Start out your monster making experience by reading the tutorial found in CRAFT, Volume 06. Next, crack open the DIY Mini Monster kit and hand-sew your first adorable little monster. When you’re all done, use the included Maker’s Notebook to sketch out some new designs. Before you know it, your entire house will be overrun by tons of plush monsters!
I keep trying to persuade anyone who will listen that CNC foam cutters are dramatically underrated machines. People look at them and say, “That’s cool and all, but I don’t want styrofoam parts.” To which I reply, “If you have a styrofoam part, you can turn it into cast aluminum with an unbelievably simple garage process.” What’s more, styrofoam is ubiquitous, cheap, and so easy to cut that the CNC robot can be extremely lightweight and inexpensive, as for instance, this one submitted by reader Raul Aguaviva, which is hacked together from a coat hanger and junked scanner parts. Combine one of these with a Gingery-style charcoal foundry and you could conceivably produce a homebrew CNC system, that can produce aluminum parts, for less than $50.
Forget cheesy yard tombstones, evil cackling pop-up witches, or ghosts that fly down from on top of the porch. Todd Harrison has put dual 110-decibel automobile horns inside his jack-‘o-lantern, which features a cute red button nose and buck-toothed smile to throw people off from how diabolical it truly is. And here’s the really wicked part: The horn is on a delay. Pushing the button causes the eyes to light up immediately, so the little tykes think, “Hey, neat, a pumpkin with light-up eyes,” and then go on about their tyke-y business, at least for a few seconds before the dual 110-decibel automobile horns go off and leave them traumatized for life. Genius! There’s video on Todd’s site. [via Hack a Day]
Why are we building laser tripwires? My friend, we’ll call him Agent Todbot, and I are creating a competitive art heist event for the upcoming Machine Project benefit. This means lots of fog, laser tripwires, and flashing lights.
This phototutorial from central Florida is actually called “Flamingos with frickin laser beams,” which was a pretty hard title to resist. However, it looks to me like there are, in fact, only LEDs involved here, and Make: Online readers are sensitive to such distinctions. [Thanks, Shawn!]
Mike Galloway made this star field ceiling, rad!
I recently had the pleasure of playing a family game of ladderball (aka bolo toss, ladder golf) using some basic homebrew hardware, and can say firsthand – it’s good times! For those unfamiliar with the backyard sport: players throw golfball/nylon-rope bolos in attempt to hang them on a simple PVC ladder structure. It’s a surprisingly […]
