Fun & Games

The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for bikes, rockets, R/C vehicles, toys and other diversions.

Quadcopter Flying Over a Field of Yellow Mustard

Quadcopter Flying Over a Field of Yellow Mustard

There is a large field of mustard a couple miles from MAKE headquarters, and for a few weeks in spring, all the mustard blooms, and the field turns brilliant yellow. On the way home from work about a month ago, I stopped at the field, with a plan to to take some photos. As I got closer to the ideal photo spot, I came across a gentleman, documentary filmmaker Michael Heumann, flying a quadcopter. We got to chatting, and I ended up snapping some photos. Michael has a DJI Phantom Aerial UAV Drone Quadcopter with a GoPro camera mounted to it, and he showed me how he had installed some Moongel pads on the top and bottom of the camera, to absorb shock to reduce video shakiness.

Simple Machines: The Lever

Simple Machines: The Lever

The lever is one of the six classic simple machines. A simple machine is a mechanical device that changes a force’s direction or magnitude. The other five simple machines are the wheel and axle, the pulley, the inclined plane, the wedge and the screw. Explaining simple machines to kids can be a fun learning experience, especially if you include some demonstrations in the lesson. Here’s how I built a lever for a demonstration of simple machines for my son’s 3rd grade clas

Mobile Surfboard-Building Classroom

Mobile Surfboard-Building Classroom

Maine-based Grain Surfboards is a small maker-run company on the coast that hand-makes sustainably cut, locally milled white cedar wooden surfboards. Aside from their dedication to environmental responsibility, what sets Grain apart is that they also offer DIY surfboard kits and a variety of surfboard-building classes. Their newest undertaking is their successfully funded mobile surfboard-building […]