Make:

Flickr member Leviathan34 is the winner of the MAKEcation: Teach Your Family to Solder challenge! A teen, he was the only entrant who actually taught his entire family. He and his mother, father, sister, and little brother all worked on a Joule thief.

We asked our Solder Challenge Camp Counselor Dave Hrynkiw to choose the winner. Here's what he said:

Leviathan34's your winner. Extra geek cred for the Altoids fume extractor. But they lose equal points for no safety glasses. But he gains 'em back for soldering with a cast on his hand. Plus, he does have glasses. But the little kid doesn't. Added up, it's still positive geek cred points. His Flickr set is pretty impressive, too.

[Folks, PLEASE wear safety glasses when soldering. Solder does sputter and it's molten alloy. It BURNS! That whole "poke an eye out" thing in our MAKE motto -- that's exaggeration for effect, that's humor. We don't actually want you to lose an eye. Safety glasses are cheap. Buy 'em, wear 'em.]

Leviathan34 and his family win a $100 Gift Certificate to the Maker Shed. Congrats. Email me your address (my email link is in the Make: Online Authors box on the right rail of this page).

We also have five runners up:

the_goodbooks
(Caleb documents building a Proto Shield, from watching the tutorial on Make: Online to finishing the shield. Nice work, Caleb!)

tbeckett
(His son Kidrocket made a Wee Blinky and Lux Spectralis and he wore safety glasses.)

Trebonius
(Ben Tobin taught his little brother Nick how to solder and he made a Beetlebot... that worked!)

cincimakers
(Lucas takes the prize for this being his second soldering project, building a Drawdio - his first was a mini guitar amp he made for his grandmother. And he's wearing safety glasses.)

Irish Robotics Club
(Dave said we had to give it to them 'cause they're teaching grannies how to solder.)

That's our five. You all get a Maker's Notebook and a copy of either The Best of MAKE or The Best of Instructables. Send your name, address, and which Best of you prefer.

I'd also like to go ahead and give the same prizes to our two other soldering contestants: Digrat and JosiahRitchie. You all did a great job too! Congrats to all.

See all the MAKEcation photos here