Pliers

Balancing Robot from Recycled Materials

Balancing Robot from Recycled Materials

Amaze your kids by transforming two old toilet rolls and a few other recycled bits and bobs into a cool steampunk-inspired robot. Amaze them even further by balancing your robot on the edge of a ruler, table, shelf, or even your finger. And then triple amaze them by rotating the arms and revealing the steel […]

The Luna Mod Looper

The Luna Mod Looper

The Luna Mod is an easy and fun instrument that will have you making great-sounding loops in no time. Rather than sampling input like a traditional loop station, the Luna Mod synthesizes its own sounds, and you play it using two knobs and one button.

Solar TV Remote

Solar TV Remote

Powering a TV remote with the sun means you won’t have to buy batteries every six months to surf from your sofa. Low-voltage devices that use power only occasionally, like remotes, are good candidates for a solar-powered trickle-charge. Here’s how we modded our remote to live off of the sun, using rechargeable batteries connected in parallel with a small solar cell and a diode to keep any power from trickling back out.

Add Volume, Jack

Add Volume, Jack

Many cheap, fun sonic and musical toys have built-in speakers and no output jack. This limits their volume, unless you constantly hold them up to a microphone. Here’s how to mod these devices so you can plug them in, adjust their volume, and rock out. The simplest way to install an output jack is to […]

Chic Wedding Chalkboards

Chic Wedding Chalkboards

Krylon chalkboard paint can help you upcycle all kinds of bad thrift store art into custom signs. Creating unique signs is a great way to personalize your wedding venue, and also give guests the information they need to find your ceremony! Details like this can be costly, but if you do-it-yourself, every penny you save […]

Lunchbox Laser Shows

Lunchbox Laser Shows

Back in the 1970s, my friend Wayne Gillis and I used to do light shows at science fiction conventions. We had the usual panoply of overhead, slide, and custom-made projectors, and a single, very expensive, helium-neon laser from Edmund Scientific. Calling ourselves Light Opera, and later, Illuminatus, we performed at ConFusion conventions in Ann Arbor, […]

Carbon Fiber Primer

Carbon Fiber Primer

It seems as though nearly everything “high performance” these days boasts some amount of carbon fiber in its construction. Originally used in aerospace, carbon fiber has moved into the mainstream and can be found in luxury automobiles, mountain bikes, and sports equipment. Some laptops and cellphones even use printed decals to simulate this lightweight material’s […]