Make: Online: How it's made Archives

Archive: How it's made

October 21, 2009

Lego model of industrial pallet handler

OK, Jay, this clip takes a bit of set-up. Basically, it's a model of a factory-floor machine for moving pallets around a square assembly line. You put a pushing arm at each corner of the square and trigger them alternately in caddy-corner pairs. Some bright bulb figured out, however, that if you join two square tracks at one corner, you can do twice the work with only two more arms. Watch the intersection for a minute to confirm that the contents of the two square tracks are not mixed, which to me is counterintuitive. Here's a video of the simple, single-square case that apparently started the trend. [via The Automata / Automaton Blog]

October 18, 2009

Mark's violin update

Mark Williams' electric violin, which he has been building over the past few months, is nearly complete. Other than the neck and a few other items, the whole instrument has been scratch built, mostly at the Boston Fab Lab. He has a nice gallery of photos detailing the build.

I'm almost finished painting it, and I just string it all up for the first time since the project exposition to test out the new pickup magnets. It works GREAT! So amazing to play something I've built from the ground up. Just have to finish the fingerboard and bridge and then wait for the paint to finish curing so I can buff and polish it.

Most of the parts were designed in Open Office and cut on the lasercutter or Shopbot. To make his pickups, he created a magnet wire winder from lego parts and bench power supply.

Mark is a student at RIT and has been a youth leader in the Learn 2 Teach/Teach 2 Learn program operated out of the South End Technology Center with the help of the MIT Media Lab.

October 14, 2009

Very small hollow metal spheres

Tiny metal spheres are needed for tiny ball valves and tiny ball bearings, which are needed for all kinds of miniaturized machines. Hollow spheres are lighter, and thus have less inertia, and thus can be made to move faster in these very small applications, where response time is often critical. But how do you make a hollow metal sphere 2mm across? Turns out you can do it with one of the lost foam processes I'm always going on about. Tiny styrofoam beads are first coated with fine metal powder and a binder, then heat-treated to evaporate both binder and bead, leaving only a fragile hollow metal powder shell, which is then sintered into a continuous shell at higher temperature. Read more over at Science Daily.

October 3, 2009

The Mummy's "Book of The Dead" prop

We recently had a question from a reader about this prop. "Connie" wrote in wanting to know how to replicate the mechanism that, in the movie, is used to unlock The Book's cover. Never having seen The Mummy, I went into research mode and enqueued it from Netflix. Then I watched it. Big mistake.

But, you know, to each his or her own. And "The Book of the Dead," with its ornate clasps and intricate star-shaped key, is admittedly an awesome prop. The scene Connie is referring to, I believe, occurs at almost exactly one hour into the "Deluxe Edition" cut of the film, and shows the intrepid but remarkably foolish archeologists inserting the aforementioned star-shaped key into a correspondingly star-shaped opening in the book's cover, turning it, and thereby releasing the spring-loaded cover clasps and, with them, all manner of unpleasant whatnot.

So I started Googling around, looking for ~~dweebs~~ enthusiasts that might have already built such a thing. And while I did not find any working mechanical replicas of the prop, I did discover the remarkably beautiful static replica shown in the photo at the top of this post by Jeff Stelter of Stelter Creative Woodworks.

I also found this video by YouTuber oneandonlyJadedMonk showing his working mechanical replica of the star-shaped key used to open the book. Connie, if you're looking for a real expert, I think this might be the man to talk to.

But as for completely working cover locks, I'm afraid I have to admit defeat. Having watched the scene a few times, I'm completely confident that a suitable lockwork could be designed and built, but actually doing either is well above my pay grade. But something I've learned writing for this blog is what an incredible resource the MAKE readership can be, and so I'm going to throw the question out to them.

How 'bout it, folks? Anybody know how this thing works? Or know of somebody's who has built one? Or, even better, know anything about the original prop?

Make: Halloween Contest 2009

Microchip Technology Inc. and MAKE have teamed up to present to you the Make: Halloween Contest 2009! Show us your embedded microcontroller Halloween projects and you could be chosen as a winner.

October 1, 2009

My people call them maize mazes

Cool post over on Hack-A-Day about corn maze entrepreneur Scott Skelly, shown above with his trusty GPS-enabled riding lawn mower. Scott explains his maize-maze-making process thusly:

A maze starts as nothing more than a large field of corn. The design is created using a computer, then translated into GPS coordinates by fitting it into a field whose outline coordinates were previously captured on foot. Once the field coordinates are reconciled with the map design the data is used in one of two ways; the routes can be made by tilling under a path when the corn is very young, or more commonly it is cut lawn-mower-style when the corn is anywhere from knee-high to full grown. This corn-meets-satellite hack makes for a whole lot of fun!

September 25, 2009

Fancy shmancy Coke can of the future

Never happen! But it's neat looking, and it uses some impressive sounding industrial process called "impact extrusion," and its proving to be a pretty effective advertisements for its designer Dzmitry Samal. [via Gizmodo]

September 17, 2009

Straw-bale house construction timeline

Peter Maltzan is building a passive solar straw-bale house, and has been at it since October of 2008. He's done a great job of documenting the construction process, which is now nearly complete, in photographs. Highly recommended if you want to get a feel for how it all goes together. Thanks to MAKE subscriber Pete Marchetto for suggesting the link.

DIY plastic bag soccer ball

If you have a game, but no ball, and the closest sporting goods store is miles away, what are you going to do? Make one, of course! Check out this video to learn how to make a soccer ball using plastic bags and other readily available items.

[via afrigadget]

September 14, 2009

How cranes are erected

Check out these animations of cranes being erected, one even erects itself! And for a little crane game fun, check out Crane Wars.

August 31, 2009

Stay tab chain maille tutorial

Back in March, Becky posted a link to a lampshade I made using this technique. Instructables user quixotiCfluX has posted a great tutorial showing the details of the process. He uses a cool trick with a staple remover to make sure all the tabs have exactly the same bend, which results in very uniform maille.

August 28, 2009

Brooklyn knifemaker talks shop & process

Sam Brown points out this video visit to the workshop of high-end knifemaker Joel Bukiewicz. It's a nice little documentary that avoids rushing through the topic, covering a bunch of excellent details from an otherwise private, happily-obsessive process. Plus Joel gives his take on some aspects of the craft few know about. Some more info over @ CHOW.

Related:

How knives are made

August 24, 2009

The making of a flash drive

We've seen plenty of creative USB flash drive rehousings in the past, but the above vid from NetbookNews gives a peek into the original manufacturing process for the popular device. Hmm - would be kind of neat if the drives were also available caseless. [Thanks, Sascha!]

August 21, 2009

How things are(n't) made

Tired of informative videos that explain exactly how different kinds of consumer devices are made? Then you will love this "instructional" video by YouTube user HowThingsAreMade!

[via Creative Synthesis]

August 15, 2009

Rain gutter cable management

Wondering what to do with that snake farm under your desk? Check out this rain gutter solution. Nice and neat. Via Kat on Twitter.

August 13, 2009

How-to: Whittle a ball-and-cage

Terry Trier has written a good tutorial on carving this classic whimsy from a single piece of wood.

August 10, 2009

Pedal-powered apple grinder

From the MAKE Flickr pool

Concrete-jungle.org shares pics of this human-powered apple munching machine, constructed for their annual Ciderfest -

Aluminum tube mounted on elevated plywood frame, with space underneath for a 5 gallon bucket to catch apple pomace.

1" shaft through the tube, with a 25lb flywheel and 18t bicycle freewheel mounted on flange bearings.

Mmmm ... I do loves me some cider! If you're in the Atlanta area, be sure to check out Ciderfest on Saturday Sept. 5 - looks like a good time!

August 7, 2009

How-To: Glassworking techniques for bottles

Mike Firth is a hobby glassblower in Dallas, Texas. His site includes a great page on a variety of techniques that can be applied to reclaimed glass bottles, including several methods of cutting them. The site also describes more exotic bottle-working techniques like slumping, stretching, drilling, and blowing out.

August 4, 2009

Absinthe and "interestingly dangerous"

Bill Gurstelle is a Contributing Editor for MAKE magazine. His most recent book is entitled Absinthe & Flamethrowers: Projects and Ruminations on the Art of Living Dangerously. You can follow Bill on his danger-quest at twitter.com/wmgurst. He is a guest Make: Online author for the month of August.

Thanks to Gareth and all my Maker Media associates for giving me this opportunity to author some articles online. My new book, Absinthe & Flamethrowers, contains a number of projects that I think most makers will find interesting. It's probably worth noting that there are sections on making and doing stuff that, well, may seem a little dangerous to some.

Note the adjective "little." There's a difference between interestingly dangerous and crazy dangerous. I believe the content of my book falls within bounds of the former. Part of the reason I wrote it was to explore the spirit of courageous discovery that filled the lives of people like Thomas Edison, Amelia Earhart, Francis Crick, and Gordon Moore.

Read their biographies and you'll find out that these people worked on the edge, and prospered by doing so. Sometimes making things involves a bit of risk and I think many of the best makers embrace that and know the boundaries between cool and crazy. So, I've included projects there such as making your own gunpowder, chemical rockets, and yes, even a flamethrower.

One of the sections is on the art and science of enjoying absinthe, the wormwood-based alcoholic beverage that was deemed too dangerous for regular people to consume and made illegal in most of the world for nearly a century. But now, it's back, and becoming very popular once again.

One way of enjoying absinthe is to drip water onto a sugar cube carefully positioned on a slotted spoon over a glass of absinthe. Hardcore absinthe devotees typically use a fountain that looks like this.

absinthenyc sized.jpg
Being a frugal maker, I built the water dripper in the photo (it's called a "fountain" by absinthe connoisseurs.) It issues two precisely controlled drips of very cold water. The drops fall on a sugar cube which slowly dissolves into the absinthe. This is the approved method of tempering one's absinthe (most people won't want to drink the stuff straight - it's usually 120 proof or more.) As the sugar water falls into the absinthe, it undergoes the famous color change called the "louche," prized by absinthe imbibers, turning from clear green to a milky opalescence.

absintheft resized.jpg
I made the fountain in a couple of hours from clear PVC, type L copper tube, and two small gate valves. I found the gate valves at the local hardware store for a couple of dollars each. The copper tube is sealed with epoxy into the PVC water chamber and the gate valves attach via compression fittings.

A votre sante!

July 30, 2009

Ask MAKE: EPS foam

Ask MAKE is a weekly column where we answer reader questions, like yours. Write them in to becky@makezine.com or drop us a line on Twitter. We can't wait to tackle your conundrums!

Dan writes in:

How are big closed cell polystyrene bocks made? I've seen them 12" square and about 8' long.

Expanded polystyrene foam (EPS or Styrofoam) is made from pellets of polystyrene, which is a plastic made from crude oil. The pellets are expanded in a steam chamber. You can find these pellets in this form inside most beanbag chairs. To make solid objects, they use steam molds that fill a chamber with the pellets, then steam fuse them into custom packaging, foam drinking cups, etc. Here are a few videos I found on the topic; one's on Planet Green, the other one is a segment on Discovery's How It's Made:

Polystyrene is lightweight and good for protecting valuables in shipping, among other things, but it's not biodegradable. It can, however be recycled. I found a video on Planet Green where they turn styrofoam packaging into moulding for your house. Neat! Also, don't forget to check out the Wikipedia page on polystyrene foam.

More:

Styrobot built by father & son (pictured above)
Styrofoam chandelier
Moldable plastic from styrofoam
Hot wire foam cutter

July 29, 2009

Intern's Corner: Hammer (machining) time!

MAKE: Intern's Corner
Every other week, MAKE's awesome interns tell about the projects they're building in the Make: Labs, the trouble they've gotten into, and what they'll make next.

By Eric Chu, engineering intern

Hammers have been used for millions of years, evolving from a primitive stone tool to the combinations of metals, woods, and plastics commonly seen today. Here's my version in solid steel.

I made this steel hammer in my beginner's manual machining class, for the class final. This is no ordinary hammer. It's roughly twice the weight and size of a normal hammer, so it has lots of power behind it when swung! I made it using a manual lathe and utilizing most of the lathe's tools. Check out my results:

The hammer is actually made of 2 parts: the head and the handle.