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Solar Engraving
Learn to focus the energy of the sun into a concentrated beam capable of engraving cardboard, leather, cork, wood, and other organic materials. If you ever experimented with a magnifying glass outside on a sunny day, you are probably already familiar with this technique. This project is part of my free Solar Class, where you can…
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Solar USB Charger
Let’s make something super useful— your own solar powered USB backup battery! After some simple soldering, you’ll be ready to charge your phone and other portable electronics on the go while camping or during the next power outage. What follows is a basic recipe which you can follow exactly, or switch out the solar panel…
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Solar Balloon
The first project in my new Solar Class is a classic solar balloon. Let’s make a solar balloon that floats with the power of hot air! This is the perfect backyard activity for a sunny day. A few common trash bags taped together can become a science experiment and an entertaining way to spend an…
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Super Clean Cable Splicing
Here’s a quick tip about properly splicing cables. This is handy for changing the connector on your solar panel, or simply making any two-wire cable longer. This may seem like a basic skill, but I know that by the time I learned this technique, I wished someone had told me earlier. You will need: Wire…
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3 Beginner Arduino Mistakes
In my decade of experience building with and teaching Arduino, I see three mistakes more often than any others. Beginners typically: bite off more than they can chew by attempting to build a project with too many elements at once, make incorrect assumptions during prototyping, and underutilize the resources available to them online. Read more…
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Making on YouTube panel with Bob Clagett & more
Thanks sa_maker for the video! At World Maker Faire this year, I had the great honor of appearing on a panel about YouTube making with Caleb Kraft, Bob Clagett, John Edgar Park, Angus Deveson, and Joel Telling.
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Pi Camera Tumblr GIF-Maker
I wanted a way to use my vintage cameras in a new, digital way. I have a few kicking around in various conditions, but haven’t used them in ages because the film is costly to develop. Follow along with this Instructable to see how I put a Raspberry Pi and Pi Camera inside a retro…
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Wine Cork Trivet
This week I made a trivet from wine corks. It’s a quick and easy project to make, once you have enough wine corks, or you can buy them online or from a home brewing store. The most basic version just requires a large hose clamp and a screwdriver. You can scale down the design with smaller clamps to make…
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Vinyl Helmet Stickers
Here’s how I created custom vinyl stickers for my motorcycle helmet. I was inspired by hand painted helmet designs and chose brush script lettering to communicate my two most common thoughts about drivers while riding my motorcycle in NYC. For single-color designs like mine, you don’t need a big vinyl printer, just a hobby vinyl…
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Motorcycle Petcock Replacement
My motorcycle’s fuel valve aka petcock was original to my 1975 Honda CB200, and it was acting a bit clogged. Instead of cleaning it out of years of gunk, I opted to order a replacement. This Instructable details the replacement of said petcock, which is similar to most old Hondas. For this project you will…
