Propaganda flick from the National Association of Manufacturers, but it's fascinating stuff!

Delightfully clever marketing gimmick from designer Matt Braun, who's made a beer label printed with a scale showing the relationship between the level of liquid in the bottle and the note that it makes when you blow across the top. Apparently Matt actually brewed a small batch of "Tuned Pale Ale," and, thanks to the massively positive response his clever label is getting, has plans to brew some more. You can sign up at his website to be notified when it's available for purchase, or you could try tuning some bottles of your own. Once you've figured out the levels for the notes, why not etch the scale into the glass?

More:

• Reblown bottle glasses
• Cool glass bottle lamp
• Guitar slide from glass bottle
• How-To: Custom beer bottles
• How-To: Knap an arrowhead from a beer bottle

This audio sequencer from Damien Kee can be made with a standard LEGO NXT 2.0 kit and includes software and PDF instructions. [Thanks, Damien!]

Jeremy May's jewelry made from books -

Paper is many things: a carrier of text, illustration, history and emotion.

Jeremy May has captured the beauty of paper via a unique laminating process. Littlefly jewellery is made by laminating hundreds sheets of paper together, then carefully finishing to a high gloss. The paper is selected and carefully removed from a book, and the jewellery re-inserted in the excavated space.

Each piece is impossible to replicate, and is unique to the wearer. The beauty of the jewels extends within the piece: text and images pass all the way though the object, only exposed at the surfaces – giving a tantalising glimpse of the book within.

Homebuilt meat smoker texts your phone when the meat is ready! - Gadget Freak Case #170: Smoking Permitted, but Bring a Roast...

Peter Rauch used a proportional-integral-differential (PID) controller that modulates electrical power to a heating element to create a home-built electronic meat smoker. A touch-screen display let him manage the controller set point and control-loop parameters. A J-type thermocouple in the top of the smoker provides a voltage signal so the feedback loop can control the smoker's temperature. A second sensor, which reads meat temperature, is used only for monitoring and alarms. A user can enter a desired meat temperature, and receive an alert via a text message when the temperature reaches a preset value. Additionally, when the temperature reaches this setpoint, the controller can 'hold' the meat at a preset temperature to avoid overcooking it until you can remove it.

While in town for the Kansas City Mini Maker Faire, we had the chance to visit the HMS Beagle, which is a gem of a science store located in nearby Parkville. Started by John and Carol Kuhns, they stock an impressive range of geeky equipment, from telescopes to model rockets, rock tumblers, and Arduinos. In addition, they also host science club meetings, star gazing parties, fossil digs, and other fun-sounding activities. If that isn't enough, they are also the home of Make: KC, an enthusiast group for Makers that meets in their shop on Tuesdays.

If you're ever in town, I'd definitely recommend checking the place out, and perhaps even catching a workshop! John took the time to show us around and give us a tour, and here are some of the things I spotted on the shelves:

Chemicals galore, for doing serious science experiments, making fun explosions, and mixing custom fragrances,

lots of good looking glass for chemical experimentation,

fish fossils that the proprietors found and prepared by hand,

and even a friendly guard dog!

Citizen Scientists: Show us your Erlenmeyer flasks, your test tubes, your centrifuges, your stereomicroscopes, your mutant science experiments, yearning to be free. It's Citizen Science month here on MAKE, an opportunity for us to feature a lot of the science content from the magazine and here online, a chance for us to collaborate with people who are leading the charge on citizen science initiatives, and a chance for us to share some great science how-tos on Make: Projects.

If you're a maker doing citizen science ( or have a group doing science), have a science project, or have any desires for what you'd like to see us cover, please let us know. This is an exciting and growing area of making and we're looking forward to spending a month celebrating it.

With the exception of my couch, every piece of furniture in my home is something I built, or heavily modified, myself. This is both a source of personal pride and a bit of a pain, because if I want more furniture for whatever purpose, I'm sort of obliged, at this point, to build instead of buying. My mattress has been on the floor for years, but lately I've been thinking it's time to commit to building a bedframe. Which is why this solid, minimalist, simple-tools design by Instructables user wholman caught my attention. It's an entry in their ongoing Woodworking Contest.

More:

• CNC plywood furniture
• HOW TO - Furniture quality laptop stand
• Trees grown into furniture
• DIY: Pipe furniture
• DIY: Reupholster your old furniture

Mark Rehorst has an excellent set of instructions on how to build your own Van de Graaff generator. What's that, you say? Well, a Van de Graaff generator is a device capable of producing high voltages by collecting electrostatic charges on a large metal sphere. Basically, its a fun and relatively safe way of creating high voltages, which can then be used to do things like make peoples hair stand up, or power particle accelerators.

More:

• HOW TO - Make a 120,000 Volt Van De Graaff generator
• Van de Graaff generators and CD/DVD drives -videos!
• Magic wand levitates objects for fun, profit?

When NYC Resistor's Chris Fenton wanted a Cray, he wasn't talking about a casemodded PC. No, he really wanted his own Cray. His exhaustively-researched machine simulates the functionality of one of the old-school supercomputers, to the point where he's researching old Cray resources looking for programs to run -- apparently you can't exactly download Centipede for the Cray off the Internet, who knew?

No hackerspace is complete without it's own rockin' supercomputer - and when a Gibson isn't available, a Cray-1 will have to do. My 1/10-scale, binary-compatible Cray-1 is finally done! This project took a long time (almost as long as my infamous electromechanical computer, or *gasp* the MegaScroller), but it's done. And it's awesome. NYCR now has its own Cray-1A, complete with wrap-around pleather sitting area. Eat your hearts out fellow hackerspaces!

Brave hackers take note, Chris has made his working files available on his site. [Via NYC Resistor]

From the Shapeways blog:

Congratulations to Improbablecog whose Kickstarter project has already reached 101% funding with 7 days still left to go. This is a win win win win situation where:

• The backers get a little something from Improbablecog, depending on their level of investment from a sticker to a custom designed piece of jewelry.
• Noah gets an influx of cash, gets his name out there for an innovative approach to the business of design and is freed up to produce more cool designs.
• Three of his most popular designs are set free, for everyone to modify, mash up, resell, print by the one or by the dozen, or insert into their game, movie, or art.

Shapeways can now 3D print three of Improbablecog's designs for the cost of material only....

Adam Richard Cooper built this hand-cranked model of a classic mechanical governor--which, as MachinistBlog succinctly put it "regulates the speed of steam engines by acting as a negative feedback system"--and made the dimensional drawings and build notes freely available for download at his site. I like the idea of a hand-cranked governor model, particularly, because it provides tactile feedback of the device's purpose: You crank it faster, it gets harder to crank.

Opening at the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago on Friday:

STREET ANATOMY - a group exhibition focusing on representations of human anatomy in contemporary art and pop culture

On view will be works that incorporate anatomical imagery in a variety of mediums, including painted skateboards, street art, and cast dark chocolate, by artists from across the US and abroad, as well as a photo gallery of anatomical tattoos.

The exhibition will feature nine artists representative of the label-defying figures involved with this movement:

• David Foox
• Emilio Garcia
• Stephen J Shanabrook
• Jason Freeny
• Noah Scalin
• CAKE
• Robyn Roth
• Heather Tompkins
• Ryan Gerdes

STREET ANATOMY
September 3 – November 19
Opening Reception Friday, September 3, 5-9 pm
International Museum of Surgical Science
1524 North Lake Shore Drive Chicago, IL

• Visible anatomy toy
• Think Anatomy learning site
• Anatomical Merit Badges

Another day, another cool-sounding Kickstarter project. This one is titled E1: synthetic intelligence, open source.

E1 is an inexpensive open source hardware kit in the same theme as the Arduino--for bringing synthetic intelligence to electronics projects. We've made tremendous progress over the past year, but now we need your help to get it manufactured.

A while ago we realized even the most powerful microcontrollers are just too limited for complex machine learning tasks. At the same time, we weren't interested in all the overhead of a processor and OS. We wanted something right in the middle, made for the task, to coordinate between our sensors, locomotion, and the user. E1 is a custom core embedded within an FPGA. It requires no PC to use or train, is thoroughly flexible, and completely open.

Here's how it works. Attach inputs like cameras, microphones, and sensors--and output mechanics, like servos, actuators, or motors. E1 starts out in an untrained state, but can receive reward and punishment with a remote. It can also detect some set of behaviors, like facial expressions. Over time E1 not only learns what you teach it, but learns the conditions that lead to reward and punishment and so when it should reward or punish itself.

Surprisingly complex behaviors are possible with the combination of simple training and the sensory analytics done by the E1. And all of these details are handled out of your way, from signal decoding to feature detection. Tap the outputs via the header pins on the board itself, or let E1 talk to your outputs for you.

See more on the project website. (Note that the Kickstarter funding goal must be met by 9/6... good luck with that!)

If you'd like to get more control over you flash and a regular bounce card doesn't cut it, then try this handy DIY FlashBender by Bob Jordan. [Thanks, Udi!]

Dimitri Tsykalov's amazing fruit carvings... via NOTCOT.

more info, including the opportunity to download the code and play with it yourself!

Like modeling your projects using Sketchup, but wish that you could go one step further and see if they work before spending time printing them? Well, you might want to have a look at Sketchyphysics. It's a physics simulator that you can use to put your creations to life, and presumably work out the bugs before committing to a physical version. We mentioned it back in 2007, however it's new to me. [via Lets Make Robots]

Lego custom armorer BrickArms caught the Tron bug with these beautiful glow in the dark Lego-compatible discs!

Inspired by TRON - my all time favorite movie of the 80's, I designed and injected this glowing disc in the style of the identitty discs from TRON Legacy.

It is injected with glow-in-the-dark ABS, and then overprinted it in black with my solvent inkjet.

It is only a PROTOTYPE. Please do not ask when it will be available for sale.

Alexander Augusteijn takes high-speed photography up a notch with these photos of bullets shooting through droplets of water. Apparently all that is involved is lots of careful timing. [via Laughing Squid]

More:

• Coilgun projectile photography
• Bullet impacts at 1,000,000 frames per second
• Exploding capacitors in high speed
• High speed glass breakage
• High-speed photo gallery
• Arduino photo lightning trigger
• Arduino flash trigger

I have a real weakness for modeling magazines. I rarely build models anymore, but I frequently pick up magazines about the hobby, especially military and figure modeling mags, to ogle all of the amazing kits and finished models. I love all of the stuff that's being done in the custom, small-production resin and vinyl models and scratch building.

I'm at the Maker Media offices this week and found a copy of Model Cars Magazine on one of the worktables. I've never been a "car guy," but it was really fun to go through the issue (from January 2010) and see what the car model kit industry and hobby are up to these days. As in other areas of modeling, specialty kits are big, vintage kit comebacks, impressive scratch building, and stunning levels of finishing and detailing of kits, are all in evidence.

In this issue, one of the articles I got the biggest kick out of was on the AMT Ford Levacar kit, a promo kit version of the late 1950s Ford concept car that was straight out of The Jetsons. The Levacar kit even levitated! It had plastic tubes that you blew into to raise the car. The model, packaging, everything is to die for. Here's the page about the Levacar kit from Fantastic Plastic:

Subscriptions to Model Car Magazine are $34.65 for nine issues.

Model Car Magazine

Well, OK, it's actually a prosthesis. And I stole the Terminator joke from Minnesotastan over at Neatorama. This object is one of literally thousands of remarkable items in the online Brought to Life exhibit at the UK's Science Museum, where it is labeled, apparently incorrectly, as a "right" arm. What is it with surgeons confusing left and right appendages?

More:

• Open Prosthetics on Thingiverse
• Bionic feet becoming reality
• Plastic soda bottle prosthesis

In response to the Arduino pong post from a few days ago, SynOptx shared their 2-player PONGuino game. Rather than using a television for a display, they opted to go with an LCD display mounted on an s65 shield. Looks like fun!

Super Awesome Sylvia (and her equally super-awesome parents, TechNinja and CraftNinja), quite frankly, gives me hope for humanity. We had the best time working with them on the special Mini Maker Show series they did for us, for our Kids month theme, and we can't stop smiling after looking at one of Sylvia's videos. Definitely a maker star on the rise.

In this, the third episode of their regular Sylvia's Super-Awesome Maker Show, Sylvia shows you how to do two basic Arduino projects. Can anybody still be intimidated by the idea of messing around with microcontrollers and basic electronics after seeing this video? C;mon... it's child's play! Great job, Sylvia!

Super Simple Arduino - Sylvia's Super-Awesome Maker Show: Episode 03

More:

• Sylvia's Super Awesome Mini Maker Show: Rockets
• Sylvia's Super Awesome Mini Maker Show: Crazy putty
• Sylvia's Super Awesome Mini Maker Show: Sidewalk Chalk

Just add laser and camera!

The MakerScanner is a completely open source 3D-scanner and the perfect complement to a MakerBot or other 3D printer. Every one of the scanner's plastic parts can be printed on a MakerBot or other 3D printer!

A band saw box makes a fun and satisfying beginner's woodworking project, and Instructables user Wood Chuck has a great tutorial to set you up for success.

A trowel is such an inexpensive tool, it's hard for me to imagine making my own for anything besides the experience of making and having made it myself. Still, I can see why someone might want to make this one described by Instructables "PVC whisperer" Thinkenstein: It starts from ubiquitous scrap material, looks good, and is made using an unusual process that involves softening PVC pipe under heat (a delicate trick, safety wise) and forming it by hand.

More:

• Bee hive in a bucket
• How-To: Human powered laundry
• How-To: PVC fruit picker

This recycled rubber sink, called RUBBiSH by its creators at Minarc, is made from melted car tires. As Core77 points out, the thin, flexible sheet makes for an exceedingly lightweight sink.

Darrel Anderson of Bon Accord, AB, created this geeky trivet as the first project with his new Mark 3 CNC.

This is a trivet, in other words a thing to put a hot pot on. The design is a hilbert curve, actually 4 hilbert curves connected to make the one continuous line. The wood is cherry. I really like cherry because of how well it sands to a glossy finish.

Spotted at Marcello Pizzaria & Ristorante in Vancouver by Adam Lindsley of This is Pizza. [via Neatorama]

More:

• How-To: Build a temporary wood-fired pizza oven
• Pizza cutters of the gods
• HOW TO - Pizza earth oven
• Make a pizza box solar oven
• Homemade pizza cutters
• DIY Brick Pizza Oven

My son got one of the Emotiv headsets as a college graduation present. It's pretty amazing tech, early-adopter gear, for sure, but with tons of potential. He's already coming up with ideas for game designs and art installations controlled by it (he has a degree in game design). In this video, Robert Oschler, of Robots Rule, uses his Emorate software to demonstrate the power of "affective computing," using computers to detect and react to human emotions. Here he uses various emotional responses to index, bookmark, and navigate a video using the Emotiv headset and Emorate.

Emorate

More:
Controlling a robot with the Emotiv EEG headset

My friend Johngineer took some great photos of Maker Faire Rhode Island this past weekend, enjoy!

But wait, there's more! Photos from Brian Jepson as well!

MAKE subscriber James Jamison writes in to share his DIY rudder pedals. Wanting to add a bit more realism to a flight simulator, but not willing to spend much on a set of pedals, he was able to whip up a workable solution using some hardware and an old joystick. Looks good to me!

Here's a delightful video of each of the presenters at the Kansas City Mini Maker Faire, by Roger Dodger Aviation. They write:

This was a first for Kansas City. Dozens of exhibitors displayed a wide variety of science, art, craft, DIY, and maker projects. We had stuff for kids like the paper rocket launch, mini-building blocks, soldering lessons, hacking happy meal toys, beginner robots and more. For big kids we had CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines, an electricity-spitting Tesla coil, a replica working submarine, 3D printers, big rockets, big robots, a cable-climbing space elevator, 3D scanners, a thermal electricity generator and more. The event was held on August 22, 2010 and we're hoping for an even bigger event next year. Thanks to all the sponsors, exhibitors, businesses and volunteers that made the KC Mini-Maker Faire a success!

In addition to producing the above video, they also assembled a list of each of the presenters at the Faire. If you're interested in any of the above projects, you can check them out here:

Make Magazine
Make:KC
Cowtown Computer Congress
Main Street Parkville Association
HMS Beagle Science Store
Clayco Electric
Kauffman Foundation
Greater KC Chamber of Commerce
KC Space Pirates
Argonaut Jr.
Metro Homeschool Robotics
Hack Art Lab
Kansas City Robotics Society
Roger Dodger Aviation
I, Bioloid
Drink Bot
STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) Society
Wii Labyrinth
Robotic Golf Table
Habitat for Humanity ReStore KC
KC Association of Rocketry
Orange Grapes
Glow Doodle
Github
SCOPE
Versonova
SprayPaintArt
DIY Security Screwdrivers
Hallmark Christmas Ornaments
Remote Control Nerf Turret

More:

• Scenes from the Kansas City Mini Maker Faire
• Announcing: Kansas City Mini Maker Faire 2010
• Playable Mini Drumset rocks out in cars, on roofs

Fjr of Mobile, AL, wanted to build a trebuchet. He soon discovered that it was a huge hassle because the parts he could find weren't compatible with each other.

I was talking to my brother and as I talked I was frustrated at how hard it was to build things. The biggest problem in my opinion is, everytime I want to build something, it pretty much always involves some kind of shafts.

Shafts have several functions:
1. They hold components where they need to be. But they also need to be held in place on the shaft.
2. Shafts give various components a common rotational axis.
3. Shafts transmit motion from one component to another.

If you want to place a component on a shaft and have it perform reliably, it needs to be held in place on the shaft. If you want a component to spin smoothly, then you need a bearing placed on your shaft. The bearing needs to have the same inner diameter as the shaft's outer diameter, within a few thousandths, if not things will vibrate and wobble and all kinds of problems. Most shafts get stacked on with a different diameter for each component. Thats alot of custom machining.

I don't have the resources to machine custom shafts each time I have an idea, and I'm not alone in not having them.

What's needed is a standard, a system.

Fjr created a number of possible parts to his "Simplified Mechanical System," including the two above. What do you think, readers? Do we need a series of standard components for maker projects? Leave a comment.

We tweeted a link to these on our Make_Tips channel, but I thought they were worth reposting here. Strung here are most of the pearls of wisdom needed to be successful in ye ol' art of soldering:

I. Thou shall not remove tip from soldering iron when power is "On." Causes heating element to rise in temperature to approximately 1300 F resulting in thermal shock and reduced heater life.

II. Thou shall maintain a damp (NOT drenched) iron sponge (preferably with de-ionized water). A drenched sponge will bring the temperature of the tip down too drastically, causing thermal shock and reduced tip life.

III. Thou shall not disconnect soldering iron from base unit when power is turned "On." Disconnecting or reconnecting the soldering tool from the base unit with power applied may cause a short between non-compatible pins resulting in damage to the base unit or pencil.

IV. Thou shall maintain a coating of solder on working area of soldering iron tip. Protects the tip from oxidation.

V. Thou shall never drop soldering iron while heated. Dropping the soldering tool while heated may cause thermal/mechanical shock to the heater, sensor, or tip (fractured plating).

Ten Commandments of soldering

Image by soldering superstar Randy Sarafan.

More:
All of our soldering coverage on MAKE

Willow Brugh, of Seattle's Jigsaw Renaissance, sent us word of this new org, Geeks Without Borders. In the above video from Gnomedex, Johnny Diggz explains the origins of the idea. Right now, they're looking for folks to spread the word to other geeks who might be interested in being involved and they're traveling to hackerspaces to try and drum up support.

Geeks Without Borders (GWOB.org) is an international humanitarian organization of geeks and their technology-friendly friends, working together to assist people whose survival is threatened by lack of access to technology and communications due to violence, neglect, or catastrophe.

We want to have the bases of operation for GWOB be hacker and maker spaces across the world.

BTW: The official launch date for the organization is 10.10.10 at 10:10am PST (1:10pm EST)

Geeks Without Borders

Update: We got an email from Paul Luther, who's the director of another org called Geeks Without Borders, that's been around since 2002. Shame that there has to be a conflict/controversy over the naming of an altruistic group. Hope this can be amicably worked out:

One of our board members is an avid follower of makezine.com and just noticed your article titled "Geeks Without Borders," which we are concerned about as it represents our long-established non-profit organization as a new endeavor by someone unaffiliated with us.

It would be nice if you post a correction to the article pointing out that Geeks Without Borders is not new, or related to Mr. Johnny Diggz, who is not affiliated with the official 501(c)3 organization Geeks Without Borders.

Although his mission sounds good, and we wish him the best of luck, using our name misrepresents his organization as ours, and that's not helpful to either organization.

Pat Luther
Director, Geeks Without Borders

Update to the Update: The parties involved are going to talk to each other, I understand. Hope it all works out.

Bob Davis, whom some of you may remember for his high-voltage can crusher, is back at it with this 2KV, 1600A, 1500 μF 10-capacitor discharge bank that can be used to crush cans and, most amusingly IMHO, launch washers high into the air with a sound that really has to be heard to be appreciated. Bob's video might benefit from a bit of editing; clicking the embedded player above should take you right to the money shot around 4:35. There's also a good can-crushing right around 5:50. [via Hacked Gadgets]

Continuing our fiber arts theme of past weeks, today's Math Monday offers an excellent example of mathematical needlepoint. This piece illustrates a Hilbert curve, taken to the sixth approximation. The continuously changing color of the thread makes it easy for your eye not to lose its place as you follow the long path that starts at the top-left and ends at the top-right.

If you want to embroider your own Hilbert curve, you can work up to this level starting with any of the simpler patterns below. Each level consists of four copies of the next simpler approximation plus three connecting stitches, highlighted below in red. The nth version has 4ⁿ-1 visible stitches, so the sixth order approximation above shows 4095 stitches, and that doesn't include what's on the back. The maker, Gio, must be very patient.

More:
You can see all of the "Math Monday" columns here.

Instructables user kstruve writes:

I currently live in the Phoenix, Arizona area, which gets mighty hot in the summer. This summer, we've had several days around or above 110 degrees. I have twin baby boys, and despite cracking the windows, using reflective seat covers and running the A/C full blast when driving them around, their backs are just soaked with sweat when we reach our destination. The seats bake in the car in the sun for hours, then you put a baby in it and they never really cool off. So I devised this method for cooling their car seats with pump-recirculated cold water. The end product is a cooling pad to fit underneath the car seat cover behind their backs. This can be easily modified to fit adults too.

• Bake Cookies in the Hot Car
• Liquid-cooled engines for R/C models

Florin wanted a MakerBot watch but they were never in stock. So he made his own! He calls it the DWex, which stands for the 'Duino watch for experimenters.

This watch is built around a 3V-powered ATmega328P running at 8MHz. Time is shown using 2 circles of 12 LEDs, in a manner similar to an analog watch (with hands). Minutes are indicated on the exterior circle of green LEDs; hours are indicated on the interior circle of red LEDs.

To make the watch practical (that is, wearable), the battery life should be at least in the order of months. This can only be achieved by keeping the processor in sleep mode most of the time. At the push of a button the microcontroller becomes active and lights up the appropriate LEDs for 3-5 seconds; then it goes back to sleep.

Florin has the schematics and code are available on his site, or you can buy a kit from him.

Automata guru and MAKE pal Dug North says:

For a limited time, Cabaret Mechanical Theatre is offering a free download of an eighteen page booklet by famed automata-maker Paul Spooner. This is a great resource for the mechanically-curious and must have for automata-makers.

The PDF is free to download until September 30.

[Thanks, Dug!]

Sculptor (and former studio mate of mine) Nathan Lewis created this giant "Lawn Tongue," a carved foam form covered in resin and painted. More photos after the jump!

And we're back with our thirteenth installment of Your Comments. Here are our favorites from the past week, from Make: Online, our Facebook page, and Twitter.

Over on Facebook, many people were pining for a kit version of the Elegant POV clock. Gregory Wild-Smith summed it up well:

I want... nay NEED a kit for this. Right now.

Also on Facebook, Lisa Roselinsky Weller had a good observation about the flamethrower trombone:

Ha. Another reason to have the trombones march in the front rank!

Namban liked the style of the antique clocks turned into speaker cases, but was concerned about their construction:

Elegant...
BUT BLASPHEMY!
Those look like very old ormolu clocks. I really, really hope the movements were missing from those, or at the least, not working, and set aside.
This is one of those cases where I really hope he used modern cheap clocks that were made to look old- but those look original.
eyes in pain...

however db3ll, the creator of the project, set them straight:

Hi.
I'm the guy who did this, and no clocks were harmed; yes, they are old spelter clocks, but they have damage to them that prevents them from being worth much. Clock cases like these are usually available on ebay, or antique clock repair places will sell them to you also. They're pretty common.
I have the movements (not in good shape); if I wanted to change them back to non-working clocks it'd be about a half hour job.

Eric Hunting enjoyed the playable mini drumset:

This video was more than awesome...
...It was the Bees Knees!

Oddity explains the concept of 'geek life' for the Geek Dad book giveaway:

I don't know that we have geek projects so much as "geek life". So far this summer we've caught a meteor shower and explored Yellowstone (both from a beauty and science perspective). I taught my oldest to use a compass then explained how the magnifying glass on the compass could be used to start a fire. I taught my wife to solder and explained how the switch works on the trimmer so that next time it breaks, she can fix it. I hacked my sump pump outlet to provide a "hose" near the house to water the yard/gardens, which amazed my youngest (4) and prompted a whole discussion on "hacking" things to make them better. He is getting ready to start the hydroponics setup with me again (fresh lettuce, and this time we're going to try tomatoes and peppers). I'm currently looking for a couple of battlebot kits for the family to put together for Christmas, though looking at Ken's demolition car with Lego video, that might be just as much fun. I suppose the only "project" I want to do with the kids is build a fly a sky lantern, as I remember doing this in school (but for some reason they won't let them launch them in the gym anymore :-D) I suppose if I paid more attention, wrote things down, actually had a "plan" sometimes these would be "projects". Really we're just having fun.

Wilson provides a good example of how to give constructive criticism about the Spray bike makeover project:

Carefully considering the "be nice" comment policy, I have to say the paint colors they chose are pretty.
But doesn't a bike that has sat outside gathering weeds deserves more TLC than a quick respray? It's pretty easy to strip a single-speed bike like that fully - the headset and bottom bracket are easy, and a chain breaker is relatively cheap. You could even repack the front hub easily, but the rear coaster-brake is trickier to pull apart and reassemble.

There was a good discussion about the One-Way Ticket article in the latest issue of MAKE. Commenter gtoal was able to get theirs working:

Success! Great project, was easy to build once I found the parts. I did google for tips on how to apply the cement, and I would add to your description that it's worth attaching the plunger end first, so you can lean heavily on the other end to help push it all the way on, without worrying about pushing too hard on the newly cemented valve :-/
By the way, 'insinkerator' is a brand of garbage disposal unit that you have in your kitchen sink - not a type of incinerator, which would be way too daring a project for a toilet add-on!
Actually I looked for them after suggesting that and in fact they do exist - there's a custom unit called a 'toilet macerator' that does the same job, though I suspect a kitchen one would be cheaper!
Thanks again for a cool project. Although I'm not looking forward all that much to the first live field test!

Like these comments? Be sure to sound off in the comments! You could be in next week's column. Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Online | Digg this! ]]> Matt Mets Matt Mets http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/08/your_comments_11.html http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/08/your_comments_11.html Online Mon, 30 Aug 2010 07:00:00 -0800

I've been looking for an excuse to build one of these clever tamper-detecting switches for a long time. When a mystery critter recently started raiding the fresh catnip I grow outside as a treat for my indoors-only cat, I saw my opportunity. Sure, I could've bought or borrowed a commercial trail camera, or hacked a PIR motion detector circuit, or set up an IR webcam with software-level motion detection, but I've long been charmed by the simple low-tech design of the ball-in-cage switch. Here's how I did it.

More:

• Make: Projects — Camera trap kits
• Make: Projects — Secret chessboard compartment
• Make: Projects — Dead drop device