Store your Make and Craft Issues in Style

I designed these Make magazine holders a week ago and I've finally finished them.  I just posted the files over on thingiverse so you can make your own.  Enjoy!

I like the look of Make magazine on my bookshelves but I wanted something to store them in that was similar to the holders I use for other magazines. Make's (and Craft's) unique form factor require a custom solution.

The images show the Make Magazine logo and cover art for each year. I'm assuming that I can't include the cover images in the files on thingiverse but I downloaded them from Make's own website if you want to make them exactly like mine.

Each file is designed for a loose fit for gluing and has been sized to contain four issues (one year).

I whipped these up in Corel Draw X4 and then cut them on the Epilog Helix 45w lazzzzor at TechShop RDU. I used 1/4" Baltic Birch plywood and then sanded the whole shebang to 400 grit. I finished the pieces with General Finishes Seal-a-Cell.

The raster and vector settings are in the files.

The Digital Carpentry Revolution

By definition a revolutionary tool is something that changes the game entirely.  Consider the first powered table saws, the first screws/screwdrivers, the first laser cutters, and the first CNC routers.

Tools like Durham's Shopbot are nothing new but they are pretty revolutionary.  The concept of G-Code has been around for decades!

It takes a creative set of artisans to uncover and use a tool's unique capabilities.  To that end, give this old Make Magazine article from Volume 11 by Bruce Sterling a read.  The article mentions the work of Dharmesh Patel; you'll like his website!

Book Suggestion: Eccentric Cubicle by Kaden Harris

RUN (or drive safely) to your nearest book merchant and purchase Eccentric Cubicle by Kaden Harris.  This book is a how-to manual for making some fantastic projects that you can use to decorate your office, home, studio, or workshop.

Just Some of the included projects are:

• A mechanical golfer
• Lucid dreaming induction device
• USB-powered bubble blower
• Fog machine
• A desktop guillotine

What's possibly even cooler than the projects themselves is the instructional wisdom that comes from a veteran maker.  Kaden Harris is a FULL-TIME maker/artist that makes antiques from a parallel universe: museum-quality miniature catapults and machina arcana, handcrafted corporate gifts, and executive rewards.

Sugru Will Make Your Life Complete

Sugru is the thing you've been wanting your whole life but never existed.  Well it didn't exist your whole life, did it?  It just came out last Wednesday!

If you've ever looked starry-eyed upon a brand new virgin packet of Blu-Tack in the store and fantasized about squidging it in your hands and then having it stay in the shape of whatever you designed well then that product is Sugru.  And Sugru comes in four rad colors of silicone-rubber awesomeness!

What's even better about this material is the philosophy behind it: repair, recycle, reuse, and their motto,  "hack things better."  The champion of Sugru, Jane, has hit the ball right out of the park with this stuff.  I've never clicked BUY SOME on a website faster!

Now which fantastic company or individual wants to sponsor the Sugru people to come to Durham in the Spring for the Maker Faire?  They're on Twitter and Facebook too.

What Can I Bring to the Party?

Here are the names and organizations of some of the featured makers at the recent Rhode Island Maker Faire.  The organizers put on an eclectic event that included everything from homemade ice cream to microcontrollers and everything in between.  Maybe you or your friends share some of these talents?  Come out and share your knowledge and passion! Fill out an application today!

100kGarages
100kGarages is a new service to help Makers find digital fabrication shops all over the world. A collaboration between ShopBot Tools and Ponoko, we'll be there to talk to Makers about local manufacturing, digital fabrication, and how 100kGarages can help Makers and Fabbers connect.
Maker: Bill Young

Brooklyn Aerodrome
We build out of mostly trash remote controlled airplanes. They are scratch built, cost around $100 to create and take around 3 hours to build. We will show the aircraft, do demonstration flights and share the design.
Maker: Breck Baldwin

Custom bicycle framebuilding
Circle A Cycles is a world renowned custom bicycle frame and component manufacturing shop which provides the highest quality, custom fit frames for people who have an appreciation for hand built steel bicycles.
Maker: Circle A Cycles

Fun things from wood
recycled wood, furniture, shelves, toys, tools, featuring a variety of geodesic tensigrity spheres formed from slats reclaimed from old fir from trashed doors and roll up blinds. Geometric model instruction sheets handed out. How to make a tensigrity structure from sticks and wire. Amusing clock made from old printer motors.
Maker: Dan Warren

Ice cream in ziplock bags
With a few simple ingredients from home ice cream can be made. Combine milk, sugar and vanilla in a small zip lock bag. In a larger bag, put ice, salt and the sealed bag ice cream bag. Toss or shake for about ten minutes for a single serving of ice cream. Here is just a basic link to one of many different recipes on how to do this: http://homeparents.about.com/od/recipesandcrafts/r/zip_icecream.htm On my kafe lila web site there are photos and a link to myspace.com that shows pictures of my ice cream cart.
Maker: Karen Pace

Our Maker Faire needs this kind of diversity.  Maker Faire:NC isn't all about flame throwers and microcontrollers! We need weavers, cooks, and artists of all kinds.  Maybe what you do falls in one of these suggested categories?

• Green Tech and Clean Tech
• Robotics
• Music Performance and Participation
• 3D Printers and CNC Mill
• Textile Arts and Crafts
• Home Energy Monitoring
• Rockets and RC Toys
• Radios, Vintage Computers and Game Systems
• Electronics
• Electric vehicles
• Biology/Biotech and Chemistry Projects
• Food and Beverage Makers
• Kites
• Shelter (Tents, Domes, etc.)
• Unusual Tools, Machines, or Techniques
• How to Fix Things or Take them Apart (Vacuums, Clocks, Washing Machines, etc.)