Living Room Baja Buggies

Living Room Baja Buggies
John Mouton | Make Vol. 14- 2008 | Pdf | 10 pgs | 3 mb

BUG'S-EYE VIEW

With wireless cameras on board,
these radio-controlled racers give you
virtual reality telepresence.

Do you like radio-controlled (R/C) cars? Do you like the
desert, but hate the heat? Well, sit down and kick back as you
engage in the excitement of Living Room Baja Buggy Racing.
This off-road competition combines the fun of homemade
R/C cars with the air-conditioned convenience of a fake,
indoor desert landscape - without the big dollar price.
There are no rules, no expensive automotive racing equip-
ment, and a total disregard for public safety (because these
cars are only 6" long and 4" tall).
...

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Art Work: Life Models

Art Work: Life Models
Douglas Repetto | Make Vol. 14- 2008 | Pdf | 2 pgs | 1 mb

ARTISTS' STUDIOS HAVE TRADITIONALLY
been full of reference materials like botanical
drawings, medical texts, photographs, cata-
logs, and images clipped from magazines. Artists
use these images as direct models for realistic
renderings. but they often provide indirect inspira-
tion as well: patterns in a botanical drawing might
end up as abstract gestures in a painting, or shapes
from a tool catalog might inspire sculptural forms.

Just as often, reference materials simply set the
mood or tone in the studio: being surrounded by
meaningful materials is an inspiration in itself. I
recently visited the reconstruction of Francis Bacon's
home studio at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, and
was overwhelmed by the density and intensity of
the materials (books, magazines, clothing, painting
supplies, canvases) jumbled across every surface in
the room. Although Bacon didn't often use images
from these sources directly in his paintings, he was
certainly inspired by having them around. He said:
"I feel at home here in this chaos because chaos
suggests images to me." Interestingly, the rest of
his small home was rather tidy and uncluttered; the
chaos of his studio seemed a conscious technique.
a key part of his process as a painter.
...

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3D Printing Methods

3D Printing Methods
Tom Owad | Make Vol. 14- 2008 | Pdf | 2 pgs | 1 mb

3D printers print layer on top of layer,
slowly building a three-dimensional
object. A plethora of materials and
methods are used to build these layers.

The Stratasys Dimension is a commercial 3D
printer that uses ABS plastic. The ABS filament
comes in a self-loading cartridge, and is fed into
a heater block by two drive wheels. In the heater
block, the ABS is heated to a semiliquid state and
extruded through the tip, with layers as thin as 0.01".
...

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Solar Power System Design

Solar Power System Design
Parker Jardine | Make Vol. 14- 2008 | Pdf | 8 pgs | 3 mb

In the first part of my solar power Primer,
I showed how to make inexpensive photovoltaic
(PV) panels (see MAKE, Volume 12, page 158,
"20-Watt Solar Panel").

Here, I'll explain how I incorporated them into
a complete solar PV power system. While this
article provides installation tips and general
how-to information, it's not a step-by-step guide
to building the complete system. Rather, it's an
introduction to a complex project that could
easily fill a book.
...

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Make Vol. 13- 2008: Projects

Make Vol. 13- 2008: Projects
Pdf | 29 pgs | 7 mb

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Make Vol. 13- 2008: Do It Yourself

Make Vol. 13- 2008: Do It Yourself
Pdf | 31 pgs | 12 mb

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Meet the Tool-Zine

Meet the Tool-Zine
William Gurstelle | Make Vol. 13- 2008 | Pdf | 6 pgs | 2 mb

IN THE PREVIOUS VOLUME OF MAKE,
I detailed the construction of my all-purpose
maker-style workshop, which I've nicknamed
the Barage Garage. lt's turned out beautifuly, and
as anticipated, it's the envy of my maker friends.

Small? Sure. it's a mere 20 feet by 14 feet. but it
has all the space required to do serious creating.
It's loaded with features, including a way-cool
vinyl tile floor, a high-tech wall storage system,
fluorescent lighting, 240-volt power, and lots of
electrical outlets.
...

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Tin Can Copper Tan

Tin Can Copper Tan
Andrew Lewis | Make Vol. 13- 2008 | Pdf | 1 pgs | 1 mb

You will need: A tin can (tin-plated steel, not aluminum),
muriatic acid (sold in hardware stores as a brick cleaner),
hydrogen peroxide (from a drugstore), scraps of copper,
splash-proof goggles, rubber gloves, waterproof apron,
plastic container, soap, hot water.

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Swahili Bed

Swahili Bed
Tim Anderson | Make Vol. 13- 2008 | Pdf | 2 pgs | 1 mb

In Kenya, the most common and most useful piece of
furniture is the rot- and bedbug-resistant Swahili bed.

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Make Vol. 13- 2008: Magic Tricks

Make Vol. 13- 2008: Magic Tricks
Pdf | 35 pgs | 9 mb

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Making Magic

Making Magic
David Pescovitz | Make Vol. 13- 2008 | Pdf | 6 pgs | 3 mb

ARTHUR C. CLARKE FAMOUSLY SAID, "ANY
sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguish-
able from magic." In response. modern conjurers
like to say. "Any sufficiently advanced magic is
indistinguishable from technology." At the inter-
section of both maxims sits John Gaughan.

For five decades, he's designed and built illusions
for everyone from Doug Henning to Siegfried and
Roy. Ever seen David Copperfield fly? Gaughan gave
him those invisible wings. Scratched your head
as David Blaine makes a person's watch disappear
and rematerialize behind a shop window across the
street? Gaughan's handiwork in action.
...

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Gardner's Mathemagic

Gardner's Mathemagic
Donald E. Simanek | Make Vol. 13- 2008 | Pdf | 4 pgs | 1 mb

The Gilbreath Principle

A number of card tricks are based on a principle that
magician Norman Gilbreath introduced to magic. It's
an application of combinatorial mathematics (which
we will spare you here). Gardner discusses it in
his books New Mathematical Diversions from
Scientific American, Chapter 9, and Mathematical
Magic Show, Chapter 7. We'll describe here the
simpler versions.

Prepare the deck ahead of time with the cards in
black/red alternation. No other order is necessary.
When you start this trick, you can do any false shuffle
that doesn't change the card order. But if you don't
have those skills, don't bother.
...

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The Fire Drug

The Fire Drug
A maker's history of black powder

William Gurstelle | Make Vol. 13- 2008 | Pdf | 4 pgs | 2 mb
IT TRANSFORMED THE FATE OF NATIONS:
it changed the way wars were fought, made
weak countries strong and strong kingdoms
weak. It ended the Middle Ages and ushered in
the Renaissance with a bang. Its gush of hot,
expanding gas blew a way feudalism, for no longer
could chain-mailed knights on horseback. invulner-
able to hand-held weapons and arrows, maintain
domination over their fiefdoms. In my estimation,
black powder, or gunpowder, is the most important
chemical discovery in the history of mankind.
...

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Project Orion: Deep Space Force

Project Orion: Deep Space Force
George Dyson | Make Vol. 13- 2008 | Pdf | 4 pgs | 1 mb

The first part of this article, "Project Orion: Saturn
by 1970," appeared in MAKE, Volume 12. It detailed
the development in the late 1950s of Project Orion,
an interplanetary spaceship to be powered by
nuclear bombs. This portion of the article covers
the envisioned deployment, closer to Earth, of a
Deep Space Force. Orion was never built. Adapted
from the book Project Orion, with new material.
...

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Make Vol. 13- 2008: Upload

Make Vol. 13- 2008: Upload
Pdf | 8 pgs | 2 mb

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$ 1,000 Wind Chimes

$ 1,000 Wind Chimes
Thomas Arey | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 2 pgs | 1 mb

Finding the softer side of hard drive platters.

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Make Vol. 12- 2007: Upload

Make Vol. 12- 2007: Upload
Pdf | 28 pgs | 7 mb

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Styrofoam Plate Speaker

Styrofoam Plate Speaker
Jose Pino | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 2 pgs | 1 mb

Get surprisingly good sound from disposable picnicware.

I've built homemade speakers using various materi-
als for the cone. This design is the best. Paper plates
are too soft. and disposable plastic cups vibrate
too much, but stiff, lightweight styrofoam produces
sound quality that competes with commercial
speakers. I really mean it - you will be surprised!
...

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The Widowmaker: Cutting Down a Tree

The Widowmaker: Cutting Down a Tree
Tim Anderson | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 2 pgs | 1 mb

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Super Tritone Shop Whistle

Super Tritone Shop Whistle
William Gurstelle | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 10 pgs | 3 mb

THIS JAZZY, COMPRESSED-AIR-
POWERED WHISTLE SOUNDS
A MIGHTY BLAST.

Decades ago, whistles were used in
factories, on railroads, and aboard ships.
At noon, whistles of every pitch could be
heard informing workers that lunchtime
had arrived. Railroad engineers used
whistle codes for communication both
within the train and with other trains.
...

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Solar Xylophone

Solar Xylophone
Rory Nugent | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 10 pgs | 3 mb

MUSIC OF THE SPHERE
Solar cells gracefully link technology with
the Earth's natural resources, bringing
projects out of the dank, dusty workshop
and giving them a sustainable home with
the plants outside. This autonomous
xylophone uses Solarengine circuits and
pentatonic chimes to play in tune with
that big nuclear power plant in the sky.
...

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Shoot the Stars

Shoot the Stars
Michael A. Covington | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 2 pgs | 1 mb

Today's digital SLR cameras can easily photo-
graph more stars in the night sky than you can
see - as well as picking up star clusters, nebulae,
and galaxies.

Here's how to shoot the stars with just a camera
and tripod.

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Shoe Shine

Shoe Shine
Andrew Milmoe & Melissa Gira | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 4 pgs | 2 mb

...
While we designed the shoes with women's safety
in mind, they're also intended as a vehicle for self-
expression. The video shoe is essentially a portable
media player (PMP) placed in a platform shoe, and
can be configured to show whatever movies, images.
or messages you put on it. The other shoe has a
120dB siren, for when you feel like sounding the alarm.
...

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Project Orion: Saturn by 1970

Project Orion: Saturn by 1970
George Dyson | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 4 pgs | 2 mb

Fifty years ago tail fins, not seat belts,
were standard equipment on American cars. Russia
was ahead in space, but America was ahead on the
road. Sputnik I, weighing 184 pounds. was launched
on Oct. 4,1957 and circled the Earth every 90
minutes for the next three months. Sputnik II, weigh-
ing 1,120 pounds, followed on Nov. 3 and included
Laika. the pioneer of spacefaring dogs. Earth's third
artificial satellite was launched by a 32-ton Jupiter-C
rocket built by the Chrysler Corporation, on Jan. 31,
1958. Explorer I weighed 31 pounds.

The race for space had begun....

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Lego Recharger

Lego Recharger
John Edgar Park | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 5 pgs | 2 mb

On a recent trip to Legoland. I saw a neat product
in one of the stores: a Lego key rack with Lego brick
keychains. What a great idea. I thought. With this
I could come home, empty my pockets, and have a
consistent place to hang my keys. But wait, what
about all the other devices I just pulled out of my
pockets. where do they go? And. for that matter,
how will all their batteries stay charged?

Then it dawned on me. If I attached a powered
Lego brick to each gadget to provide life-giving
juice for their thirsty batteries, I'd solve 3 major
problems in my life: lack of gadget organization,
lack of battery power, and lack of Legos attached
to all my possessions.
...

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Kinetic Remote Control

Kinetic Remote Control
Dhananjay V. Gadre | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 8 pgs | 3 mb

SHAKE THE BATTERIES OUT OF
THE PICTURE FOREVER WITH THIS
MUSCLE-POWERED INFRARED
REMOTE CONTROL.

A TV remote is one of the most commonly
used electronic gadgets. We use it with-
out even thinking abouit it - that is, until
the batteries quit.
...

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Hydraulic Flight Simulator

Hydraulic Flight Simulator
David Simpson | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 4 pgs | 2 mb

One time I saw a desktop gadget filled with
colored liquids that see-saws back and forth, and it
reminded me of the exchange between airspeed
and altitude, aka kinetic and potential energy.
I wanted to put a control stick on that gizmo to show
the cadets I taught, and this inspired me to build a
more complete flight simulator that used colored
water to represent energy. So I created my Hydraulic
Flight Simulator, which models the behavior of fixed-
wing aircraft in flight along the vertical or "pitch" axis.
...

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Chasing the Godshot

Chasing the Godshot
John Edgar Park | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 4 pgs | 2 mb

Godshot. That's the elusive goal of espresso fanatics
everywhere. Thick with micro-bubble crema and a
velvety mouth-feel, and packing explosive flavor,
the godshot is pulled too infrequently for my liking.
A perfect shot of espresso is the product of many
variables, so anything I can do to lock in one of
those variables is a good thing. Think scientific
method as applied to epresso.

As a home barista, the five factors I worry about
most are: beans, water, grind, dosing, and tamping.
...

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Building the Barrage Garage

Building the Barrage Garage
William Gurstelle| Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 6 pgs | 3 mb

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Boombox as Platform

Boombox as Platform
Mister Jalopy | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 2 pgs | 1 mb

The Good Old Days Are Yet To Come

Being a collector of old issues of Popular Mechanics,
Mechanix Illustrated, Modern Mechanics and Invention,
Popular Science, and Science and Mechanics magazines.
I can attest to the awesome breadth of the handy heydays
when every home garage had at least a modest workshop.
But with MAKE magazine as our beacon, I am cuite certain
that we have not yet seen the Maker Golden Age. As the
Internet has connected like-minded individuals and the
availability of intormation has exploded, the real catalyst in
the maker movement is the staggering abundance of
dirt-cheap high technology.
...

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Boomerang

Boomerang
Cy Tymony | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 1 pgs | 1 mb

Have you ever wondered how birds fly or how sailboats can sail into the wind? In the last issue, I showed how to make a flying disc using the Bernoulli principle to generate lift; now let's use the same principle to create a boomerang out of ordinary stuff like cardboard.

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Boing Box

Boing Box
Mark Frauenfelder | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 1 pgs | 1 mb

A 1951 book called Radio and Television Sound Effects, by Robert B. Turnbull,
shows how to make a "boing box." (It's reprinted at bizarrelabs.com/boing2.htm.)
I made a modified boing box using a wooden cigar box and some scraps
I had around the house.

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Bike Scrounging

Bike Scrounging
Thomas Arey | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 2 pgs | 1 mb

I'm going to venture a guess that many makers' earliest
experiences working with tools and trying to figure
out machines involved a bicycle. Eden today it's the
rare kid who hasn't tried to fix or even modify their
bike. It's one of the reasons I still have great hope
for humanity.

Cycling is good basic transportation, a boon to the
cardiovascular system, and most of all, fun! But have
you ever considered that cycling can also be free?

In the course of the trash picking and dumpster
diving I do to bring these occasional articles to MAKE,
I often run across bicycles left at the curb with other
signs of our society's tendency to toss away what
might be repaired or repurposed.
...

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Beetlebot

Beetlebot
Jerome Demers | Make Vol. 12- 2007 | Pdf | 4 pgs | 2 mb

The Beetlebot is a very simple little robot that
avoids obstacles on the floor without using any
silicon chip - not even an op-amp, and certainly
nothing programmable. Two motors propel the
bugbot forward, and when one of its feelers hits
an obstacle, the bot reverses its opposite motor to
rotate around and avoid it. The project uses only
2 switches, 2 motors, and 1 battery holder, and
it costs less than $10 in materials (or free, with
some scrounging).

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