Tools

Homemade split nut driver

Homemade split nut driver

In response to my Toolbox column on screwdrivers, maker “Funky Space Cowboy” sent this picture and explanation of his “split nut driver:” My favorite driver is one I made from scratch. It’s a sawmaker’s split nut driver, used in making traditional Western style hand saws. I’ve made several of these over the years but this […]

Toolbox: Show us your screwdrivers

Toolbox: Show us your screwdrivers

In the Make: Online Toolbox, we focus mainly on tools that fly under the radar of more conventional tool coverage: in-depth tool-making projects, strange, or specialty tools unique to a trade or craft that can be useful elsewhere, tools and techniques you may not know about, but once you do, and incorporate them into your […]

Kits & Kitmakers: Doug Jackson’s DIY Word Clock

Kits & Kitmakers: Doug Jackson’s DIY Word Clock

Doug Jackson’s DIY Word Clock Kits, which we first blogged about back in April, have been a giant hit. Doug has done a lot of things right. In classic maker fashion, he’s taken a very expensive piece of designer electronics and shown us how to do it ourselves for a fraction of the price. He hasn’t kept any secrets, open-sourcing the design at every step of the way. And he’s offered a range of pricing options to suit his customers’ available funds, time, and skill level, providing his kits in various stages of completion from just the PCB all the way up to the completely assembled clock.

DIY Magic Mirror kits

DIY Magic Mirror kits

Al Linke’s DIY Magic Mirror first appeared on our radar back in 2008, when Al posted a classic Instructable describing the project, which went on to win the Tech Grand Prize in our 2008 DIY Halloween Contest. Al’s Magic Mirror features a Snow-White style floating, talking face in a gilt-framed mirror with an amazingly wide variety number of integrated and integratable functions–breathalyzer, weather forecast, stock tracking, X-10 lighting control, doorbell input with camera feed, Picasa-based slideshow, various themed personalities, etc., etc. He’s selling them, now and gets $219 for the kit.

Drumbrella sings The Doom Song

Drumbrella sings The Doom Song

This is a concept design, aka Rain Drum, from one Dong Min Park, whose personal web presence, if it exists, seems to be eluding me, possibly because it originates somewhere in Asia and is completely orthogonal to my English-language googling.

Another hint that whoever created these images is not a native English speaker: The onomatopoeia he or she has chosen for the sound of rain striking the membranes is “doom,” which is not exactly great marketing, but is pretty amusing, both in and of itself, and because it evokes The Doom Song from Invader Zim.