Year: 2010

Awesome GBC (great ball contraption)

This gigantic Mindstorms robot is quite possibly the most skillfully designed I’ve ever seen. There are at least ten different subsystems that deserve their own posts — I especially love the many ball-elevating systems, particularly the one that sorts soccer balls into one channel and basketballs into the other. GBCs are collaborative building projects where […]

How-To: Custom Bias Tape

This tutorial from Prudent Baby shows how to make custom bias tape with both the traditional method as well as by using a special bias tape making machine. I love the tips for folding the fabric before cutting to eliminate having to sew so many individual strips together.

In the Maker Shed: Robotic arm kit

In the Maker Shed: Robotic arm kit

You command the gripper to open and close, and control wrist motion of 120 degrees, an extensive elbow range of 300°, base rotation of 270°, base motion of 180°, vertical reach of 15″, horizontal reach of 12.6″, and lifting capacity of 100g. Added features include a search light design on the gripper and a safety gear audible indicator on all 5 gearboxes to prevent any potential injury or gear breakage during operation. Award-winning kit assembles with simple hand tools. Ages 10 and up.

Printing electroluminescent displays

Jeri Ellsworth talks to Jon Beck at Maker Faire about silk-screening EL displays with electroluminescent ink manufactured by Dupont. Jon is from CLUE, the Columbia Laboratory for Unconventional Electronics. (How great is that name? Their logo is a question mark where the dot is the ground symbol.) The video is a little hard to hear, […]

Building your own rocketship

I know we’ve done a lot of coverage of the Raygun Gothic Rocketship, but it really is an astounding piece and we were thrilled to have it as the centerpiece of the Faire. And, as this mini-documentary shows, it’s really an amazing maker story, about a large community of some 60 people coming together to […]