Make Magazine
DIY projects, how-tos, and inspiration from geeks, makers, and hackers
Updated: 1 hour 53 min ago
Pitches with Prototypes: Open Clock Project
Next in our run-up coverage for the MAKE 2013 Hardware Innovation Workshop is Craig Bonsignore's Open Clock Project. Bonsignore is a biomedical engineer with more than fifteen years of experience designing, developing, and analyzing cardiovascular implants. And he's fed up with badly designed alarm clocks.
Categories: Makers
DIY Robot Building, Circa 1956
Stuart “Mr. Retro” Sandler built a super retro robot from plans found in a 57-year-old copy of Boys Life he’d purchased from eBay. Stuart had heard about the robot as a teenager and wrote to the magazine for the copy of the plans. They sent him a photocopy but left [...]
Categories: Makers
Ten Tips for Better Measurement
When working on projects, proper measurement can be one of the most enigmatic and frustrating skills to master. Here are some helpful pointers to make sure you measure correctly, and use the right tool for the job.
Categories: Makers
Cruise to Maker Faire Bay Area with Fellow Pedal-Power Enthusiasts
Pedal-power to Maker Faire Bay Area on Saturday May 18th with fellow bicycle enthusiasts. Stay fit, save gas, gain preferred entrance to the faire, and get a special collector's patch!
Categories: Makers
Couch Potato Perfection: Self-Assembling Furniture
"The idea is that you can buy it in a local store," explains designer Carl de Smet. "It's a small package, you put it under your arm, and you carry it home because it's also super light. Then at home you plug it into electricity," he continues. Ten minutes later your chair will be ready.
Categories: Makers
Bodhi’s Boat and Pony Trap at Austin Mini Maker Faire
Four "Meet the Makers" videos from the upcoming May 5th Austin Mini Maker Faire.
Categories: Makers
Pitches with Prototypes: Falkor Systems’ Pet AR.Drone
In the run-up to the Hardware Innovation Workshop (May 14-15), we'll be introducing aspiring companies and makers competing in the "pitches with prototypes" contest. First up is Falkor System's Pet AR. Drone. The product is still in development, but CEO Sameer Parekh imagines it as a personal drone for extreme sports photography. Doing a little BASE jumping? Let your drone follow you down while the camera rolls. He calls it "out of body" recording. 
Categories: Makers
New American Sweatshop
Artist and inventor Amelia Marzec has created an ingenious community project, called “New American Sweatshop,” in which she is attempting to reduce our dependence on electronics produced in sweatshops by salvaging components from broken electronics to be used in new domestic electronics projects. The New American Sweatshop is an immersive [...]
Categories: Makers
Get Ready for the 2013 Hardware Innovation Workshop
The line-up for MAKE's second Hardware Innovation Workshop is set and the roster and schedule of events is truly exciting. If you're in the business of making at any stage this is a not-to-miss event. 
Categories: Makers
Introducing Young Makers to Arduino
St. Louis hackerspace The Disruption Department's Student Fellowship Program takes the kids to a new spot each month and they learn something about mechanical, electrical, or computer engineering. For the April event, the kids were introduced to Arduino. Read about how it went, and check out some snaps from the day.
Categories: Makers
How-To: Digital Pinhole Photography
Nearly 40 years ago, scientist and author Forrest M. Mims III wrote an article titled “The Pinhole: A ‘Lens’ that Just Won’t Quit” that was published in the April 1974 issue of Popular Photography. His enthusiasm for pinhole photography, taking photographs with a 35mm film camera equipped with a pinhole [...]
Categories: Makers
Make: Believe Visits Images In Motion
Kamela Portuges and Lee Armstrong have been making puppets and performing together for over 25 years. Armstrong, who’d gotten her big puppetry break on Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock, met talented sculptor Portuges at a puppet festival; the two soon combined their talents to create their Sonoma, Calif., studio, Images In Motion. Since then, they’ve been steadily producing TV shows, commercials, and live performances, as well as lending their expertise to major studios and toy companies. Video and slideshow after the jump.
Categories: Makers
MAKE Asks: Teachers that Inspire
MAKE Asks: is a weekly column where we ask you, our readers, for responses to maker-related questions. We hope the column sparks interesting conversation and is a way for us to get to know more about each other.
Categories: Makers
Got a Great Gadget? Show your Stuff to Veronica Belmont and Win
Veronica Belmont invites you to put to the test your most innovative and ingenious DIY versions of your favorite consumer tech items on stage at Maker Faire Bay Area.
Categories: Makers
Winners on the Road to Maker Faire Bay Area
We're pleased to announce the winners on the 2013 Road to Maker Faire Challenge! Makers competed for a $2,500 prize and a chance to travel to the Bay Area Maker Faire next month to exhibit their project.
Categories: Makers
On-the-go furniture for on-the-go People
Harking back to the era of steam trunks the Arara Nomade is nomadic furniture: a trunk that turns into a shelves, drawers and hanging space. Designed for easy assembly and disassembly, no screws, glue or tools are required to put in together, or to take it apart at the end of your trip.
Categories: Makers
New in the Maker Shed: Telegraph Decoder and Calculator Kits from Spikenzie Labs
Spikenzie Labs has a reputation for making innovative, wonderfully designed kits and their new Telegraph Decoder and Calculator Kits are no exception! Both are available now in the Maker Shed.
Categories: Makers
How-To: HAL-in-the-Box
Aaaaaaaaand we have a serious new contender for the title of Best Who's-in-the-Box Ever. Adafruit senior designer Phillip Burgess was inspired by customers' observations that their new-ish 10 cm "Massive Red Arcade Button" looks a lot like the iconic eye of Clarke and Kubrick's famously malevolent mainframe. For sheer comedic value, I think...
Categories: Makers
FirstLight: The Story of a Telescope
Oakland resident Douglas Smith is an architect by training, working as a BIM / CAD manager at the San Francisco offices of internationally-renowned skyscraper architects Skidmore Owings & Merrill. In 2006, co-worker and amateur astronomer David Frey persuaded him to take an amateur telescope-making class at The Randall Museum, taught by famous amateur astronomer John Dobson. It changed his life. 
Categories: Makers
Inside 3D Printing: A Maker Reports
The Inside 3D Printing Conference in NYC gave us a clear look at the business side of 3D printing. Usual suspects, like 3D Systems, MakerBot and Stratasys, attended in full force. So did some up-and-comers like FormLabs, ZoomRP, Sculpteo, Mbot, and MakerGear. Shapeways (based in New York) was noticeably [...]
Categories: Makers