Math Monday: Color 3D Printing
Color 3D printing allows one to make beautiful objects that are pretty much impossible to fabricate by any other technique. Here is a 9-inch diameter sculpture I designed and built on a 3D Systems Zprinter 450.
Science
DIY science is the perfect way to use your creative skills and learn something new. With the right supplies, some determination, and a curious mind, you can create amazing experiments that open up a whole world of possibilities. At home-made laboratories or tech workshops, makers from all backgrounds can explore new ideas by finding ways to study their environment in novel ways – allowing them to make breathtaking discoveries!
How-To: Low-Cost Gyroscopic Camera Stabilizer
DIY physics guru David Prutchi coveted one of the expensive professional-grade gyroscopic camera stabilizers made by Kenyon Laboratories. “These devices,” he observes, “don’t seem to have changed much since Kenyon’s founder filed the following two patents in the 50′s: US2811042, US2570130.” Referencing those patents, David reverse-engineered the basic geometry of the Kenyon stabilizer using a pair of inexpensive precision gyroscopes from Glenn Turner of gyroscopes.com.
Working with Horn: Resources at UK’s MoDiP
That’s Museom of Design in Plastics, and their online collections are really outstanding. While there is some good online info on hornworking in the hobby community (especially the SCA), it’s mostly text with simple line art. I couldn’t find much photography of real artifacts and tools before stumbling on MoDiP’s online Nature’s plastic exhibit.
MAKE Visits the Open Source Ecology Project
Our special contributor, Jon Kalish, drives into Missouri’s corn and soybean country in search of the Open Source Ecology project.
Natural Slate Electrical Panels
We’ve already had some great reader suggestions for Natural Materials month. The first that caught my eye this morning is from MAKE pal and Flickr-pool-roundup regular John Honniball, aka anachrocomputer, who directs our attention to the use of natural slate panels as insulators in vintage electrical equipment. Above, a beautiful example from the Canada Science and Technology Museum…
Romanian Teenager Puts Space Shuttle Back in Space
On January 5, 2012, Raul Oaida posted the following update to his blog: “On the 31st of December I launched the Black Sky project payload with two HD cameras. I recovered the rig ~240km awaydownrange (320km on the highway) in excellent condition from a hill in a remote area.” About a month later, he posted the embedded video to YouTube. The entry on his blog from that date kinda says it all: “This was all done by me.”
Top 10: Natural Materials
When we say “natural materials,” the mind leaps immediately to wood, stone, leather, natural fibers. But there are lots of interesting and more “exotic” materials from the natural world that we don’t tend to think of, right away, and digging these up and showing them off is one of the things I’m most looking forward to in this month’s theme. To kick things off, here’s a sampler of some of my personal favorite unusual natural materials from our archives, arranged in highly unscientific how-much-does-Sean-like-it order. There’s cool stuff here made from antler, acorns, fish scales, insect parts – even shark’s teeth! Enjoy!