Related to MAKE 10, MakeShift

MakeShift 10: Analysis, Commentary, and Winners

by Lee D. Zlotoff
September 07, 2007

I guess because most of us have wrestled with the frustration of misplacing our keys at some time (or maybe because the solution seemed obvious) this challenge drew a near record number of entries. And, as we've come to expect from all you Make-oids, there was no shortage of creative thinking about how to tackle the task, ranging from the optomistically simple to the convincingly complex. For instance, some of you suggested just sticking your hand down the crevice to feel around for the keys. Easy and instictive perhaps but, given the snakes and other nasty critters that often hang out in such desert refuges, not really the wisest of approaches.

Others proposed just rigging up a simple wire hook to try and fish for the key ring itself. Again, simple enough, but considering the depth and darkness of the fissure, you'd have to be pretty damn lucky to come up with the keys that way. Not to mention foregoing a golden opportunity to really impress your mate with your inherent brilliance after watching them roll their eyes at you for having dropped them down there in the first place.

No, this challenge was really a chance to turn a brain-fart into a triumph and, ideally, still manage to salvage the outing you both expected. The fact that failing to retrieve the keys could leave one or both of you stranded in the desert until help could be found only added enough jeopardy to make success all the sweeter.

Now a few of you suggested using the built in cell phone camera in movie mode to first locate the keys by using it as a probe lowered into the crack, thus increasing the odds of then fishing them out with a hook. Very creative but, alas, somewhat flawed. Like any camera, a cell phone camera needs light. And, at the bottom of a 15 foot crevice, we seriously doubted there would be enough light for the cell camera to see much of anything. Also, cell phone cameras use a lot of battery power and your charged battery will weaken quickly if you use it this way. Yes, the cell phone does not work as a phone where you currently are, but that doesn't mean that it won't work at some higher spot a few miles away if you do need to try and hike out as a last resort. If it can shorten a possible 80 mile attempt at hiking out of a desert, it is best to leave the phone intact and turn it off once you know you can't get a signal.

But the vast majority of you instantly grasped that magnetism was—to pardon the pun—the real key here. (Though why some of you thought that the stainless steel in a Swiss Army knife wouldn't be attracted to a magnet still has us scratching our heads. It definitely would—as would the key ring itself).

So, then the question becomes where to find—or how to construct—a viable enough magnet to get those keys back. And there were two schools of thought here.

The most popular approach was taking apart an audio speaker or two in the SUV for the permanent magnets they contain. Very good thinking. But, depending on the actual size of the speakers and their magnets, we were concerned about their really having enough power to attract and extract the knife and the keys given the likilhood that they would scrape or bounce against the sides of the crevice as you tried to pull them out. We're not saying it wouldn't work but, here again, a fair amount of luck and deft handling would be required to insure the success of this method.

To our thinking then, the surest bet here was to use the available materials to build a sufficiently strong electromagnet. So to those of you who responded with "No sweat—just make an electromagnet", you get the satisfaction of knowing that, at least in concept, we agree. But that's about all you get. Because, as with most things in life, the devil is in the details. And, if you really hope to win the wildly coveted prize of a Make sweatshirt, you're gonna want to lay out the specifics next time so everyone can benefit from your genius—and know exactly how to proceed when they find themselves in this mess.

Some people thought of using the cell phone or metal detector batteries to power the magnet, while others thought about using the car battery from the SUV. Needless to say, the more powerful the magnet, the greater the lifting capability and range of attraction it has. So for us, the car battery was the optimal choice: it would easily handle this task and still be able to start the SUV once the keys were recovered. And, if you used the barbed wire for your coils instead of cannabilizing the wire in the metal detector, your cell phone, metal detector and SUV would all still be intact and functional when you were done.

This would not only permit you to proceed with the outing as planned, but afford you the incomparable pleasure of smiling coyly at your mate with a silent "ta-da" as you hand them back the keys and say, "Here, why don't you hang onto these?" If they don't immediately shower you with impressed compliments—or something even better—maybe it's time to reconsider your choice of mates.

Thanks again to all for your great brain-work and we look forward to hearing from you on the next challenge. Now off to search for all that overlooked gold!

The winners of the MakeShift Vol 10 Challenge are:

• MakeShift Master – Plausible: Mark Boyd
• MakeShift Master – Creative: Peter Davoust
• MakeShift Master – Honorable Mention: Ray Gibson