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HOW TO - Rolling Peg Board Tool Cart

pegboardtoolcart.jpg

Here’s a neat instructable by user sensoryhouse on building a rolling peg board tool cart instead of buying an expensive tool chest. This way all your tools are visible, and you can still roll them out of the way when need be. He uses scrap metal to weld together the frame that holds the peg board. He welds the casters right onto the bottom of the frame, but I’d recommend welding an attachment plate and affixing them with fasteners in case one goes bad. As this is a beginning welding tutorial as well, don’t forget to wear proper safety gear (including long sleeves and a high collar to prevent a sunburn)!

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Make: Flickr pool weekly roundup

Wikipedia over DNS

David Leadbeater created a service that distributes Wikipedia entries over DNS using TXT records. Simply looking up a TXT record for any subdomain of his service will pull a summary of the Wikipedia entry for the title of the same name.

I had written some code to take wikipedia articles and summarise them. I wanted to offer this for use in various places, now the obvious way to offer it is just a web service (via REST, SOAP, etc), but that’s boring and I had a cunning plan. Why not offer it over DNS - it is basically a huge associative array and DNS is designed for this stuff.

So I wrote a little nameserver which returns the results as TXT records.

Click here to read more.

Secret Make Controller project

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My friend Usman Muzaffar and I are going to collaborate on a project using the Make Controller (MC). We decided to set a few constraints at the outset and then create something within those constraints.

  1. the controller be hidden inside a hollowed out book.
  2. take advantage of enough of the MC’s features so as to differentiate it from an Arduino project. No sense building on a $109 platform that which you can build on a $35 one.
  3. keep it untethered from a computer (no USB or Ethernet cables plugged in). If we want data I/O we’ll have to use a wireless component like a ZigBee Xbee.

I brought this to the 2008 Bay Area Maker Faire and solicited project ideas from a bunch of people who came by the Make: magazine booth.

Click here to read more.

Scavenging motors from washing machines

Handmade lens cap

Diylenscap
From the MAKE: Flickr pool

Instead of tracking down and buying a lens cap for that unprotected cam, consider the incredibly affordable DIY alternative - and enjoy the simple pleasure using what you’ve made. Flickr member safoocat did so, following instructions she found here

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Next Dorkbot SoCal, Jan 10

soCalDorkbot010508.jpg

My friend Thomas Edwards, Dorkbot DC founder and former Overlord (now living in LA), wrote to tell us about the next Dorkbot SoCal meeting on January 10, featuring three bio-inspired artists.

Deborah Aschheim (above) creates works that blur biology and technology, exploring concepts of memory, architecture, and neural networks through drawings, sculpture, writing, installation and sounds.

Brian Evans explores the intersection between reductivist sculptural form and the aesthetics of behavior, where structure and thought are fused. He creates simple moving objects with seemingly life-like qualities- electromechanical life forms with motivations only just beyond our understanding.

David Guttman (above) creates interactive works that generate unique colors and shapes from sound and EEG.

More details at:
http://www.dorkbot.org/dorkbotsocal

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Light to sound converter circuit


Lighttosoundconverter
From the MAKE: Flickr pool

5Volt shares info, schematic and video on this simple yet fun/interesting project -

This is my simple light to sound converter. It simply converts light variations into sound. Listen to remote controls, TVs, burning flames, light bulbs and anything that emits either visible or infrared light.

Get more details on how to build your own from his blog - Light to sound converter

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DIY gadget makeover

Redesigned Gadget
From the MAKE: Flickr pool

Pauric shares techniques for redesigning/improving consumer devices in need of a makeover. His example project, a ’sunrise alarm clock’ -

One of the first things I do with device I buy is take it apart to see how it works, see if there’s anything interesting going on inside. There’s a lot to learn from doing this and as the Maker Mantra goes - if you cant open it you dont really own it.

Inside this alarm are all the standard parts you get in any $10-$20 alarm clock so I was a little peeved to realize I paid 4 times that for an alarm clock WITH a light bulb that wouldnt look out of place on a Christmas tree. Now I’m super motivated to remake it.He also includes a nice video rundown of the power tools used in the process - Turn a generic plastic gadget in to something a little more beautiful

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Reprogramming pinball machines

MAKE Projects Editor, Paul Spinrad, sent me a link to this project and the following message:

Some CS / Game Development students hacked a Lord Of The Rings pinball machine, taking full control of its sensors, actuators, and display, and reprogrammed it to play Pinhorse — like the basketball game, but you try to match your opponent’s pinball shots in a certain amount of time, guided by the playfield lights and display. Control comes from a Linux PC and a Parallax microcontroller. Here’s the project page with a video and academic paper.

Click here to read more.