Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.
One of the coolest aspects of makers sharing their projects here on Make:, on YouTube, and on sites like Instructables is how they inspire others to not only try the project, but to put their own unique spin on it. In 2013, Jimmy DiResta posted a video of him making what he called a “star key,” a 3-sided key head with his three main keys on it — one key to rule them all.
That video project proved to be extremely popular and one can imagine that there are now many star keys in the wild. A few YouTubers decided to make their own star keys but to modify the design to suit their own needs.
Julian Krizsan is a 14 year old maker who has been greatly inspired by Jimmy and who has his own DIY YouTube channel. He decided to try his hand at a variation of the star key mounting only two keys (I’m guessing no car key yet). It’s really wonderful to see young shop tinkerers like Julian with the skills, motivation, and chutzpah to not only undertake projects like this, but to video-document their process.
Laura Kampf is a talented German maker who has also been inspired by Jimmy DiResta’s work and his YT channel. She made a 3-key model similar to Jimmy’s, but made some clever improvements, namely a bottle opener and a bit holder in the center of the star. Laura has a number of really excellent project videos and her channel is definitely worth subscribing to.
Have you made a DiResta star key? If so, please tell us about it in the comments below. And post pictures. Or, if you’ve done other projects inspired by our Make: DiResta videos, let us know about them, too.
Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.
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