This week on Maker Update, building your own lightsaber, a wearable Ouija board, 3D printed earrings, Snoopy gliders, an ultraviolet marble machine, pop-rivets, screw threads on 3D prints, Google’s AIY USB stick, and a look at different types of cable wrap.

Keep Maker Update independent!
Support this show on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/makerprojectlab

Show Notes

Project of the Week

HalloWing Lightsabers by John Park
https://learn.adafruit.com/hallowing-lightsaber

More Projects

HalloWing Spirit Board by Phil Burgess
https://learn.adafruit.com/hallowing-spirit-board/overview

How to 3D Print on String (How to Make Floating Jewelry) by Penolopy Bulnick
https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-3D-Print-on-String/

Red Baron Hand Launched Glider by Greg Zumwalt
https://www.instructables.com/id/Red-Baron-Hand-Launched-Glider/

Red Baron II: Hand Launched Biplane Glider by Greg Zumwalt
https://www.instructables.com/id/Red-Baron-II-Hand-Launched-Biplane-Glider/

Motorized Marble Machine by Ruiz Bros.
https://learn.adafruit.com/marble-run

Tools/Tips

All About POP Rivets by clickclackclunk
https://www.instructables.com/id/All-About-POP-Rivets/

Tips of the Week
https://makezine.com/2018/09/07/tips-of-the-week-working-with-styrene-overcoming-makers-block-and-youtube-to-the-rescue/

Soldering Tips by Bob Clagett
https://youtu.be/1qqh0GkTonc

DiResta Hacks From Making It Show
https://youtu.be/Iig3G4TozTM

Adding Screw Threads to 3D Printed Parts by Formlabs
https://formlabs.com/blog/adding-screw-threads-3d-printed-parts/

MagPi 73 download
https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/issues/73/

Cable Wrap Roundup
https://kk.org/cooltools/5-sleeves-for-covering-cables/

Maker Faires

Maker Faires this weekend:

Maker Faire Hannover
Shasta County Mini Maker Faire
Thanksgiving Point Mini Maker Faire
Portland Mini Maker Faire
Toledo Mini Maker Faire
Zurich Mini Maker Faire
Cincinnati Mini Maker Faire
Idaho Falls-Ammon Mini Maker Faire
Parkland Mini Maker Faire
Chicago Southside Mini Maker Faire

—————

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, building your own lightsaber, a wearable Ouija board, 3D printed earrings, Snoopy gliders, an ultraviolet marble machine, pop-rivets, screw threads on 3D prints, Google’s AIY USB stick, and a look at different types of cable wrap.

Hey, I’m Donald Bell, and welcome to another episode of Maker Update. I hope you’re all doing great. I’ve got a project-packed show for you today, so let’s get started with the project of the week.

The Adafruit crew are busy making projects for their new HalloWing board. John Park’s latest contribution is this animated LED lightsaber. It uses the Hallowing’s accelerometer and speaker output to trigger sound effects when you swing it around.

John shows you how to make the blade out of a common plastic tube and corrugated plastic. For the hilt, you can either source one from a toy lightsaber, or John lays out how to make a convincing one from a sink drain extension. Looks like a fun project for a Halloween costume.

Phil Burgess has another HalloWing project. This one is a file you just drag and drop over USB. It turns the screen into a little tilt-controlled Ouija board. By tapping any of the pads on the teeth, you can trigger preset messages to be spelled out. It’s another cool idea you could integrate into a costume or a party trick.

Penolopy Bulnick has another great Instructable on wearable 3D printing. This one shows you how to print up stranded earring designs by placing a single thread midway through the print.

She shows off a few design ideas she created in Tinkercad. I think they look great and there’s a lot of potential for making your own designs. Plus, because the prints are so small, they’re quick to make, which really frees you up to experiment.

Greg Zumwalt never seems to stop. This week, he’s got two Snoopy-themed, hand-launch glider designs. One’s a single-wing design and the other is a bi-plane. Both are quick 3D prints with only a few parts, but you’ll need to balsa wood and CA glue to put it all together.

What’s particularly neat about these is that Greg includes 3D printed templates for cutting just the right wing shapes out of the wood, maximizing your chance of success.

Finally, the Ruiz Brothers used this hand-crank marble machine design from Tulio Laanen and took it up a notch by adding a motor and LED lights.

The project uses a familiar combination of an Adafruit Playground Express and a Crickit breakout board. In addition you need a geared DC motor, a battery holder, a switch, and some LEDs.

The version here uses ultraviolet LEDs and some frosted clear filament to achieve this ice castle look. The base is printed with an opaque filament to hide the boards and wiring, and includes a cutout to mount the power switch.

Not only would this project make a great gift for someone, but I also love that it’s a great example of what’s so cool about makers sharing and remixing each other’s ideas.

I have a bunch of tips to share this week. On Instructables, ClickClackClunk has a quick and useful guide on pop rivets, how they work, and also how to remove them.

Gareth Branwyn’s Tips of the Week column on Make has a great roundup with styrene modeling tips from Adam Savage, tips for cleaning an airbrush, and an idea on how to literally shelve a project that you need a break from.

Bob Clagget has a new Bits video up that covers best practices for soldering electronics, including soldering wires together and using heat shrink.

Jimmy Diresta has a surprise Tips video that popped up from the Making It show he’s shooting for NBC. It goes over some tried-and-true Diresta tips, and includes a couple quick builds for making a tape caddy, using compressed air to set hot glue, and modifying a shop garbage can.

3D printer maker Formlabs has a well-researched guide on its blog showing different ways to add screw threads to 3D printed parts, and the benefits and drawbacks of each. Heat-sets, wood screws, thread-forming screws — there’s a lot to look at.

MagPi issue 73 is out and available for download. This issue has a feature section about game design. It also has a first look at Google’s AIY USB stick for Raspberry Pi due out in the Fall. It’s called the EDGE TPU accelerator, and should help with local processing of machine learning projects, including high-res real-time video analysis. Price is TBD.

Over on the Cool Tools blog, I’ve got a roundup looking at 5 different types of cable wrap — velcro, split flap, spiral, and others. I’ve been using this stuff more for giving a more finished look to projects with lots of wires that need wrangling, but some stuff looks better than others.

Maker Faires! There’s a ton happening this weekend, including Hannover, Germany; Redding, California; Lehi, Utah; Portland, Oregon; Toledo, Ohio; Zurich, Switzerland; Cincinnati, Ohio; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Parkland County, Alberta Canada; and Chicago Southside, Illinois.

And remember, the following weekend we have world Maker Faire in New York. I’ll be there, and I hope to see you.

And that does it for this week’s show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a thumbs up, or leave a comment. You can sign up for the Maker Update email list to get show notes sent out to you every week with a few bonus projects I couldn’t fit.

And big news, I finally got a Patreon together. As you know, I volunteer to do this show, and I like keeping it independent. For as little as twenty-five cents a show, you can help me do that. You can find my Patreon link down in the show notes. Alright? Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next week.