Make: Online: Holiday projects Archives

Archive: Holiday projects

November 17, 2009

Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Santa Claus Machines

Santa's got the coolest tools. How else could he and his elves build all those gifts in time? Now, thanks to custom fabrication services, we can all get access to the Santa Claus Machines. From bespoke action figures, to interplanetary terrain models, from one-of-a-kind sneakers, to tailor-made machine parts, there has never been a better time to harness advanced fabrication tools to build objects of your own design! In this gift guide, we'll look at some of the leaders in the Santa Claus Machine revolution.

Big Blue Saw
If your gift plans call for something sturdier than wood or acrylic, you may need to move beyond laser cutters into a full-blown CNC machine shop. Enter Big Blue Saw. They have an intuitive browser-based CAD program where you can design your part, and then choose your material (aluminum, steel, etc.) and thickness. They'll fire up their water-jet machines, and in no time you'll have that rolled steel stocking stuffer in your hands.

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November 16, 2009

Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Toys for grown-ups

I'm old (never you mind the hard number). But I'm still a kid at heart and I love toys. And I'm not talking about motorcycles and cars and speed boats, aka "grown-up toys," I'm talking model rockets, radio-controlled anything, little toy soldiers, and board games. TOYS! The cool thing about being an adult, and being into the toys of youth, is that you've got a lot more money in your piggy bank! In this, our first Make: Gift Guide 2009, we'll look at a few top of the line traditional toys, with an emphasis on toys you build, mod, and hack. Please share with us in the comments what sorts of cool toys you'd like to see under the Christmas tree or Hanukkah bush this year.

Initiator Rocketry Starter Kit (Aerotech, MSRP: $299/$172 at Tower Hobbies)
Most every grown up geek remembers being a young geekling and building and flying Estes Rockets. If you haven't been paying attention, you may not know that hobby rockets have been growing, in power and size, ever since. And growing, and growing, and growing. Motors are designated in nearly every letter of the alphabet now (and each lettered motor is twice as powerful as the previous-lettered motor) and some rockets require teams to build them (and heft them to the launch tower -- and it's a tower, not a rod). AeroTech is one of the leading manufacturers of hobby rocket motors. Their Initiator Rocketry Starter Kit will launch you into this very grown-up hobby (where your credit card bills may get equally astronomical). The kit includes a launch system and a 3' 9" rocket that can handle motors E thru G. This starter kit usually costs $230 (w/ one motor), but Tower Hobbies has it for $172 (w/ no motors). Motors will cost you about under $20 each.

Novus CP Nano Sized 2.4GHz RTF Helicopter (Heli-Max, $220)
R/C cars, planes, and helicopters keep getting more sophisticated and more "real" by the year. Just as hobby rockets keep getting bigger, more powerful, and are closing in on the smaller, cheaper, faster bottom-end of commercial and governmental rocketry, hobby R/C is starting to look not that different from man-portable recon systems used in the military. In fact, that line has already been largely erased. New technologies and economies of scale are also allowing extremely sophisticated R/C vehicles to be offered at really affordable prices, such as with the Novus line of "nano-sized" helicopters.This Novus CP model shown here is actually the top of that line and capable of some pretty amazing aerobatics. Several cheaper models are also available, for as low as $125.

FPV Flying Systems
Long Range Ready to Fly FPV System (ReadyMadeRC, $4,500)
One of the more amazing things to come out of the R/C flying (and driving) world is FPV (First Person View) systems which use tiny cameras in the cockpits of model planes and wireless transmitters and receivers to send point-of-view video to a video monitor, or even a virtual reality-type head-mounted display, on the ground. This allows you to fly the plane like you're in the cockpit. Some FPV hobbyists have gone so far as to put instrument panels in the cockpits, displaying real-time flight information, so that you feel as if you're really flying the plane. With the VR rigs, when you move your head, the camera's POV moves with you. As you can imagine, this is not a cheap hobby to get into. You're adding wireless color video and virtual reality equipment on top of radio-controlled flying gear. The above $4,500 system, from ReadyMadeRC, includes the plane, the R/C gear, the FPV set-up, and everything else -- it comes ready to fly. FPVPilot is a great place to start exploring the FPV hobby.

Compound Oil Immersion Microscope 163 (Maker Shed, $820)
While most of the items in our guide are toys, not tools, we couldn't resist drooling over the new microscopes in the Maker Shed. I had two scopes as a kid, and had the greatest time exploring unseen worlds by peering through their eyepieces. This top-of-the-line microscope is trinocular. It has a third eyepiece so that you can attach a still or video camera to capture what you're seeing through the binocular eyepiece. This is a laboratory-grade microscope, with surprising features and high mechanical and optical qualities, at a hobbyist's price. Note that the other reason we have it in this gift guide is that you need to order the microscopes by December 3 to guarantee Christmas delivery. If you'd like some advice on what scope to choose, check out our "Choosing a Microscope" article in the Make: Science Room.

Gakken Kits
When I was a kid, model kits from Japan had an intense allure. They seemed (okay, they generally were) of much higher quality than American kits, and the instructions just looked so dang cool! Age has not diminished this impression and the popularity of the Gakken kits we carry in the Maker Shed prove that lots of people feel the same. These are unique and gorgeous kits that any tech enthusiast and kit-builder on your list will be thrilled to get. Above are the Sterling Engine Kit ($120) and the Vacuum Tube Radio Kit ($100, currently on sale for $86). The Gakken range is wide, from mechanical centipedes to tea-serving robots to retro 4-bit computers. See all the kits here.

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Make: Holiday Gift Guides 2009

Well folks, it's that time of year again. I know, I know! The holidays fill you with a heady mixture of excitement and dread, pleasure and performance anxiety. So many things to do, obligatory events to attend, a Santa-long list of presents to buy, embarrassing moments to witness at the company Christmas party, etc. We hear ya. But we don't have to tell you the upsides: the time off, the opportunity to take stock and give thanks for the bounty with which you've been blessed, the time spent with family and friends. And, let's be honest: the PRESENTS!

And, just as Halloween provides an opportunity for makers to go wild with costumes and decorations, there are plenty of opportunities over the next few months to indulge in your joy of making, whether it be handmade invitations and decorations for a party, an all-out Thanksgiving feast, or handmade gifts. If you need an excuse to set aside free time for making, here's your golden opportunity. You can tell yourself (and/or your spouse) you'll be saving money and the time and hassle of shopping. Even if you don't make the presents themselves, you can make the wrapping and gift cards. With a color printer and the vast image and idea libraries of the internets, the sky's the limit in terms of what you can create for wrapping paper and gift cards.

Over the course of the next few months, we'll be posting DIY gift, wrapping, and other holiday-related projects and ideas here on Make: Online. This would also be a good time to check out our sister site, CRAFT, for more creative holiday ideas.

If you don't want to go the DIY present route yourself, but want to give presents that encourage your gift recipients to make things, we've got you covered there, too. Over the next five weeks, we'll be running a series of gift guides geared toward makers, everything from expensive DIY toys for adults who refuse to grow up, to "interestingly dangerous" gifts, to gifts that go blinky-blink, to our massive annual round-up of open source hardware. These guides will be written by our usual Make: Online contributors, but we'll also be bringing on guest guiders, such as Bill Gurstelle, of Backyard Ballistics, Paul Overton, of DudeCraft, and Diana Eng, of Fashion Geek.

So, welcome to the holiday hustle. Try and take care of yourself, don't let yourself get too stressed out (remember: these are supposed to be holidays of joy and peace and family and sharing your love and your bounty), and please, use this as an opportunity to get creative. If you do make any presents, or wrappings, or cards, or anything else, please take pictures and share them with us in the MAKE Flickr pool.

November 11, 2009

How-To: Refined edge-lit holiday cards

Impress your friends and coworkers with these easy-to-make edge-lit holiday cards by Evil Mad Scientists Laboratories! This time around they used PETG polyester, which is easier to cut than acrylic.

More:

How-To: Make "edge-lit" holiday cards

November 5, 2009

Deluxe LED Menorah Kit from EMSL

You can get 'em from the Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories webstore. Update: Also available from The Maker Shed.

October 29, 2009

Minimalist nativity set

Halloween is so two days from now. Which might as well be last week on the internet. I'm moving on to Xmas. From Berlin artist Oliver Fabel. [via Neatorama]

October 28, 2009

Scary shifty servo eyeballs

Todbot is at it again. Here's a creepy, simple, and effective Halloween effect -- a pair of glowing eyeballs that look back and forth at your victims. It's made with two ping pong balls, two BlinkM programmable LEDs, three servomotors, and an Arduino microcontroller. Stick ti in a pumpkin, or better yet, incorporate it into your costume, and you've got maximum spookiness.

Head to the todbot blog for more info, and to download the Arduino sketch.

In the Maker Shed:

Arduino Duemilanove

Blinkm Row

BlinkM - Smart LED

October 22, 2009

Decade of homemade kid costumes

For years I didn't consider myself very creative. Sure, I always decorated the house for holidays, did crafty projects with my kids, refinished furniture, loved to try new recipes, and shunned store-bought costumes for what I think are way better homemade creations, but a crafter? Not really.

These days I'm trying to convince myself that I am indeed a crafter. And when you're surrounded by knitters, crocheters, professional seamstresses, painters, and soft-circuit mavens, you need lots of convincing! I recently went back through photos of the kids in their Halloween costumes that I've made, and gosh darn it, I am a crafter (of sorts). Enjoy the photos after the jump!

PS: Two of the costumes shown were store-bought, or mostly purchased at a store and then embellished with homey touches.See if you can spot them. And one of the boys is a former intern, not one of my kids, exactly.

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How-To: Make electric candles for Halloween

Dave Gugel, of Davenport FL, knows a thing or two about outdoor Halloween decorating. He does a wee bit of it each year (see above pic). Here, he offers a how-to on turning some PVC pipe, dribbles of hot glue, and flicker lights into some pretty convincing outdoor pillar candles.

Halloween Decorations: How to Make Electric Candles

October 14, 2009

Von Slatt's ghost

Every year, our pal Jake von Slatt does something pretty special for Halloween. Over at the Steampunk Workshop, he's showing some of this year's work in progress. Here's a ghost marionette that he made from some 1" x 2" planking, a microwave carousel motor, some fishing line, a craft store skull, and some Styrofoam.

Microwave Motor Flying Crank Ghost

October 12, 2009

New in the Maker Shed: FX Master Bundle - 5 DVDs

The FX Master Bundle includes all 5 of our Effects Master Class DVDs! Each DVD is 3 hours long and packed with lessons taught by professional artists, most of whom work in Hollywood at effects houses including Stan Winston Studio, Spectral Motion, KNB and Motion Picture F/X, and teach part-time at Los Angeles-area effects schools like Westmore Academy, Makeup Designory, FX School and USC.

Halloween Special: Use promo code "SAMHAIN" at checkout and receive FREE 3 day FedEx on our FX Master Bundle (contiguous US only)

September 25, 2009

"He did the MAME, he did the Monster MAME"

By way of the Steampunk Workshop comes this awesome classic horror-themed MAME cabinet by Doug Haffner. Doug is a fan of steampunk, Harper Goff (designer of Disney's Nautilus for 20,000 Leagues) and Kenneth Strickfaden (set designer and prop builder for Boris Karloff's Frankenstein). He decided to combine his love for all three in a MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) cabinet and home jukebox.

The work here is impressive, but especially cool are the Lithopane portholes on the sides, grayscale images of the Frankenstein monster and his bride CNC-carved into Corian plastic (used in counter tops). Once carved and back-lit, you get this cool glowing halftone effect.

Steampunk Arcade

September 23, 2009

MAKEcation: Teach Your Family to Solder winners!

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

September 22, 2009

Grid beams for Halloween props

Creatrope has posted an interesting discussion on the use of Phil Jergensen's reusable grid beam elements for Halloween props. I dunno how much I can get behind the whole gridbeamer thing just yet, but for seasonal stuff it does make a certain sense: If you like it a whole bunch, store it complete, and if you don't, take it apart and reuse the elements.

August 18, 2009

Hack your cooler: Other cooler hacks

OK, if you have your cooler but are already cold enough or don't plan to take it anywhere, here are a couple more ideas for what to do with it:

Having a party at night? Make it easy to find the right beverage by following vader119's directions and add a light to your cooler!

Trying to maintain an outdoor worm composting bin in the Texas heat? Instructables user coopdaddi shows how he added a water chiller and a fan to make his cooler a perfect place for worms!

Have the opposite problem, and need a way to keep your resin/RTV project warm while it cures? Why not convert your cooler into a low-temperature curing oven by following idmains instructions? Bonus points for adding a mechanism to control the inside temperature.

So, that's just about everything I can think of to do with a cooler. Have any last-minute ideas? Be sure to share them in the Comments for a chance at a prize!

More:

August 17, 2009

Hack your cooler: Mobilize it!

One really annoying thing about coolers is having to drag them around. It would be really nice, maybe, if they could follow you around. How about ...

Mounting it on your bike? Instructables user jofish demonstrates how.

Teach it to follow you around? A good starting point would be this Instructable by PSdp!

However, neither of these would help if you are stationary, so how about a remake of the infamous RC cooler?

What if you want to take your cooler someplace more exotic? How about building in some floats for that next rafting trip? Add ropes to hoist it into you tree house? Build a heliport on top and construct a drink delivering UAV? Share your ideas in the Comments!

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August 12, 2009

MAKEcation trebuchet bundle in the Maker Shed

The folks in the Maker Shed have put together a special bundle for our Family Challenge. The MAKEcation Trebuchet (Flingin' Things) Bundle contains Bill Gurstelle's book, The Art of the Catapult, our Mini trebuchet kit, and a Maker's Notebook. Read up on the history of this ancient weapon of war, build a lovely 4" x 9" x 14" (tall) wooden desktop model, and then use the Maker's Notebook to scale up your plans for your backyard version. The bundle is available for $40 ($39.97), deeply discounted from buying these items separately.

More:
The MAKEcation Family Challenge!
Let the MAKEcation solder-fest BEGIN!
MAKEcation Cooler Hacking Challenge

The MAKEcation Family Challenge!

Our final main event for MAKEcation 2009 is our "Family Challenge," as in the Hatfields vs. the McCoys, the Lancasters vs. the Yorks, the Macs vs. the PCs. Okay, we really don't want it to get that entrenched and bloody. It's not even that much of a proper competition (in the end, the winner many be judged by us on criteria like who looked like they were having the most fun, whose device looks the coolest, etc.). We want this to be all about the fun, getting your family together to work on a project, and to have a little friendly rivalry between maker clans.

So, what's the challenge? Build a backyard trebuchet! The family that builds our favorite, and sends us the documentation, will get a $100 gift certificate from the Maker Shed. Five runners up will get a Maker's Notebook and their choice of The Best of MAKE or The Best of Instructables. As with the soldering and cooler hacking challenges, we have a Camp Counselor to help with inspiration, advice, dos and don'ts. For the trebuchet, there's probably no better choice than our very own Bill Gurstelle. Bill is the author of The Art of the Catapult, Whoosh-Boom-Splat, and Backyard Ballistics. So he knows about flinging stuff through the air. Here, he explains the guidelines for the challenge:

Your MAKEcation family challenge involves building a medieval siege engine. When
it comes to putting the fun in physics, it's hard to top a homemade trebuchet. A trebuchet is a type of catapult or hurling machine that uses a counterweight to rotate a throwing arm. The arm, in turn, flings the projectile in an arc towards a target.

Trebuchets scale nicely and can range from table-top models sized to fling golf balls, up to the sixty foot high monster currently flinging boulders for tourists at Warwick Castle in
England.

Your MAKEcation family challenge is to get your clan together to build a gravity-powered hurling machine capable of tossing a five ounce projectile as far as possible, using a counterweight weighing no more than 25 pounds.

Send us a video of your machine in action and verify your results on the honor system. Swear that they are truthful and accurate, i.e. play fair, don't cheat.

Bill will shortly start doing some posts on the project on subjects like constructing a sling and choosing a catapult trigger. If you have any trebuchet building experience, ideas you're interested in trying out, or if you want to start talking smack about your genius clan in the comments, please do.

More:
Let the MAKEcation solder-fest BEGIN!
MAKEcation Cooler Hacking Challenge

August 11, 2009

MAKEcation pics: Teach your family to solder

We're starting to see some fine submissions to our Teach Your Family to Solder MAKEcation challenge. So far, it's been mainly kids -- very little kids. While we're thrilled that MAKE readers aren't Nanny State types who over-protect their children, we'd love to see some older kids, teens, and more grown-ups. We're still offering Maker's Notebooks to people who post their pics to the MAKE Flickr pool. So get to it!

MAKE pool member Digrat teaches his son Joseph how to solder a basic LED circuit.

The Irish Robotics Club ran a soldering workshop night, at Dublin's Science Gallery. Participants built Mitch Altman's Trippy RGB Waves kits.

Thomas Beckett writes of his son, "Kidrocket," almost six, learning how to solder:

Shortly after [his first soldering picture] was taken, he got a little burn and I thought that would be it for soldering for a few years. But tonight, with just a little coaxing, he was back at it. The Wee Blinky kit we obtained from Maker Shed made the process a little easier. He and I alternated soldering joints and finished it up in no time. His excitement and satisfaction when the blinker came on was priceless to see. He is more educated and empowered today than he was ten days ago.

Way to go, Kidrocket!

Josiah Ritchie taught his three year old daughter how to solder -- soldering form, anyway. He left the iron off, but tried to teach her a health respect for the iron, the danger of its heat, and the proper way to hold it. Nice form. What's she working on there?

More MAKEcation action:
Let the MAKEcation solder-fest BEGIN!
MAKEcation Cooler Hacking Challenge

August 6, 2009

Brainstorming cooler hacking ideas

Hi everyone! It's me, your friendly MAKEcation camp counselor Matt. Have you started your cooler hacking project yet? If not, here are some ideas to help get you started. Be sure to post your own ideas in the comments. We'll be giving away a Maker's Notebook and The Best of MAKE or Best of Instructables to the one we think is the most interesting. If you have any questions about the challenge, don't hesitate to send them to me at: campcounselor@makezine.com.

Temperature Monitor: Add a temperature display to keep you informed about how cool your refreshments are. If you plan to store perishable foods inside, how about an alarm to alert you before they spoil?

Increased Efficiency: Or, avoid the whole problem of heating all together by making your cooler more efficient. Going somewhere without shade? Try building in an umbrella holder, to keep those hot sun rays away from your vittles.

Solar Cooling: Instead of diverting the sun's rays, why not catch them with a solar panel and then use the energy to drive a thermoelectric cooling unit?

Mobility: Having trouble getting your cooler to your picnic location? Adding a motor so that you can drive it might be a bit extreme, but a simple set of wheels and a hitch would allow you to tow your cooler behind a bike. Don't feel like getting up to fetch your next drink? Cannibalize a toy car and finally build that remote controlled cooler.

Ok, now I want to go camping so I have an excuse to try all these things out!

Here are some other possibilities: