New in the Maker Shed: Mintronics – MintDuino
The MintDuino is perfect for anyone interested in learning (or teaching) the fundamentals of how micro controllers work.
Tools
Skill Set: More on Tapping Skills
In response to my post yesterday on tap and die, one of our fave MAKE contributors, Ross Hershberger, posted a set of tips we thought should have its own post. Then, reader johngineer chimed in with his own excellent tips. We love getting this sort of intel from our community. Thanks, guys! First, Ross: Making […]
Skill Set: The Basics of Tap and Die
Taps and dies are the two tools you use for cutting threads into material around a hole (tap) and for cutting threads into a rod (die) for mating with that hole. The basics of how to do it are quite simple. All you need to know are a few steps and you need a tap […]
Egg With FDA Nutrition Label Courtesy Eggbot
Instructables user dnewman used his EMSL Eggbot rotary plotter to print an accurate nutrition label on the side of a raw egg. A delightful and otherwise fairly useless thing to do. I heartily approve. [via adafruit]
How-To: Set Up a Basement PCB Fab & Use It To Make a POV Business Card
This Instructable from Jared Foster doesn’t just show you how to make his cool persistence-of-vision business card. It takes you through the construction of a circulating etch tank, the modification of a laminating machine to make a stencil applicator, the assembly of a controller to turn a toaster into a reflow oven, and the cobbling-together of a vacuum pickup tool for SMT components. And then you get some practice using all that cool stuff making a POV business card. It even comes with obligatory American Psycho allusions.
DIY Geiger Counters in Japan
In the wake of the Japanese disaster trifecta, I contacted our pal Francesco Fondi, of Wired Italy’s Otaku News and Hobby Media, to make sure he was OK (in Tokyo). He’s fine. He also sent us a link to a piece he’d done on Wired.it about DIY Geiger counters. It looked interesting, so I asked […]
Rust Removal Using Soda
I posed the question recently about how to remove rust from this toolbox full of neglected tools. I got lots of suggestions in the comments recommending different methods. I’ve decided to try out as many of them as possible. First up: soda.