The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for bikes, rockets, R/C vehicles, toys and other diversions.
MAKE regular Mike Pantrey, aka Mrsuperpants, returns with this cool page about building on-the-cheap DIY versions of the commercial systems used to make foam and/or “snow” for video, photo, and event special effects. He describes three iterations of his homemade CAFS and a method for making colored foam. [Thanks, Mike!]
Learn to build the BrushBot Kit from the Maker Shed.
http://www.makershed.com/Build_your_own_scuttling_BrushBot_p/msbb.htm
http://makeprojects.com/Project/Building-BrushBot-Kits/77/1
OK Go’s new video for the song Needing/Getting has the band playing a thousand instruments… with a car. Yep, they rigged up a Chevy Sonic hatchback with retractable pneumatic arms, then drove a course with specially tuned instruments at specific intervals while extending the arms to hit each in time with the song. This allowed them to capture both the video itself along with audio elements, which they mixed into the the final track. Elements of which were aired during the Superbowl as an ad.
JaxPaboo, AKA Pat Booth of Odessa, FL, wrote an Instructable showing how to hide a bike key inside the fork of the bike, using a wine cork. (I wonder if painting the cork to match the frame would be a good idea?)
It used to be that having your own quadrotor drone was cutting edge. Now that the average joe can pick one up at their local mall for a couple hundred bucks means that you’ve got to step your game up if you don’t want to be seen as pedestrian. That’s why today’s aspiring UAV enthusiasts are working with swarms. Not just any swarms either, but swarms of nano-quadrotors. These days, budget conscious drone makers are going small to cut costs and shed ounces.
Worldwide Cycling Atlas produced this excellent video about Maya Pedal Asociación, a Guatemalan organization which has been repurposing bicycles into machines since 1997. Created because of the expense and scarcity of electricity in the municipality of San Andrés Itzapa, their Bicimáquinas are pedal-powered pumps, blenders, threshing machines, and washing machines. They’re doing great work and […]
Andrew and his brother built this great ping-pong ball launcher out of salvaged and repurposed parts. I especially like the 13-ball hopper made from two paper towel tubes taped together, and the clever K’Nex-controlled release mechanism. The launcher is controlled with an Arduino connected to a computer and activated via a remote desktop app from […]
