The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for the industrial arts from metal and woodworking to CNC machining and 3D printing.
Review of one of my favorite new devices of 2005 by Barry Gerber – “When I first heard about LeapFrog’s Fly Pentop Computer it seemed like a perfect product for a half-serious half-humorous review. After all it is marketed as a toy for ‘tweens (ages 8-13) and you conjure up one sort of functionality or another by writing with the pen on a piece of paper. I mean, how much could such a device actually do?” Link.
Jackson has a review of Farm Show… he writes “Was hanging out at my family cabin in Washington State over the holidays, and one of the most eagerly awaited pieces of mail for the year showed up — Farm Show Magazine’s best of issue. It’s got all sorts of awesome DIY stuff. One dude turned an old Ford F-150 into a 10HP electric truck that’ll go 40MPH. Another dude took a tank from a rail car and turned it into a giant furnace that burns those big rolls of hay. It heats a reservoir of water that’s then piped to all the buildings on his property, with old truck radiators used as the indoor heating elements. The hinge for the furnace door is an 8′ axle salvaged from a John Deere combine. There’s a guy who built a wheelchair transporter out of a garden tractor, or the guy who modified a roto tiller so it could pull him in his wheelchair while he drove. There’s even an Oregon company featured that makes custom heavy-duty jeans which I’m totally going to pimp as a fashion statement. Anyway, you’ve got rural ingenuity, DIY, environmentalism and everything else that makes America grand. Highly, highly recommended.” Link.
James Alguire has a review of our new book Makers on Slashdot – “Makers: All Kinds of People Making Amazing Things In Garages, Basements, and Backyards by Bob Parks, and published by O’Reilly, celebrates the basic human desire to create, to nail together two things that have never been nailed together before and see what it does. While I have worked in construction, built computers from scratch and done my share of soldering, I still felt a sense of wonder after reading about the 76 projects outlined in this book.” Read the rest of James’s review…” Link.
Located on a quiet street flanked by gigantic shade trees in Burbank, Calif., Mister Jalopy’s garage is like a portal into the past and the future at the same time
I can’t wait to get one and start hacking, a super tiny ebook reader is my first project – You already know that the Game Boy Micro is small when you hear people tell you that it’s just barely bigger than the cartridge that fits into it, but you don’t really get a sense for just how small it is until you get your hands on it. Your thumb just about dwarfs it. The AC adapter for the system is nearly as big as the system it charges — the charger is slightly thicker, almost exactly as tall, and a little more than half as wide. The whole system is smaller than just the screen on Sony’s PSP. It almost fits inside a Nintendo DS game case. We’re talking very, very small. Link.
This looks good- Bridging the gap between instructions included with LEGO sets and the unlimited world of freestyle LEGO building, The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide is a nuts-and-bolts approach to making original models from those famous plastic bricks. Written by Allan Bedford, a lifelong LEGO fan whose most ambitious model to date is a 5,000-piece replica of Toronto’s famed CN Tower, this new title draws together core techniques, principles and reference information. Link.
I’ve been meaning to try them out- this sounds great…The cool thing is there are several videos on there that I’ve always wanted to buy from my car parts and restoration catalogs. My first two selections are both from the Welding Section since I’m planning on picking up a MIG welder within the next couple of weeks. I also really like their blog where they interview real customers to find out about their projects and announce new videos. Link.
