Volume 11: Alt Vehicles

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Volume 11: Alt Vehicles

Our special "DIY Wheels" section brings you plans for making a mobile drive-in movie theater, a cool chopper out of an old bicycle, and a pedal-powered iPod charger. We'll also show you how to make a remote control bird feeder to take amazing photos of birds, a vintage-style remote control race car out of sheet metal, and a vacuum former that lets you create molded 3D parts out of plastic. These articles are just the tip of the iceberg in this project-packed volume of MAKE.

View a list of all links referenced in this volume

Table of Contents

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Maker Faire Is Too Much by Gareth Branwyn in Welcome
Author Gareth Branwyn welcomes you to MAKE Volume 11: Alternative Vehicles. Page 10

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Attack, Defend by Cory Doctorow in Make Free
Nearly ten years after the invention of Napster, there's more file sharing than ever. Page 15

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Global Bus by Megan Mansell Williams in Made on Earth
Sphere artist Lars Fisk rolls his own Volkswagen bus. Page 16

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Super Stick by Annie Buckley in Made on Earth
Jason Torchinsky builds a 5-foot-tall retro Atari joystick that works. Page 18

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Fire-Cooled Brew by Keith Hammond in Made on Earth
New Zealander Simon Jansen (of Star Wars ASCIImation fame) fires up an absurd, jet engine-powered beer cooler. Page 19

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The Old-Fashioned Future by Megan Mansell Williams in Made on Earth
Stephane Halleux's sculptures mix advanced technology with antiquated mechanisms. Page 20

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Games That Games Play by David Pescovitz in Made on Earth
New York artist Paul Johnson networks custom video games that play each other. Page 21

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Grand Master Video by Steve Nalepa in Made on Earth
Gardner Post's Baby Grand Master is the "king of video instruments." Page 22

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Hungry Bots Must Eat by Megan Mansell Williams in Made on Earth
Ohio professor Ken Rinaldo's robots sense hunger, find and feed on electrical power, then tell the others where to find it. Page 23

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Router Aesthetics by Bruce Sterling in Hands On
Now that "digital carpentry" has come to exist, how do you make it authentic? Page 24

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Hammer Time by Kirsten Anderson
Making the antiques of the future at Black Dog Forge. Page 26

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Big Blowhards by William Gurstelle
Who will be the first to make a machine that propels a pumpkin more than a mile? Page 30

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The Maker State by William Gurstelle
Safe working practices give you the freedom to attempt projects on the edge. Page 34

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Drawbot Love by Bre Pettis
How a bunch of us made our own drawing robot. Page 36

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Cooking With Trash by Tim Anderson in Heirloom Technology
The Chinese make fuel briquettes from coal dust, farm waste, scrap wood, and a bit of local red dirt. Page 38

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Power Tripping by David Pescovitz in Proto
High-voltage engineer Greg Leyh builds the largest Tesla coils in the world. Page 40 Download PDF.Download Sample PDF of this article.

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Long Live the Bicycle by Saul Griffith in Making Trouble
Everything I know I learned from two wheels and a frame. Page 44

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Ten-Second Stomp Rocket by Emma Wagstaff in 123
Make a juice-bag-powered rocket in less time than it takes to drink it. Page 46

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Mister Jalopy's Urban Guerrilla Movie House by Mister Jalopy
Your own DIY drive-in. Page 48

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The Little Cart That Couldn't by Charles Platt
Wind-powered vehicle claims look like hot air. Page 58

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Swiveling Balcony Hoist by Matthew Russell
Take the sting out of a walk-up apartment by installing your own lifter. Page 64

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Rolling Solar by Ben Shedd
Turning a junker into a sun-charged electric vehicle. Page 67

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Granny's Nightmare Chopper Bike by Brad Graham
Chop an old ladies' bicycle into something evil. Page 68

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Swing and Wrong-Way Bikes by Paul Spinrad
Trick cycles from Cyclecide. Page 73 Download PDF.Download Sample PDF of this article.

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U-G-L-Y Your Bike by Rick Polito
To deter thieves, camouflage your bicycle as a piece of crap while keeping it a first-class ride. Page 74

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Rock the Bike by Paul Spinrad
Social biking with Fossil Fool and the Juice Pedaler. Page 77

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Bicycle iPod Charger by Mark Hoekstra
A sidewall dynamo powers both lights and tuneage. Page 80

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Stokemonkey Makes It Easier by Rick Polito
An electric motor linked to existing bicycle gears turns any bike into a sell-your-car-already vehicle. Page 82

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The Year People Learned to Fly by Ben Shedd
Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the flight of Paul MacCready's Gossamer Condor. Page 84

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Spirits Guy by Benjamin Tice Smith in Maker
How Lance Winters went from basement moonshiner to celebrity vodka distiller. Page 86

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Personal Fab by Tom Owad
A CNC milling machine for less than a grand. Page 92

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Retro R/C Racer by Frank E. Yost
Using scrap sheet metal and pop rivets, you can construct a model 1930s British Midget racer with modern radio control capabilities. Page 94

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Kitchen Floor Vacuum Former by Bob Knetzger
Mold light, durable, and cool-looking 3D parts in your kitchen. Page 106 Download PDF.Download Sample PDF of this article (excerpt).

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Spin The Birdie by Larry Cotton
Get awesome avian photos by moving your camera closer to the birds -- and rotating them for the perfect pose. Page 116

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Easy Motor by Cy Tymony in 123
Make a spinning motor with a minimum of parts. Page 126

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Breadboard Rack by Tom Zimmerman in DIY: Circuits
A simple way to interconnect protoboards. Page 127

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Big Kid Night Light by Dan Weiss in DIY: Circuits
Dollar-store hack makes a color-changing mood light. Page 131

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Net Data Meter by Tom Igoe in DIY: Circuits
Antique voltmeter displays current air quality from the web. Page 133

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Fetch the Weather with the MAKE Controller by Brian Jepson in DIY: Science
This easy starter project displays your local forecast. Page 138 Download PDF.Download Sample PDF of this article.

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Ball of Sound by Michael F. Zbyszynski in DIY: Home
Construct a low-cost spherical speaker array. Page 141

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Free VoIP by Dave Mathews in DIY: Home
Got broadband? Add phone service for $0/month. Page 145

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Plush Irradiated Sirloin by Rebecca Stern in DIY: Home
Microcontroller night light illuminates meaty issues. Page 149

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On Batteries by Limor Fried in DIY: Workshop
How to decide which batteries will run your project best. Page 151

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Electronic Crickets by Michael F. Zbyszynski in DIY: Outdoors
Create a nighttime chorus by modifying solar yard lamps. Page 154

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DIY ECGs by Dr. Shawn Carlson in Citizen Science
Track your ticker with a homemade electrocardiogram machine. Page 157

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Wheel of Life by Joost Bonsen, Nick Dragotta, Saul Griffith in Howtoons
Make a Wheel of Life. Page 160

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MakeShift: Hot Electrical Problem by Lee D. Zlotoff in MakeShift
The creator of MacGyver challenges you to stop an electrical fire from raging. Page 162

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Purely Platonic by Charles Platt in Primer
Have fun with classic Platonic geometry while building your own dodecahedron table lamp. Page 164

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Toys, Tricks, and Teasers by Donald E. Simanek in Toys, Tricks, and Teasers
Friction. There's the rub. Page 169

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Blast from the Past by Mister Jalopy in Blast from the Past
Mr. Jalopy's adaptation of the Orange Crate Racer project from the 1949 classic Make It and Ride It. Page 172

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Toolbox by Tim Anderson, Andrea Dunlap, Lenore Edman, Saul Griffith, Walter Kalwies, Arwen O'Reilly, Meara O'Reilly, Ross Orr, John Edgar Park, Donald E. Simanek, Darel Snodgrass, Phillip Torrone in Toolbox
The best tools, software, publications, and websites. Plus: Favorite Things as chosen by the bike-crazed editors of Momentum magazine. Page 174

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Puzzle This by Michael H. Pryor in Aha!
MAKE's favorite puzzles. Page 181

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Retrospect by George Dyson in Retrospect
The 1977 Gulf of Alaska baidarka expedition. Page 182

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Tips and Tricks by Arwen O'Reilly
Bare necessities: steam-scrambled eggs, cheapo light tent, rent freedom, and six-pack security. Page 185

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Maker's Calendar by William Gurstelle in Maker's Calendar
Our favorite events from around the world, August - November. Page 190

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Homebrew by Greg McCarroll in Homebrew
Greg McCarroll's web-networked, train-schedule alarm clock. Page 192

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Reader Input in Reader Input
Letters from our readers offering praise, brickbats, and swell ideas. We Make Amends here, too. Page 195

Extras

Additional content for this volume available only online.

MakeShift 11: Analysis, Commentary, and Winners

by Lee D. Zlotoff; January 04, 2008

MakeShift 11: Brian Lannon's Most Plausible Winning Entry
Brian Lannon's entry was awarded the MakeShift Master Plausible award for his solution to MakeShift 11.
by Lee D. Zlotoff; January 04, 2008

MakeShift 11: Emile Daigle's Most Creative Winning Entry
Emile Daigle's entry was awarded the MakeShift Master Creative award for his solution to MakeShift 11.
by Lee D. Zlotoff; January 04, 2008

Mulitimedia for this Volume

Heart Nightlight from Big Kid Night Light

Watch one hacked nightlight in action.

Download now: QuickTime .MOV

Cricket Lamp from Electronic Crickets

Watch the cricket lamp go off in the dark.

Download now: MPEG

Star Nightlight from Big Kid Night Light

Watch one hacked nightlight in action.

Download now: QuickTime .MOV

MAKE: Amends Errata for this volume.

Where it appears Swing and Wrong-Way Bikes, Page 73
The error We were bummed to realize that a last-minute file adjustment had led to the last sentence of this article being cut off in the print version--and what a great line it is! Jarico's last comment, in its entirety, should read, "Of course, we don’t consider ourselves carnies. We consider ourselves showmen. If anyone calls us carnies, I’ll call him a mooch." Sorry, Jarico!
Where it appears Spin The Birdie, Page 118
The error On p. 118, the illustration of the ratchet assembly is wrong: the pawl doesn't go through the hole in the top of the pivot screw and the ratchet spacers don't go over the pivot screw. However, Figure 12 (linked above under Guides) correctly shows how it all goes together.

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