This project was inspired by my son’s love of Hot Wheels cars and making them go fast, as well as my husband’s love of making cool toys for him and wanting any excuse to play with power tools. This car launcher shoots out Hot Wheels-type cars using rubber band power, and it’s makeable using materials […]
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, […]
By Molly Graber and Chris Merrick Have you ever dreamed of being really tall? Walking on stilts is a fun and adventurous sport. But where are you going to get a decent-priced pair of stilts to try for your first time? With these instructions, you can add as much height as you want and not […]
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 […]
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 […]
This is a project that celebrates friends. The core group. The people you can count on for a ride to the airport at 6:30 in the morning, or to help you drag a new sofa up three flights of stairs. The people who allowed themselves to be seen with you in public through some of […]
Make this easy hot-wire foam cutter and reuse leftover EPS foam to create treasures from trash.
