This week on Maker Update: a robot friend, flying birds, Sith jewelry, lockdown gardening, and maker marathons.

This week’s guest host is Sophy Wong:
https://sophywong.com/

++Show Notes [Maker Update #176]++

-=Project of the Week=-

Telepresence Robot by Hunter Irving
https://hackaday.com/2020/05/09/nightmare-fuel-telepresence-bot-may-become-your-last-friend/
https://hackaday.io/project/171339-telebot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXLaeMre5Ac

-=More Projects=-

Wooden Zoetrope by Coby Unger
https://www.instructables.com/id/Wooden-Zoetrope/

Revenge of the 5th Necklace by Amie Dansby
https://www.instructables.com/id/Revenge-of-the-Sith-Glow-PCB-Necklace/

Cryptic Wall Clock by Tomatoskins on Instructables
https://www.instructables.com/id/Circular-Mengenlehreuhr/

Horsebox Camper by Laura Kampf – Design and Materials
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCKQSLxp5k8

3D Printed Articulated Lamp by Heliox Lab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKq9psMT-do

Raised Garden Beds by I Like to Make Stuff
https://iliketomakestuff.com/making-raised-garden-beds/

-=Binge-Worthy Maker Series=-

Laura Kampf’s 10 makers series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4uLEv8mfNI&list=PLLsyCFICnr80G5O2THOhdgmY0CJzRE7P1

Adam Savage’s One Day Builds
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJtitKU0CAej22ZWBqrimPkn0Bbo6ci-r

Wintergatan Marble Machine X
https://www.youtube.com/user/wintergatan2000

Steady Craftin’ with The CrafsMan (YouTube channel filled with how-tos, tips, crafting techniques)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzsjHlc0WRwZYwlinsmtM4w

-=Tips & Tools=-

Direct Drive Printers Megareview from Devon Montes at Make Anything/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuUixpP9bHU

Drilling Jig for dowels Adam Savage’s One Day Build: Sword Rack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCrB0FnW__s

Templated Sketchbooks for wearables

Transcript

This week on maker update: a robot friend, flying birds, Sith jewelry, lockdown gardening, and maker marathons.

Hello everyone! And welcome to Maker Update! I’m Sophy Wong, I hope you’re staying healthy and happy, and finding time to work on some fun projects at home. I’ve been brainstorming and sketching, and I’ve started a bunch of new projects, I probably should finish some projects before I start new ones, but that’s just how I roll. Anyway, I’ve a really fun project of the week for you, so let’s check it out:

If months of quarantine are making you crazy, you’re not alone! Hunter Irving and his brother have been doing their part to stay home and isolate, and they really missed hanging out with their friends, so they built a telepresence robot for virtual hangouts during lockdown. They call it “TELEBOT” and I can’t decide if it’s terrifying, or adorable, but either way, I think it’s awesome. When they video chat with a friend, the robot’s eyes and mouth animate, triggered by the volume of their friend’s voice. It looks pretty responsive in the video, and I’m amazed at how convincing the combination of sound and motion are in animated face projects like this. 

I also love the resourcefulness of this project: the brothers held their own “Hack-a-thon” and TELEBOT was born out of an Arduino Uno, some 3D printing, and whatever parts they had in their apartment. They even made a few interchangeable hats, for that personal touch.

This lockdown may be driving us all a little insane, but it makes me really happy to see some of us putting our insanity to good use, getting creative, and having fun. And this project and the video really cheered me up.

Coby Unger made this mesmerizing wooden zoetrope out of walnut and maple using a lathe and a Shaper Origin handheld CNC router. Coby’s friend Robb contributed the electronics portion of the project, with a custom zoetrope PCB for the lighting. There’s some really gorgeous video of the working zoetrope on Coby’s Instructables page, definitely check it out.

May 4th was Star Wars Day, and that means the following day was, of course, Revenge of the 5th. Amie Dansby made a sleek LED necklace to celebrate. The necklace is made up of a few layers of laser cut acrylic, and the LED circuit is built on a custom milled PCB that she made on her Bantam Desktop Mill. She shared her project and all the files needed to make it over on Instructables. She also made a video showing the process of designing the necklace in Fusion 360.

Tomatoskins on Instructables made a cryptic LED wall clock based on the famous German “Set Theory Clock” in Berlin. The Instructable explains how to make the clock, and also how to read it, but even if you can’t read the time on this clock, it makes a beautiful piece of LED art. The concentric blue shapes remind me of R2D2. The inside is beautiful too, the chambers were all hand cut with a jigsaw out of plywood. Now that’s some impressive jigsawing, but if you have a CNC, this project would make great use of it.

Laura Kampf is turning a horse box into a tiny camper, and it’s awesome to watch this dingy old cart transform into another Laura masterpiece. In her latest video about it, there’s a cool project within the project: Laura needed a metal brake and didn’t have one in her shop, so she made one out of angle iron, sheet steel, and brass hinges. Another great example of using what you have on hand to keep moving forward.

Over at I Like to Make Stuff, Bob Clagget made some neat raised garden beds for growing vegetables. I’ve also been dabbling with gardening during lockdown, and I might just have to give this project a try. There are lots of designs for raised beds out there, but Bob’s design uses materials he could source without going to stores during quarantine, and he makes clever use of angled aluminum for corner stakes.

Heliox built an articulated 3D printed lamp, that clamps to a table, swivels, and has a remote control. She used some really cool 3D printing design techniques like embedding captive nuts in the print. I really like the way she designed the swivel mechanism, which is a teardrop-shaped joint that prints in place. The video is in French, but even if you don’t speak French, it’s still an inspiring and impressive project.

I’ve got something a little different to share this week: With all the time we’ve been spending at home, I thought it would be nice to share some longer format maker projects, something to put on YouTube and let run, while you’re tinkering away in your workshop or at your kitchen table  all weekend. So here are some binge-worthy maker series you can marathon during lockdown:

Laura Kampf moved to a new shop last year, and she had 10 maker friends help her by building projects for the new space. Each maker made a video for their project, and the series is a great collection of projects by different people, all coming together and helping each other. Watch the whole playlist and maybe get some inspiration for your own space.

Martin on the Wintergatan YouTube channel has been working on a massive musical instrument project called the Marble Machine X. If you somehow haven’t heard of it it yet, this project has been going since 2017, and it’s been an incredibly inspiring and satisfying progression to watch. Martin often goes from 3D modeling to welding to playing a xylophone in the same video, and it’s fun to go on the engineering journey with him. There’s a complete playlist of all 123 episodes, so you can start at the beginning, and get swept away.

Adam Savage’s One Day Builds are a frequent source of great tips on Maker Update, and Tested keeps a running playlist on YouTube so you can easily marathon all the One Day Build videos they’ve done so far. I particularly like Adam’s recent uploads, where he is working in the cave and filming by himself. It feels like you’re just hanging out with Adam, making stuff.

Steady Craftin’ is one of my favorite maker channels, I love hangin out with The Crafsman! He dives into a huge range of different types of projects, from resin casting to 3D printing to film-making, animation, photography, sound effects, and more. It’s always fun, inspiring, and packed with great tips and tricks.

Got a few useful tips and tools for you:

Over at Make Anything, Devon has a new video about direct drive 3D printers with a great explanation of how they’re different from Bowden style printers. They’re particularly useful for printing flexible filament, like TPU and NinjaFlex, so if you’ve been wanting to try those materials out, check out his video. He reviews three great options, and he’s definitely got me thinking about that Artillery Sidewinder…

In Adam Savage’s one day build of a wooden sword rack, he shared a drilling jig he made out of scrap acrylic for drilling precise holes into wooden dowels.

Something I find really useful in my projects are templated sketchbooks – if you find it daunting to draw on a completely blank page in your sketchbook, like I do, a little guidance from a template can be really helpful. I like these fashion sketchbooks with body templates, blank heads, hands, and feet. They make great starting points for my wearable projects.

And that’s your Maker Update for this week, thanks for having me back, and thanks for joining me for this little inspiration break, I hope it gives you some ideas and energy for working on your own projects. Until next time, have fun making stuff, and I’ll see you again soon.