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Top 10: Marvelous Metals

Top 10: Marvelous Metals

By Sean Michael Ragan

Sean Michael Ragan

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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As promised, here’s a tasting menu featuring some of my favorite metallurgical content from our archives arranged, as usual, in mysteriously-appealing (and entirely arbitrary) top-ten format. Narrowing it down to just ten involved some hard choices; this subject is rich, and we’ve covered it a lot. A second round-up, perhaps at the close of the month, may be in order. In the meantime, I’ve got a lot of cool stuff on my to-blog list, and it’s growing fast as your suggestions roll in.

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Top 10: Stupid Plastic Tricks

Top 10: Stupid Plastic Tricks

By Sean Michael Ragan

Sean Michael Ragan

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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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

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Top 10: Knifemaking

Top 10: Knifemaking

By Sean Michael Ragan

Sean Michael Ragan

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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Knives are a major “gateway drug” for many a young maker. They were for me, certainly. One of the first things I ever remember being proud of making was a cocobolo replacement handle (mounted with homemade “mosaic” pins) to repair my mother’s favorite paring knife. (Coincidentally, both skills are covered in this round-up.)

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Top 10: Swarmbots!

Top 10: Swarmbots!

By Sean Michael Ragan

Sean Michael Ragan

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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I first wanted to call this post “When ‘Bots Attack” or something similarly FOX-esque, but couldn’t bring myself to do it. There’s been plenty of alarmism about robots recently, and swarming robots are particularly juicy targets for people looking to stir up controversy since there seems to be something particularly loathsome and/or frightening to us about swarming creatures in general.

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Top 10: Shelves And Shelving

Top 10: Shelves And Shelving

By Sean Michael Ragan

Sean Michael Ragan

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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I recall an infomercial a few years back for a little plastic triangle that stuck in a corner, between two walls, to make a small corner shelf. I don’t remember the exact name of the product, but I do remember that the commercial exhausted all the obvious self/shelf puns: “shelf esteem,” “shelf confidence,” “shelf defense,” “shelf-employed,” etc., etc. So I’ll forgo I’ll the all the opportunities this topic offers for shelf-referential humor and just get down to business.

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