Your Comments

And we’re back with our thirteenth installment of Your Comments. Here are our favorites from the past week, from Make: Online, our Facebook page, and Twitter.

Over on Facebook, many people were pining for a kit version of the Elegant POV clock. Gregory Wild-Smith summed it up well:

I want… nay NEED a kit for this. Right now.

Also on Facebook, Lisa Roselinsky Weller had a good observation about the flamethrower trombone:

Ha. Another reason to have the trombones march in the front rank!

Namban liked the style of the antique clocks turned into speaker cases, but was concerned about their construction:

Elegant…

BUT BLASPHEMY!

Those look like very old ormolu clocks. I really, really hope the movements were missing from those, or at the least, not working, and set aside.

This is one of those cases where I really hope he used modern cheap clocks that were made to look old- but those look original.

eyes in pain…

however db3ll, the creator of the project, set them straight:

Hi.

I’m the guy who did this, and no clocks were harmed; yes, they are old spelter clocks, but they have damage to them that prevents them from being worth much. Clock cases like these are usually available on ebay, or antique clock repair places will sell them to you also. They’re pretty common.

I have the movements (not in good shape); if I wanted to change them back to non-working clocks it’d be about a half hour job.

Eric Hunting enjoyed the playable mini drumset:

This video was more than awesome…
…It was the Bees Knees!

Oddity explains the concept of ‘geek life’ for the Geek Dad book giveaway:

I don’t know that we have geek projects so much as “geek life”. So far this summer we’ve caught a meteor shower and explored Yellowstone (both from a beauty and science perspective). I taught my oldest to use a compass then explained how the magnifying glass on the compass could be used to start a fire. I taught my wife to solder and explained how the switch works on the trimmer so that next time it breaks, she can fix it. I hacked my sump pump outlet to provide a “hose” near the house to water the yard/gardens, which amazed my youngest (4) and prompted a whole discussion on “hacking” things to make them better. He is getting ready to start the hydroponics setup with me again (fresh lettuce, and this time we’re going to try tomatoes and peppers). I’m currently looking for a couple of battlebot kits for the family to put together for Christmas, though looking at Ken’s demolition car with Lego video, that might be just as much fun. I suppose the only “project” I want to do with the kids is build a fly a sky lantern, as I remember doing this in school (but for some reason they won’t let them launch them in the gym anymore :-D) I suppose if I paid more attention, wrote things down, actually had a “plan” sometimes these would be “projects”. Really we’re just having fun.

Wilson provides a good example of how to give constructive criticism about the Spray bike makeover project:

Carefully considering the “be nice” comment policy, I have to say the paint colors they chose are pretty.

But doesn’t a bike that has sat outside gathering weeds deserves more TLC than a quick respray? It’s pretty easy to strip a single-speed bike like that fully – the headset and bottom bracket are easy, and a chain breaker is relatively cheap. You could even repack the front hub easily, but the rear coaster-brake is trickier to pull apart and reassemble.

There was a good discussion about the One-Way Ticket article in the latest issue of MAKE. Commenter gtoal was able to get theirs working:

Success! Great project, was easy to build once I found the parts. I did google for tips on how to apply the cement, and I would add to your description that it’s worth attaching the plunger end first, so you can lean heavily on the other end to help push it all the way on, without worrying about pushing too hard on the newly cemented valve :-/

By the way, ‘insinkerator’ is a brand of garbage disposal unit that you have in your kitchen sink – not a type of incinerator, which would be way too daring a project for a toilet add-on!

Actually I looked for them after suggesting that and in fact they do exist – there’s a custom unit called a ‘toilet macerator’ that does the same job, though I suspect a kitchen one would be cheaper!

Thanks again for a cool project. Although I’m not looking forward all that much to the first live field test!

Like these comments? Be sure to sound off in the comments! You could be in next week’s column.