How-To: Wilderness chair
Here’s a neat Instructable for making a wood-and-rope-only camping chair, looks comfy! I can almost smell the campfire.
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Archive for the 'DIY Projects' Category
DIY yurt made out of trash
Niki Raapana designed a DIY shelter called a Gertee.
Gertees are round houses made of sticks and poles tied together with zipties and covered with cloth or other materials. Each one is as unique as the owner who builds it.
All ger/yurts can be tailor made to fit any kind of budget. Many builders world-wide offer varieties of the yurt at prices ranging from 2 to 25K. My variations, based on the original Mongolian Ger design, expand the concept to include more people who don’t have the 2K.
American made, high end yurts are so well constructed and modern they are getting HUD approval. In English towns residents are overturning municipal codes prohibiting odd looking tent homes. Yurts are a growing option for camping in National Parks and Wilderness areas. They also have an emerging fan base in the sustainable development-green community.
These may be perfect for creative people who want to try something new or they may be an optional shelter for homeless disaster victims in areas full of scrap lumber and salvageable materials. People from all backgrounds and income brackets can build these very comfortable little round home for themselves, and even the lowest end ones are very cute and sturdy.
Read the instructable to learn how to make your own. [via Beyond the Beyond]
More:
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Party time hax0rs at the N900 showcase
Nokia put on a project showcase for the finalists in their (mainly) European N900-hacking contest. The projects are pretty interesting and range from remotely viewable kite aerial photography to GPS-aided haptic navigation. Oh, and it looks like it was a good party, too.
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Pen-shaking centrifuge
Matthias Wandel made this rather tongue-in-cheek invention to help him shake pens.
Using my gear template generator program, I was able to establish that a three-tooth lantern against a mating cycloid shaped gear should just barely work smoothly. I wanted a high gear ratio for my pen centrifuge, so this was a good place to a gear with such a small number of teeth.
I wasn’t completely sure how well it would work, so I made a test gear. Not wanting to waste too much plywood, I only made a segment of a larger gear. The little gear has three “pins”, which are actually small 3/8″ (10 mm) ball bearings. There’s no rubbing on this gear!
Thanks, Gabriel!
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ChumbyChimp and Po
Back when I got my Chumby Guts kit a few months ago, I imagined that it would be pretty funny to set up it up Teletubby style with the screen in the belly of a plushie. At the time, I didn’t have a suitable doll to sacrifice at the alter of maker fun, but like Kent Barnes, I did have the box it came in. I like the alarm clock features, and enjoy being chirped awake. Eventually, though, the box kind of wore out, and my Chumby Guts lay loose on the night table.
Sunsue heard my call for a sacrificial Teletubby and found me a Po doll. When I saw it, I realized that this one would not work, since it is smaller than the ones my daughter used to have. It does have an interesting voice box, so that will come in handy some other day. A bit later, I fell upon a Build A Bear monkey at the Duxbury Mall. In his first invasive surgery, I found the heart, bar code and a monkey voice box with a dead battery. After swapping out the dead battery, I hid the voice box in my daughter’s school bag, where it occasionally went off (ooh ooh aaah aah) as she bumped the bag. It now sits atop her social studies teacher’s desk as a warning signal for those about to get a detention.
The monkey looked like he was on a starvation diet for a couple of weeks, as his stuffing sat in a bag in the cave as waited for the right moment to do the next operation. Eventually I got tired of loose ChumGutz on the night table and got together with my neighbor, Robin. She’s pretty crafty and I figured would have some good techniques for the project. We went over and got to it. A few snips in the belly and monkey boy had gastric bypass of a kind. We hot melt glued the screen in place. Then I removed the speakers from the plastic holder and fit the circuit board inside the body behind the screen. I thought that I would have the switch loose, but left it attached over the power input and usb connectors. We re-stuffed him and he became ChumbyChimp. He is pretty happy to hang out with Po, and even gets to spend a little time with Creepy Baby.
This is the third iteration for my Chumby Guts, and I suppose that it will be a somewhat transitional situation. It would be useful to sew an old PDA stylus into his hand. That way it will always be easy to make accurate selections on the screen. I would like to put in some iMac ball speakers left over from the 50 iMacs project into the body instead of the nice little box speakers it came with. It would also be neat to add a switch to the hand with either a tactile switch or some conductive thread. I would definitely like to explore battery power, if only to add a bit of portability between locations in the house. The kitchen counter is a decent location, and with the right widgets ChumbyChimp really adds to the room.
More
- Chumby in a box
- The Chumby has landed!
- Custom case for Chumby Guts
- Chumby guts — so delicious!
- Chumbophone – antiqued Chumby Guts
- http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/chumby_guts_enclosure_modern_reliqu.html
- Build: Chumby Guts kit
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Custom PCB Prototyping using a Laser Cutter
I am going to walk you through the process of prototyping a Printed Circuit Board using a laser cutter and supplies from your local Radioshack and hardware store. This is a process I have perfected after several prototypes…
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Taxidermied mouse flash drive
Its eyes blink with data transfer. Spotted first on my Sunday scroll through the CRAFT Flickr pool. Image/video after the jump to protect delicate sensibilities. As Mark Frauenfelder, Editor-in-chief of MAKE, wrote in 2006 about a similar project:
Taxidermy is an ancient craft but contemporary concerns about using animals to make things are worthy of discussion. As someone who eats meat, wears leather, and uses rat traps to kill rats in my attic, I’m in no position to point my finger at anyone practicing taxidermy. We’ve kept the comments section open for this entry, and I encourage people to continue the conversation. I know this topic elicits strong emotions in some people, but please keep the comments civil and constructive. – Mark Frauenfelder editor-in-chief of MAKE
More:
- Cardboard taxidermy
- “Loved to Death” Taxidermy Jewelry
- Mouse taxidermy @ homeX
- Lisa Black’s Steampunk Taxidermy
- Duck Mouse – taxidermy project
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MAKE Volume 21: Snow Science and Snow Making
Photo by James Moss (makesnow.net)
As one of the biggest storms of the winter is hitting Lake Tahoe, MAKE Volume 21 is about to hit newsstands. What do these two phenomena have in common? Snow! In the DIY Outdoors section, we’re featuring a Combo Snow Gun project written by one of our own former MAKE engineering interns, Steven Lemos. As a matter of fact, I distinctly remember when we were interviewing Steven, asking him what types of projects he had made. When he said he made his own snow gun, I was sold, and we knew we had to have him write it up for the magazine. Steven teaches you how to make your own for about $90.
Then, in Forrest M. Mims’ Country Scientist column, he teaches you how to evaluate snow on the ground as a heat island indicator as well as a particle collector. Mims takes it further and shows you how to use ImageJ image analysis software to study your snow pictures.
MAKE Volume 21 is the Desktop Manufacturing issue, with how-to articles on making three-dimensional parts using inexpensive computer-controlled manufacturing equipment. Both additive (RepRap, CandyFab) and subtractive (Lumenlab Micro CNC) systems are covered. Also in this issue: instructions for making a cigar box guitar, building your own CNC for under $800, running a mini electric bike with a cordless drill, making a magic photo cube, and tons more. If you’re a subscriber, you may have your issue in hand already, and can access the Digital Edition. Otherwise, you can pick up MAKE 21 in the Maker Shed or look for it on newsstands near you!
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Automatic chicken coop door opener
Australian maker Mark Stead recently got some chickens and found out the hard way that they’re early risers. In order to accommodate his new avian friends sleeping habits (and reduce the impact to his) he decided to build an automatic door opener using an inexpensive battery operated alarm clock. [Thanks, Frank!]
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Glow-in-the-dark sketch wall and LED pens
There is serious fun to be had with this project from Paulbo of FangleTronics. He shows how he created an awesome glow-in-the-dark wall on which kids (and adults, of course) can write and draw with LED pens. [via Filth Wizardry]
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Whats the name of the molecule? Is it a hormone?