Maker Project Lab
December 7, 2023 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: News Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Ceiling’s the Limit [Maker Update]

This week on Maker Update: a dorm room drone show, a tiny volumetric display, a new look at screen printing, and bullying robots.

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January 28, 2021 AUTHOR: Christine Cain CATEGORIES: News Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Surfing with the Bern [Maker Update]

This week on Maker Update, the most expensive rip surf ever made, some huge news from Raspberry Pi, thin floating shelves, clever mechanisms, making cut lists and foaming TPU.

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November 12, 2020 AUTHOR: Christine Cain CATEGORIES: News Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Counter Rhythm [Maker Update]

This week on Maker Update, a test machine gets its groove back, the winner of the 2020 Hackaday Prize, 3d printed HOTAS, Controller teardowns, perfect circles, cutting felt with a table saw.

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July 25, 2020 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: News, Project Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Making the VK-01 Cocktail Machine

There’s an Instructables page up now, collecting all of the work on my cocktail machine for the 2020 Cocktail Robotics Grand Challenge.

I call it the VK-01 Off-World Bartender. It’s a Blade Runner-inspired machine that’s a mix of sci-fi and retro. Every detail I can think of is collected in the Instructable — every line of code, wiring diagram, and 3D design.

I hope it can inspire you to build your own cocktail machine. It’s been a challenging project, but one of my most rewarding yet. It was also a great motivation for becoming more comfortable with coding, 3D design, and exploring the possibilities of working with other makers and artists. I wouldn’t take back a minute of it.

August 30, 2019 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: News, Project Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Jon-A-Tron’s 3D Printed Animatronic Puppet

Occasionally there are projects that hang at the top of my “someday” list and refuse to budge, nagging me until I tackle them. Jonathan (Jon-A-Tron) Odom’s 3D Printed Animatronic Puppet project on Instructables is one of these projects.

When I started Maker Project Lab, the whole idea was that I was going to be rebuilding, evaluating, and elevating awesome projects that makers have shared online. It’s a process that was part of my job as a Projects Editor at Make: magazine, and it seemed like a cool thing I could continue doing. I mean, isn’t that part of what the Maker Movement is all about — sharing what you’ve done and inspiring people to build their own version and take it someplace new?

Needless to say, if you’ve been following this blog, you know that I got wonderfully sidetracked by making my own weekly show and reviewing tools. What little spare time I have left for actually making my own projects is typically sucked in to paid original project content, or personal projects for which a lot of the appeal is selfishly chipping away at something that’s just for me.

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June 27, 2018 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: News Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Alexa Grows a Finger [Maker Update #85]

This week on Maker Update, Alexa presses buttons, Google gets a laser, robot fish, robot dogs, 1-dimensional pong, drill bits, speed squares, an unholy union of DeWalt and Ryobi, and a resistor kit roundup.

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June 20, 2018 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: News Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

L3 Liberates Alexa [Maker Update #84]

This week on Maker Update, an Alexa-powered L3 droid, a pedal-powered art machine, a robot snake, robot bread, an FPV rover, last call for cocktail robots, and creative clamping techniques.

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February 21, 2018 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: Tips Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Becky Stern Explains Her Social Stats Tracker Display

My talk with Becky Stern about her Social Stats Tracker Display project on Instructables, which keeps tabs on her followers on Instagram, Twitter, and Instructables. Also, check out Becky’s previous YouTube Tracker project that laid the foundation for this.

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