Computers add binary numbers constantly, but we never see how. This elegant machine does the math using glass marbles. I started building marble track machines years ago using Lego. I experimented with all sorts of crazy ways for the marbles to descend. One was a rocker that shunted a stream of dropping marbles one-by-one to […]
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This project was inspired by my son’s love of Hot Wheels cars and making them go fast, as well as my husband’s love of making cool toys for him and wanting any excuse to play with power tools. This car launcher shoots out Hot Wheels-type cars using rubber band power, and it’s makeable using materials […]
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RC hobby servomotors were just made for hacking. What’s not obvious is how much you can hack them — with a few tricks, you can use a servo to control almost anything. Hobby servos consist of a DC gear motor, a potentiometer (usually 5K), and a control circuit. The output shaft is the output of […]
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Sometimes nothing is as important as perspective. My goal in photography is often to find a view no one else has found, to be able to see things from unusual and insightful vantage points. The most practical way to obtain the elusive aerial perspective is by attaching a camera to a mast. While not trivial, […]
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Apartment-style living has its advantages, but getting a bicycle off the balcony, through your living area, and down several flights of stairs just to go get some exercise isn’t one of them. Carrying groceries up and taking trash down several flights of stairs isn’t so much fun either, but you can mitigate these pains by […]
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Take a picture is a fine-art project by artists Brad Blucher and Kyle Clements. In the exhibit, the human eye see is only able to see blank surfaces (in our case, blank canvases). People walk up to the show space and see blank canvases hanging on the wall. They see absolutely nothing, then make some […]
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Before moving off to college I wanted to build something that would be suitable as a kitchen table and double as my desk for studying. It needed to be sturdy and robust enough to last through college and for the years to come, yet I did not want to build a piece of furniture that […]
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