Smartphone-Controlled Ball Launcher
Andrew and his brother built this great ping-pong ball launcher out of salvaged and repurposed parts. I especially like the 13-ball hopper made from two paper towel tubes taped together, and the cleve...
Railroad Spike Oyster Knives
I like these hand-forged oyster knives from Kirk Davis and Michael Waller of Carolina Shuckers enough to actually consider eating a raw oyster, so long as I got to use one to open it, first. Reminds m...
Shawls Made from Silk of over One Million Spiders
Simon Peers and Nicholas Godley teamed up to create materials from the silk produced from Golden Orb Spiders in Madagascar. They collected 1.2 million of these spiders and extracted their silk over th...
Build the Tiny Wanderer from MAKE Volume 29
Looking for a great starter robot project? Doug Paradis is an active member of the Dallas Personal Robotics Group, and last year, they were looking for a way to help their beginner members strengthen ...
ShapeShift Electroactive Polymer Sheets
DIY methods for electroactive polymer actuators are hard to come by, and none of them are kitchen-counter simple. But compared to the wet chemical methods circulating in the academic research communit...
Shrewbot, a Robot With Whiskers
When the whiskers touch an object this causes them to vibrate and the vibration pattern is picked up by sensitive cells in the hair follicle at the base of the whisker. These patterns are turned into ...
A Ballet of Mechanical Movements
In 1934, New York’s Museum of Modern Art opened their famous Machine Art exhibition, featuring industrial objects like gears, bearings, and propellers displayed solely for their aesthetic value. The...