Anytime a TV show runs ten seasons, you know they’re doing something right. Anytime a TV show runs ten seasons after starting out on an indie UHF station, with a shoestring budget, using props, puppets, and sets literally held together with duct tape and hot glue, well…fans know that Mystery Science Theater 3000 is in a class by itself.
Joel Bukiewicz of Cut Brooklyn talks about the value of handmade, and how that extends to his line of kitchen knives that he builds in his studio in Brooklyn, New York. Joel was a writer by trade who, after taking a three month sabbatical, found the desire to make things instead. He worked with wood, made jewelry, and eventually ended up making hunting knives.
Among MAKE readers, we’re nearly unanimous in agreeing that the rise of digital fabrication is a complete game-changer for crafters, hackers, and tinkerers of all stripes. Laser cutters, CNC mills, and 3D printers have altered the way we think about design, and raised the bar for quality and precision in our work. I’m a passionate adopter of these technologies, but am also wary of the cultural shift they represent as they become more ubiquitous.
On the PVC-Innovations site, Adam Withrow walks you through how to heat and bend PVC end pieces into abstract sculptures. I can see other practical applications to this process as well, though it should be stressed that proper safety precautions be taken as PVC can get pretty noxious. I’d love to see someone attempt a piece like this and then dye it afterwards.
My buddies over at Open Music Labs have posted an excellent tutorial on how Force Sensitive Resistors (FSRs) work, as well as how to use them effectively in circuits.
If you’ve ever tried to build a box from clear acrylic, you know how hard it can be to get good-looking joints between the panels. The folks at TAP Plastics have gotten pretty good at it, but even they admit that the basic slab-joint method “will not produce museum grade products.” This video was produced by the German firm…
We have hundreds of posts in the archives with the keyword “plastic” in the title, but many of them are about particular objects made from plastic, rather than general methods for working with plastics. So I went through and cherry-picked ten of what I considered to be the more inventive and unusual methods-based “plastics” posts. The photos aren’t sexy, but if you’re interested in weird things you can do with plastic, at home, this is the post for you. And some of these methods will probably turn out to be not so “stupid,” after all
