Make: Online: Green Archives

Green Archive: Green

July 3, 2009

Hardware chess sets

The tradition of improvising a chess set from whatever's on hand is probably as venerable as chess itself. Chess culture is chock-full of sets put together from odds and ends of every description, but here I'm only focusing on sets built from mechanical and electrical bits--mostly nuts, bolts, and washers of various flavors. If you've got a good one I missed, please do link it in the comments.

If you're interested in making your own and want some guidance, Mother Earth News has a nice tutorial.

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Make: Projects - Outlet-mount device charging pocket

Most cell phones are provided with a very basic wall-wart charger, and you usually have to pay extra for a proper charging dock. The bundled charger is often unsightly in use, being just a transformer with a cord strung out to an end table or something where the cell phone rests. If you have a cat who likes to chew through cords, as I do, this can be more than just inelegant--it can be totally impractical. It's also a good project if you just hate, for aesthetic reasons, loose power cords strung out across the furniture.

A similar product is for sale at ThinkGeek, and that's where I got the idea. The nice thing about my version is that it requires no tools to mount or demount, being suspended by the plug on the charger itself. So you can quickly move it around to whatever outlet you want or take it with you when you travel. Plus it costs all of nothing to build.

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July 2, 2009

How-To: Homemade sunscreen

Scoochmaroo shares this recipe for basic sunscreen free of the umpteen additives used in commercial varieties.

Sunscreen is intended to shield your skin from harmful UVA and UVB rays. These can cause premature aging, and more tragically, skin cancer. But commercial suncreens often involve more nasty chemicals than necessary.

By making your own sunscreen, you control exactly what goes in!

In addition to some natural oils and emulsifying wax, the ingredients list calls for either zinc oxide or titanium dioxide as a sun-blocking agent (both can be found from online suppliers). Read on for the how-to over @ Instructables

July 1, 2009

FedEx wine rack

From the MAKE Flickr pool

The Arkansasridgerunner pioneers the world of shipping chic with this sensible wine rack built from FedEx tubes. I do believe this would go quite nicely with my packing-peanut chaise lounge!

June 29, 2009

Sweet penny stove

We've covered these beer can stoves before, but this is a particularly nice one. And 'tis the season to be camping...

Penny Stove Instructions and FAQ [Thanks, Pete Marchetto!]

More:
Make a Pepsi Can Stove
A better soda can stove

Trash menagerie

~~Unfortunately, the artist behind these cool component-sculptures goes unnamed. Anybody know who it is?~~

These cool component-sculptures are the work of Ann P. Smith of Providence, RI. Thanks to Lithium Rain for providing us with her name and homepage.

More:

June 28, 2009

AIDG: water solutions

AIDG is a NonGovernmental Organization (NGO) that helps provide low technology solutions to help address environmental and health needs to people living in communities without great access to the systems that many of us consider requirements.

Here are a few of their water-based initiatives:

Solar Hot Water:

XelaTeco, with support from AIDG's wonderful interns, recently installed a solar water heating system and water tower for La Guarderia, a childcare center in Llanos del Pinal, Guatemala. La Guarderia was started by two non-profit organizations, Pop Wuj and Jóvenes Juntos, who saw the need for daycare and after school homework assistance in a community plagued by poverty, domestic violence and alcoholism.
Jóvenes Juntos requested the hot water system to promote healthy hygiene practices amongst the children served by center, particularly in the cold winter months. The presence of hot water is expected to reduce the occurrence of skin ailments, such as scabies and other rashes. This segment of the project was funded by AIDG.

Ram Pump:

As the water runs downhill from the source to the ram pump, it gains force and velocity. When this velocity reaches a determined point, the water closes a valve in the ram pump known as the "impulse" or "waste" valve. The force of the water against the now closed impulse valve causes pressure to build inside the pump. The water sends high-pressure shock waves in all directions (the "water hammer," or "ariete" in Spanish, from which the pump gets its Spanish name, "Bomba de Ariete"). These shock waves open another valve, the delivery check valve, and water squirts through reaching altitudes of up to ten times greater than the vertical distance from the water's source to the pump. An air vessel installed in the pump acts as a kind of regulator which keeps the flow at the top steady, instead of delivered in bursts, as the pump internally functions

Sand Filtration:

Properly managed sand filters remove 96%-98% of water borne pathogens such as E. Coli and Giardia, producing a positive significant impact on the health of target users. The greatest effect is expected for young children, who are extremely susceptible to diarrheal diseases caused by exposure to contaminated water. Diarrheal disease causes approximately 2 million deaths per year among children in developing countries.

The World Health Organization has some good documentation on sand filtration technology.

To find out more about AIDG, check out their blog and their photos.

June 27, 2009

Getting real with Physical Design

[Image from Shopbot Tools]

Daniel Smithwick has been working to develop a new model for architecture. Instead of building each structure as a custom object, people can use software and hardware to make repeatable designs that can be manufactured and assembled where and when they are needed.

He recently wrote an article on the Shopbot site to help explain his vision of design and manufacturing of housing and other objects.

Our company's vision is to revolutionize architectural design and production and to make these processes transparent by empowering consumers throughout the world with the online tools and resources that enable them to become the producers of their own creations.
Not only are there incredible inefficiencies in the current practice of design, fabrication and construction of architecture, but until now these processes have been limited to costly design professionals, wasteful manufacturing facilities and labor-intensive site work.

You may want to take a look at the Physical Design site for more information.

June 25, 2009

Thinking of building a solar still?

Build It Solar has a great collection of solar DIY projects, including stills, cookers, food driers, and water heaters. But the gem of their solar-distillation collection, for my money, is this paper, from 1985, by Horace McCracken and Joel Gordes. It's unformatted ASCII and black-and-white GIFs, but it provides a better review of the various designs of solar stills, and the theory that informs their design and operation, than anything else I've found in the tubes.

From the pages of MAKE:

If you're interested in all things solar, be sure to check out Parker Jardine's Solar Power System Design in MAKE 14.

More:

June 24, 2009

Blue wood exists!

OK, so it's not like smurf-blue, but still: Blue hardwood! It comes from Talipariti elatum, the so-called "Blue Mahoe" tree, which is native to the Caribbean and is, apparently, the national tree of Jamaica. Turns out it also grows very quickly and shows some promise for sustainable forestry. Lumber is available through Tropic Ventures.

PC case beehive

In response to my post of the clothes dryer chicken coop, Instructables author Alois sent us a link to his computer case beehive. The red jar lid on the front of the hive helps the bees find their way home. Who knew?

Computer case beehive

June 23, 2009

Clothes dryer chicken coop

Saw a piece on the news last night about the increase in urban chicken coops. Here's one quick n' dirty way of creating a coop for your birds. Just make sure some wiseguy doesn't plug it in to see if it still works.

Clothes Dryer Chicken Coop

How-to: Greenbox no-waste charging station

In this how-to Alberto Ricci Bitti shows you how to design a greenbox no-waste charging station for your mobile phone that will lower your utility costs and environmental impact. The simple and elegant design makes unplugging a power draining wall wart very easy and instinctive.

June 22, 2009

Puddle duck racer

Lucky, of Pizza Crusade, writes:

I saw your post on Tyvek sails, and immediately thought of the PDRacer (Puddle Duck Racer) - a little sailboat you can build for about $150 with tools most people already have. There's a ton of info out there, as well as info so you can get involved with a local group of PDRacers - or start your own group. I haven't built one yet, but can't wait to try my hand at it.

When I was a young teen, my dad had a 37' cabin cruiser for a while and I had a dinghy sailboat about this size (plastic). I loved that thing. This brings back fond memories.

PDRacer

June 19, 2009

Amphibious bike

Not sure how well it works, but from the pictures on Inhabitat, it does appear to at least... float. It's made from eight plastic water jugs. Wanes attached to the rear spokes provide power.

The DIY Floating Water Bike

Oil drum rocker

Nice retread of the familiar oil-drum-chair concept, which manages to actually connect the form of the drum and the function of the chair in a rational way. There are four rubber feet--two in front and two in back--and the arc between them can be adjusted to set how far the seat rocks, presumably all the way down to no rocking at all. The seat is made of "waxen smoked bamboo," which also happens to be the magical name of my hippie sister-in-law. Via Recyclart.

P.S. I'm collecting drum/barrel chairs in the comments. If you know of one we haven't mentioned, please to drop us a link!

More:

June 18, 2009

Coffin shelves

They've really been on a roll over at the Inhabitat blog lately. I've been admiring a lovely garden shed made out of recycled fencing that they recently featured, and now my new favorite post is about these ingenious (and cost effective) coffin shelves, dubbed Shelves for Life. Apparently they wrote about these shelves a few years back, but felt the need to, ahem, resurrect the story.

June 16, 2009

20-Watt Solar Panel - A Primer @ MAKE

Make Pt0401
Make Pt0402
20-Watt Solar Panel by Parker Jardine in Primer. With a few solar-cells and a plastic case, you can utilize the sun's energy to power anything from a light bulb to your entire house. Page 158 - MAKE 12. Read this article now in the MAKE digital edition.

Make Pt0403
Or get MAKE 12 from the Maker store and/or subscribe to MAKE (use code CMAKE for $5 off USD).

You can view all our in depth Primers from MAKE here too.

Solar Power System Design - A Primer @ MAKE
Solering and Desoldering - A Primer @ MAKE
HOW TO - Make printed circuit boards - A Primer @ MAKE
Welding - A Primer @ MAKE
Microcontroller Programming - A Primer @ MAKE
Sensor interfaces - A Primer @ MAKE
MIDI control - A Primer @ MAKE
Moldmaking by MythBuster Adam Savage - A Primer @ MAKE
Working with carbon fiber - A Primer @ MAKE

Upcycle CD iPhone Dock

So you've got a pile of spent CDs you'd rather not toss into a landfill and a shiny new iPhone 3GS in need of a dock. What are you going to do? Well, if you're like Jules over at Geeky Gadgets you're going to do the green thing and fabricate an upcycle dock using available materials, a little all purpose adhesive, and the ever-popular Dremel rotary tool.

[via GeekyGadgets]

In the Maker Shed:

In the Maker Shed: iPhone Hacks

June 15, 2009

Rock Art

"By the end of the 20th century and the millennium (1997), a new ecological and interactive art expression came into being which, combining elements and materials whose colors are 100% natural, exalts nature... Rock Art."

This is how Mario Balderas (Mexico) presents the beautiful and original art work he creates.

I am talking mainly of terracotta pots fired at high temperatures, with different kinds of cacti or crassulas and original designs made with sand, clay, earth, and semi-precious stones - the colors of which are all 100% natural - sealed with natural, transparent, and permeable resin. Besides the materials mentioned before, river stones, seeds, seashells, wood, and other materials are used as well.

These are semi-precious stones hand-ground with a hammer and sifted. All colors are natural.

Why Rock Art? It could be mixed up with what we commonly know as rock art - prehistoric drawings found on rocks or caves. But, in the case of these pots, the name is used in the sense that they are made with materials that have existed on this Earth perhaps for thousands of years, like sedimentary metamorphic stones which Mario collects in places that go from Valsequillo to the fossil desert of Tehuacan. Likewise, as in prehistoric times, the designs are an expression of the surroundings, of nature, and an example of how materials of all types found in nature are used to make a handicraft of infinite creative possibilities. It is a sensory work, of sensitivity more than technique.

The idea of making these pots emerged from Mario's interest and liking for cacti, which he acquires in specialized nurseries in Tlaxcalancingo and Tenango de las Flores, in the Sierra Norte of Puebla, near Huauchinango. (It is important to emphasize that, as a sign of respect towards our planet and nature, all the cacti that Mario uses are grown in nurseries and bought; not one of them is plundered.) Designing came later, little by little and as the result of a trial-error process, since Mario never studied anything that had to do with design, drawing or painting (he's a psychologist). It was an ability that he discovered having and that he developed and perfected with time, because "practice makes perfect".

Making these pots - or the gardens or the stones or the pictures - is a complete step-by-step process that goes from traveling to the places where the materials are, getting the pots made, sanding them down, painting them, planting the cactus, making and sealing the design, and finally selling them.

Pots with planted cactus and prepared "bed" drying in the sun to make the design on top afterwards.

Mario also builds these carriers to transport the pots.

This work has become Mario's life philosophy, a way of becoming aware and realizing his surroundings, of using his intellect, intuition, and common sense to make something that requires patience and all the creativity he's capable of, because each pot has a unique design that is not copied from anywhere or anybody else and is created one by one by the skillful hands of Mario, my father.

-Elena Balderas from Make: en Español