make projects

Make: Projects – Water Bath Thermostat

This project was inspired by “Cooking for Geeks” author Jeff Potter’s quick DIY sous-vide hack. My plan, initially, was to just hack the controller into an enclosure with an A/C outlet, the idea being that you could just plug any heater you wanted into the outlet. Looking around for cheap temperature controllers, however, I happened across the STC-1000 on eBay for $25. It’s not PID, but it has proven to be plenty accurate enough for almost any practical purpose. And since the STC-1000 has both heating and cooling functions built-in, the logical next step seemed to be to split a single A/C outlet so that you could plug a heater or a cooler (or both) into it and use it for all kinds of stuff.

Continue Reading August 2nd, 2011 Sean Michael Ragan40

Weekend Projects: USB Webcam Microscope

Do you want to build some sweet projects in next-to-no time, over the weekend? Of course you do. Look no further than the new Weekend Projects section of Make: Projects, brought to you by RadioShack and The Great Create. Each week over the coming months we’ll be building clever, fun, mostly beginner-friendly, electronics projects.

Continue Reading July 26th, 2011 Nick Normal

How-To: PVC and Cable Dyeing

I’m not surprised about the popularity of Sean Michael Ragan’s PVC dyeing technique write-up on Make: Projects. So many projects we feature use this boring white pipe because of its low price, widespread availability, and versatility. Since PVC doesn’t take paint very well, this PVC dyeing technique is perfect for adding those crucial finishing touches […]

Continue Reading July 25th, 2011 Matt Richardson8

New in the Maker Shed: Telerobotic Gripper Kit

Get a grip with the Telerobotic Gripper Kit from the Maker Shed! This kit includes everything you need to make the Teleclaw featured in MAKE: Volume 27, even the batteries! Assemble the kit and attach it to your robot, rover, or anywhere else you could use an extra hand.

Continue Reading July 20th, 2011 Maker Shed

Weekend Projects and The Great Create

Next week, we’ll be launching a series of 15 Weekend Projects, brought to you by RadioShack’s The Great Create. These step-by-step electronics how-tos will appear as a special section on Make: Projects, on a custom MAKE Facebook subpage, and we’ll be published a special weekly newsletter to support the program. The weekly Weekend Projects newsletter […]

Continue Reading July 18th, 2011 Gareth Branwyn6

Flatbed Slide, Negative Scanning Using Cut and Fold Adapter

Really cool low-cost trick from our very own Andrew Lewis over on CRAFT. Cut the adapter from silver card stock and position it over the slide or negative to be scanned on the bed of a regular flat-bed scanner. The scan is taken with the lid open (obviously), and negatives can then be inverted and touched-up at the software level.

Continue Reading July 13th, 2011 Sean Michael Ragan7

The Flame Tube Project (and Contest Coming Soon!)

Based on the work of German quantum physics pioneer, Heinrich Rubens, I designed this flame tube so propane gas inside the tube flows through holes drilled along the top, and flames are then lit above. I send a sound wave into the tube with a loudspeaker at the other end. When the tube is driven at one of its resonance frequencies, flames form a visual standing wave pattern, as you can see in the picture. Vary the pitch and change the volume to get different patters.

Continue Reading July 1st, 2011 Bill Gurstelle4