Make

The Company Behind Maker Faire and Make: Magazine Has Shut Down

TechCrunch has learned that Maker Media, the company behind the DIY magazine and online publication Make:, as well as the Maker Faire science, art, and hacking festivals that happen all around the world each year, ceased operations last week and let go of the rest of its 22 employees. The company’s founder and CEO, Dale…

You Can Eat This Delicious VR Headset

In contrast to the fancy, expensive, and much-delayed VR headsets out there, Google Cardboard is refreshingly simple. So simple in fact, that the entire thing can be made from food with no loss of quality, as proven by Make. Technically cardboard is already edible. It just doesn’t taste very good. Instead Caleb Kraft built all…

3D-Print This Flying Toy You Launch From a High-Speed Spinning Dremel

If you thought rotary tools like the Dremel were all work and no play, Make has a fun tutorial you’ll definitely want to try. You’ll need access to a 3D printer to create this flying toy disc affectionately called the Dremel Devil, and a rotary tool that you can power outside where it’s safest to…

GE’s New Chip Lets You Easily Hack and Mod Its Appliances

At one time hardware manufacturers frowned on consumers trying to hack or modify their products, but they’re slowly coming around to the idea. In fact, GE finally sees being able to hack an appliance as a value-added feature, so the company is releasing an interface board that makes it easy to mod your fridge, dryer,…

This Secret Treasure Room May Be The Best Birthday Present Of All Time

When Sarah Goer and her husband discovered a disused storage space attached to their son’s room, they decided to convert it into a Secret Treasure Room. For years, they concealed the room’s entrance with a dresser, waiting for the perfect moment – their son’s fourth birthday – to reveal its existence. Here, Sarah describes how…

Hero Dad Builds An Amazing Interactive Spaceship For His Son’s Bedroom

MAKE Magazine’s Jeff Highsmith wanted to build his 4-year-old son an interactive model of an Apollo spacecraft. The result was the surprisingly complex play area seen here – but to really appreciate the thought and effort that went into this project, you really must watch the making-of video. Seriously, this’ll blow you away. Here’s Highsmith:…

Digitally inclined DIY-ers rejoice! MAKE Magazine is now available for iPad. Not only is it cheaper than the print edition ($20 vs. $35), it’s also upped its distribution frequency from quarterly to bi-monthly! (via BoingBoing)

How To: Make geometric models out of straws and coffee stirrers

Over at Make Magazine, Iann Gonsher shares this remarkably simple (not to mention totally free, if you count your latte as admission) method for building cool geometric models. “The baristas don’t tend to mind,” he writes, “especially if you tip generously.” We know what we’re doing this weekend.

How to Make Your Own DIY Etch A Sketch

It’s human nature to immediately pick up and play with an Etch A Sketch whenever you see one. It’s in the Hall of Fame of toys (does that exist?) and almost everyone has struggled making anything more than squiggly lines with its knobs. But did you know that you can actually make an Etch A…

How to Make an Awesome Key Holder Out of Lego

If you’re always losing your keys, you need a regular place to put them. A bowl on a side table works, but is kinda boring, so why not make your own out of Lego? To be honest, it’s not a particularly challenging build: you just need a base plate—choose one big enough to hold all…

Behemoth-Sized Metal Bird Skeleton Descends On Make Faire Bay Area 2011

Step right up, my pretties, and crawl into the belly of the beast! Place those eager feet on accepting pedals, and the Fledgling nearly takes flight! Nearly, of course, because Fledgling is a massive metal skeleton at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011 and is not capable of flight. To which Irene says, bring it on…

Remix the President With the Obama Board Keyboard

For anyone who might have complained about the quality of our sitting president’s addresses, you can write your own with the Obama Board Keyboard. Featured at Maker Faire Detroit, you can remix choice lines from Obama’s 2009 inauguration speech to write your own. It was designed by Canadian Maker Ashley Lewis. If she follows Obama…

This Delightful USB Desk Bell Could Result In Violence

Get me this DIY USB Desk Bell for my desk immediately! I plan to place it on said desk and use it to command an army of interns to do my bidding and/or a Pavlov’s Dog activity involving coffee. Actually, to be a bit more serious, this DIY project is a bit more involved than…

This is One Catchy Custom Bike-Building Video

Catchy guitar riffs, filmmaker Michael Evans superb cuts and edits, and Soulcraft owner Sean Walling’s makin’-it-look easy bike-building skills all combine in this incredibly interesting mini-mentary look at how a steel frame custom bicycle is made, from start to finish. The full title is From Steel: The Making of a Soulcraft, and I eat this…

DIY: Retrofit an Inkjet Printer with Invisible Ink

While I doubt the super serious stiff in this DIY video is actually a super spy, he does have the DIY know-how necessary to hack apart an inkjet printer and make it into an invisible ink-spitting espionage machine. Enjoy! [MAKE]

What Is This?

First hint: It makes something delicious. If you’re one to have a drink of alcohol every once in a while, that is. Whatever could it be? “It” is version 2.0 of the EMSL’s Drink Making Unit, and it does just that. The bar-tending bot is about twice as big and complex as the one they…

Hiding Valuables in Doors, Using a Cigar Tube

The creator of this two-hour hack used a cigar tube, but really you could use anything cylindrical—a film canister would work perfectly well, for example. You won’t be able to hide all your valuables in there, but at least those secret digital files can remain secret. [MAKE via MAKEZine]

DIY Photography: Ring Flashes Are Expensive. Make Your Own Using Fiber Optics

Budding portrait photographers take note: Ring flashes are a sometimes necessary, but expensive tool you might need to really make those stages shots pop. Short on cash but high on DIY skills? Try this project on for size and get back to worrying about the shot, not the lighting. The rig is certainly a bit…

No Rodents Were Harmed In the Making of This Elaborate Hamster Wheel

I don’t know if I should pity Princess the Hamster or celebrate the fact that designer Crabfu has crafted an ingenious, slightly mesmerizing way for her to antagonize the family cat on an entirely new, mobile level. You’ll see: On the one hand she’s still trapped in a plastic prison, and her frantic steps take…

Best mad scientist deal of the day: 40% off ebook versions of MAKE magazine

If you like to do things like build your own guitar, send your mobile phone into space, knit armor, and stick LEDs on every possible surface, then you need MAKE magazine in your life. It’s full of cool articles and how-tos for people who want to work in a mad science lab – and the…