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, […]
Motorize a phenakistoscope, a 19th-century parlor novelty that preceded motion pictures, and keep its frames synched to an LED strobe by using a sensor and an Arduino microcontroller. Invented in 1832 by Joseph Plateau, this device creates a moving picture from a sequence of stills arranged on a spinning disk and viewed through strategically cut […]
Using cute little animal figurines, we are going to decapitate them and turn them into many mini-busts creating an awesome animal rack. For a more detailed tutorial, check out the accompanying video. As a huge animal nut, I have a ton of animals all over my home. A tiger planter, a collection of deer figurines, […]
Imagine a handsome lacquered oak box with a lid mounted on brass hinges. The magician opens the box to reveal a row of 6 brightly painted, rainbow-colored wooden blocks nestled snugly inside. A long, rigid spike passes through a hole at one end of the box, through holes in the centers of the blocks, and […]
What do you do with the toilet brush right after you use it? Hang it up? Lay it in the sink or bathtub to dry first? Or maybe you have one of those brushes with a built-in base that keeps the bristles corralled when not in use. All of these alternatives kinda skeenge me out, […]
Author Note: Since the release of the article in MAKE Magazine Volume 15 in 2008, the Compressed Air Rocket has been popular beyond belief. We’ve sold thousands of kits and Kip Kay’s Weekend Project on YouTube has over one million views! Now we’re rolling out a Version 2.0 of the launcher as well as the […]
I am the owner of the Open Source Gallery, an alternative art space in the South Slope district of Brooklyn, NY. We host a Soap Box Camp for kids and a Soap Box Derby for kids and adults every August. All cars are built completely out of trash we find in the neighborhood. We organize […]
