No matter how many fancy cat toys they have, there is nothing in this world that makes my cats happier than a good old fashioned cardboard box. So, taking a cue from them, I designed a cat tree that turns four regular cardboard boxes into a flashy two-story cat rocket, complete with carpet for scratching […]
Continue Reading
The BeatBearing is an exciting and intuitive way to make music. Move the balls on a grid, and you change the beat. Music sequencing couldn’t be simpler. Like countless other musicians, I use a computer to create beats and sequence them into mixes. Pointing and clicking with a mouse is fine for a studio, but […]
Continue Reading
The video below shows all the things you need to know to make a low-tech outboard motor in a couple of hours once you have obtained the materials. This project uses parts that you can buy in the local hardware store and the marine supply store. The propeller and 90° drillhead you can also find […]
Continue Reading
My 4-year-old son comes up with some funny ideas. A few months ago, he asked for a piece of cheese to leave outside for animals. We gave him a slice of cheddar. The next morning he jumped out of bed and hurried to the window. The cheese was gone, but who had taken it? He […]
Continue Reading
Run a mini “Electric Punk” bike faster (and funnier) by powering it with a big, bad cordless drill.
Continue Reading
The ultimate Zen garden accessory is the stone urn. Filled only with water and a few fallen leaves, it defines tranquility. Unfortunately, these stone beauties cost hundreds of dollars. Luckily, a concrete mix called “hypertufa” was developed that has the look of stone, specifically the volcanic rock called tufa. In England, farmers carved watering troughs […]
Continue Reading
Computers add binary numbers constantly, but we never see how. This elegant machine does the math using glass marbles. I started building marble track machines years ago using Lego. I experimented with all sorts of crazy ways for the marbles to descend. One was a rocker that shunted a stream of dropping marbles one-by-one to […]
Continue Reading
