Articles
Going Pro
Makers are turning their hand-soldered prototypes into real consumer electronics.
Categories: Fun & Games Kids & Family Maker Pro
Homebrew: Nixie Tube Chess Set
I’ve always been fascinated by the glow of ionized gases, but never got around to putting together a Nixie tube clock — the whole craze of the last decade seemed...
Categories: Electronics Fun & Games
Howtoons: Abacus
Long before written numbers existed, merchants used the abacus to count large numbers and calculate the cost of goods. Now you can make your own with easy-to-find household supplies!
Categories: Kids & Family
Learning to Build a Bot
Friends Ben, Kendra, and Monsieur Tux the cat tackle the Rovera Robot.
Categories: Kids & Family Robotics
Made on Earth: Fluid Suspensions
Sculpting liquid into exquisite, ephemeral sculptures and capturing them on camera requires a creative eye, mechanical know-how, precision, and most importantly, an abundance of patience.
Categories: Art & Design
Made on Earth: Glittering Cloud
Inspired by light, communal art, and cloud-gazing, artists Caitlind r.c. Brown and Wayne Garrett created Cloud, an interactive sculpture composed of around 6,000 new and used light bulbs donated from...
Categories: Art & Design
Made on Earth: Honey I Shrunk the Maker
“Arduino is going to be really big at Maker Faire this year.” As these words rang in MAKE editor John Edgar Park’s ears, the thought occurred to him that he...
Categories: Arduino Art & Design
Made on Earth: Made of America
Back in the old days, pioneers traveled with round cast iron skillets. You could make round pancakes, round eggs, and throw some rectangular strips of bacon on the side. But...
Categories: Art & Design
Made on Earth: Pyrotechnic Pillars
Imagine a helicopter exploding and falling up, and you’ll get the basic idea of a girandola, an arcane type of firework. A girandola is a whirling, spark-spitting fountain of burning...
Categories: Art & Design
Made on Earth: Sing With the Wind
The Aeolus acoustic wind pavilion, named for the ancient Greek ruler of the winds, could be described as a sculpture, a giant aeolian harp, an optical pavilion, and even an...
Categories: Art & Design
Made on Earth: Split-Flap Storytelling
In a nod to Eadweard Muybridge’s contribution to the early development of motion pictures, Wendy Marvel and Mark Arnon Rosen’s Mechanical Flip Books tell a very short story in just...
Categories: Arduino Art & Design
Maker’s Calendar
Our favorite events from around the world. MAKE Volume 33 features our special Software for Makers section covering apps for circuit board design, 3D design and printing, microcontrollers, and programming...
Categories: Home
Making Makers: Why Make?
Last year, I took a friend to her first Maker Faire. We walked around looking at projects and exhibits, and she had a question for me: “Why?” She was impressed...
Categories: Kids & Family
Reader Input
Rocket sugar-rush, drill press safety, an energy-saving bear, and a trip down memory lane. MAKE Volume 33 features our special Software for Makers section covering apps for circuit board design,...
Categories: General
Build Notes: The Counting Box
How I built a simple counting circuit housed in bamboo for my son.
Categories: Electronics
Welcome: Geek Sports!
I’ve been fascinated by the concept of “brain sports” — fun, competitive games for brainiacs and creative thinkers, more inclusive and less cerebral (and serious) than the original geek sport:...
Categories: Fun & Games
Projects
1 2 3: Dice Popper
This is my version of a classic way to “roll” the die for a board game.
Categories: Fun & Games Home Kids & Family
1 2 3: Omnidirectional Spray Bottle
Modify a spray bottle so it works when held at any angle.
Categories: Home Kids & Family

Cat Scratch Feeder
Build a snack-dispensing scratching post that will make Kitty forget the couch and curtains.
Skill Builder: CNC Panel Joinery
A guide to making interlocking, self-aligning, and demountable joints in flat stock.
Skill Builder — CNC Panel Joinery
A guide to making interlocking, self-aligning, and demountable joints in flat stock.
Categories: Woodworking Workshop
Country Scientist: Digital Pinhole Photography
Explore your world through a pinhole.
Categories: Art & Design Photography & Video
Electronics Fun and Fundamentals: Key-Card Door Lock
Pick-proof, programmable security without a microcontroller.
Categories: Electronics
Growing the Ghost
The Bhut Jolokia pepper is 125 times hotter than a jalapeño.
Categories: Food & Beverage Home
Laser-Cut Book Covers
Use this neat technique to make plywood flexible.
Categories: Machining Woodworking Workshop
Making Trouble: Solar Powered Roasting Spit
Make the event memorable with a DIY wood-fired rotisserie.
Categories: Food & Beverage Home

Optical Tremolo Box
Plug your guitar into light-programmable waveforms with this unique effects box.
Categories: Art & Design Music
The Panjolele Cake Pan Ukulele
Start your own ukulele craze with this great-sounding musical instrument built from simple household parts.
Categories: Art & Design Music
Remaking History: Abraham Lincoln and the Political Campaign Torch
Presidential political campaigns were much different in the nineteenth century. The key political tool was the parade.
Categories: Home Kids & Family
The Banana Interface
The only limit to what you can create with Scratch and MaKey MaKey is your imagination.
Categories: Fun & Games Kids & Family
Toy Inventor’s Notebook: Gnome Math Required!
A few years ago, I had to come up with a batch of gifts to give to friends and family — fast! Our backyard garden gnome was the inspiration: I’d make...
Categories: Fun & Games Kids & Family
Vinyl PCB Resist
Etch your circuits the easy way — with a resist pattern you make on a vinyl cutter. MAKE Volume 33 features our special Software for Makers section covering apps for...
Categories: Electronics
Wii Nunchuk Mouse
Bring console-style motion control to your PC.
Categories: Arduino Computers & Mobile Electronics




Dear Make,
I hope you will incessantly urge the DIY movement to grow beyond blinky toys and guns. Especially guns.
The 3-D printing movement and Tyler McInerny’s Filabot are so exciting. I imagine legions of young people becoming fabulous recyclers, walking down the street, picking up discarded plastic items, thinking: “This is exactly what I need to make_______!”
I imagine oceans without islands of plastic. I imagine oceans without islands of plastic. I imagine oceans without islands of plastic…
I imagine manufacturers and the whole packaging industry stamping a number on every single piece of molded plastic, so that it can be easily reworked.
I imagine companies like 3M creating packaging labeling that can be easily peeled from plastic packaging, without solvents, so that every square inch of the plastic can be recycled or reformed.
I imagine legions of young people putting to shame legions of adults, like the ones who drive up and down my road, hurling cans and bottles from their car windows!
Let’s all work on this together!
Regarding the Filabot – I was disappointed that Make’s Ultimate 3D Printing Guide didn’t include this. I met Tyler and his Filabot at a local Mini Maker Faire and thought it was a great idea.
We all now have paper shredders in our house to protect against identity theft. Who will create and market the plastic shredder that create plastic for my 3D printer by recycling unused plastic??
I just recieved the latest edition of Make:. I’s made of a new playing card like material… anyone have the scoop?
Hi make I would like to get some help on the touchless 3D tracking interface. I need help on the processing sketch and Arduino sketch part. Can I skip processing and paste the code on the Arduino and upload it. If you can please send me a instruction page, that would really help. I am asking you for help because I thought this is an awesome project that I could try. I hope you can help me.
Thanks, namangup.1@gmail.com
HI, I JUST RESAW (TV EPISODE #2?) SHOWING AN ARTIST FLYING PEOPLE FROM LARGE KITE(S). WOW! PLEASE EMAIL ME HIS CONTACT INFO. THANKS VERY MUCH.
Frauenfelder, if I we you I’d be a lot more concerned about how 15 daughter dresses in public then about what some TSA agent thinks of her outfit. I’m not prude but I’m really tired of seeing teenager girls in skin tight pants that reveal everything and teenage boys with their pants riding down around their knees
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