fun with my chemistry set when I was a kid, mainly checking the toxicity of various things and then trying to make the most poisonous concoction possible. If you’re interested in doing some sweet experiments with your scientifically-minded kid, look no further. You a may also want to… → Read More
One of the drawbacks of technology is with each new piece of gear, you get a new charger. After awhile you find every outlet in your house is filled with chargers and adapters. I don’t know about you, but this drives me crazy. When I want to charge something I have to remember where I put the damn charger, and then find a place to plug it in. Lucky for me, Make Magazine found someone that made a… → Read More
Make shows off a clever voice synthesizer connected to an accelerometer that blows out a strange voice-like noise when you move it around. It doesn’t do much, but clearly this will be valuable when robotic spiders start falling from the sky and need to control for the Doppler effect as they shout out orders to the humans below. via BBG → Read More
Is this doorbell classy or nerdy? We can’t decide. Part of us digs the natural material and wine glasses, but then, it is a DIY project that involves gong’n two flutes all controled by a homebuilt circuit board. The setup is quite easy: – The two glasses (Butlers) are srewed to a wooden board (OBI) – The servo (Conrad) is attached to the board via angle brackets (OBI) by tie… → Read More
Yes! This is awesome. Of course, anything related to modding an NES is awesome. Personally, I don’t watch DVDs that much — or if I did, the player’s guts wouldn’t fit into a Nintendo. Still, this is a cool mod and if you have a non-working NES sitting around (that you don’t feel like fixing), it won’t run you more than $40 or $50. Now if I were modding an NES… → Read More
http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/1582942/diy_usb_cooking_pan.swf This little USB-powered hot plate looks simple enough that even a bonehead like yours truly could put one together. A couple USB wires, some bits of porcelain, and a couple pans are all you need for a functional whatever-it-is. Of course, since it needs two USB ports, you’re out of luck if you have a MacBook Air. Proven useless… → Read More
This looks pretty awesome, but it’s difficult to say just how practical it is until you try it. I’m willing to do it, but first I need a nice Leatherman. The process looks surprisingly easy, assuming you have some sort of way of cutting hardened steel. You just use one of the multitool’s bits as a guide and then drill the right size hole — presto! I think, personally… → Read More
Citizen Engineer from citizen engineer on Vimeo. Friends of the Crunch Limor Fried and Phil Torrone are putting together open source DIY videos at CitizenEngineer.com. They’ll be talking about esoteric subjects like GSM, electronics, and circuit bending. Their first video, about SIM cards, includes plans for making your own SIM card reader. It’s an amazingly detailed video and we… → Read More
Do not watch this video hung-over. Or at least turn down the audio. Kick52 ostensibly improved his Acorn A3000 by adding a set of interesting switches and dials that make a horrible squalling reminiscient of my days in a Turkish prison. via Make → Read More
I triple-dog-dare you to wear this out to a nice bar one night. I guarantee it’ll get you ladies. Hey, it worked for Tony Stark. It helps if you grow a goatee too, like this joker. Hey, he looks like a nice guy, I’m not going to mock him, but really this is some seriously nerdy stuff here. It ain’t easy, either — you have to wire up your own LEDs and mold the plastic as… → Read More
If you’re the tinkering type, then you might want to check out this little slice of heaven. It’s a missile launching robot, I think, that doesn’t tame the savageness of man, but rather entertains you for all of two minutes. The fun, I’d expect, is in making it; the necessary parts are all there for your enjoyment. As I’ve said before, my knowledge of hacking and… → Read More
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
