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Category Archives: Gift Guides

<3 your maker: MAKE’s Valentine’s Day gift guide

09-Feb-10

We’re all suckers for romance, even if most of us believe Valentine’s Day is a holiday dreamed up by industry fatcats. Here are MAKE’s staff picks for ways to celebrate with that special someone, maker style. Read on, it’s a big list!

Build a bike

arwencycle.jpg

A personalized bike built for your sweetie can be really romantic, since all that hard work and custom choices relate specifically to the one you love. MAKE Advisory Board member Saul Griffith built a bike for his lady, Staff Editor Arwen O’Reilly Griffith. She writes:

When my husband and I were dating, we had a running argument about flowers. I love them, whether it’s a rare orchid or a weed from the sidewalk, and it mystified me that he could never remember to surprise me with even a dandelion. But one Valentine’s Day, he presented this bicycle to me with a grin from ear to ear. His addiction is bicycles, so I knew this was a true gesture of love. He bought the different components on Craigslist and from various bike stores to make a bike that fit me to a T, stenciled my name on the frame, and hand-build the wheels. The spokes were twisted, just like two beautiful flowers.

What are you doing to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your maker love? Share with us in the comments!

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What ya get?

26-Dec-09

So, what presents did you give? Get? We’d especially love to hear from folks who used our gift guides to buy (or make) presents and how your recipients liked them.

Above image from Tada’s Revolution.

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Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Beekeeper Gift Guide

16-Dec-09

makeholidaybee1.png makeholidaybee2.png

by Cameo Wood

I opened my beekeeping store in downtown San Francisco in June, and I’ve found that everyone loves beekeepers or bees, and that beekeepers are serious makers. What they can’t find to buy, they generally end up building. I’ve also been stocking my store with the beekeeper in mind, and here are some of the top sellers, at my store and abroad!


8-Frame English Garden Hive

If you’re just getting started in beekeeping, choosing the type of hive can be confusing. The only hive I use or sell is the 8-Frame medium Cypress hive, called the “hive of the future” by Bee Culture Magazine’s Kim Flottum. Having one consistent size for all your equipment is a huge time saver, and is ideal for beginners and experienced beekeepers alike. There are two problems with the traditional 10-Frame shallow/deep sized box methodology.

  • If your bees decide to make honey in your deep, you don’t really have any recourse. You now have a 100+ pound box of honey that you need to lift every time you work your hive.
  • If you get brood (bee larva) in your honey shallows (hive box usually intended for honey only), or honey in your brood deeps (primarily intended for larva), there’s no way to switch the frames around — you’re stuck with a mess.

The 8-Frame medium garden hive solves all of those problems. This is a beautiful hive that is all set up. You only have to paint/lacquer it, and you’re set to go. Also, get a load of that gorgeous copper A-Line top… Fancy!


mamelucos04.jpg

Apidan Overalls with Air Openings and Detachable Hood ($175)

The one thing that every beekeeper tends to buy eventually is a full sting-proof suit, for the days when the bees are cranky. Bees tend to sting if something is wrong in the hive, if the queen has died, if there was a recent invader, or if it’s really cold and rainy outside. In these cases, the bees would really prefer if you didn’t come barging into their home, making a mess of everything they’ve been building. For all these reasons, but mostly for the ones I can’t anticipate, the full sting-proof suit is at the top of my list. These are the best I’ve found, and they look darn cool to boot. Find them in HMSBeekeeper or in the UK from beeproofsuits.

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Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: What’s on YOUR wishlist?

14-Dec-09

Well, after several weeks of nearly daily gift guides here on MAKE, we can’t imagine you haven’t found more than enough ideas for fun, creative, productive, smart, and just plain cool stuff to gift your friends and love ones this year.

But wait, there’s more! We asked OUR friends and loved ones in the extended MAKE family what THEY wanted for Christmas. Here’s some of what they lust after (gift-givers take note).

And, as the title to the guide implies, this is a DIY gift guide. What’s on YOUR list? Tell us in the Comments.

Bose SoundDock ($360, Bose)
I really like riding my horse to music. It helps keep me energized and it’s really neat when your horse gets in the groove, too! The Bose system is really loud, so you can hear it from across the arena, and I’m able to plug in my old school iPhone to play songs, which is great because most devices aren’t compatible with the original iPhone and the only other MP3 player I own is a first-genl iPod Mini. I really hope Santa sees this! — Katie Dougherty Kunde, Maker Media’s Account Manager


Joey Roth Ceramic Speakers ($495, Joey Roth)
I’m suddenly lusting after these. — Dan Woods, Assoc. Publisher & G.M., Maker Retail

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Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Handmade Geekery

12-Dec-09

Handmade gifts make a unique and thoughtful impression, whether you make them yourself or support enterprising artisans who vend their wares at craft fairs and online. All of us at Make: Online have teamed up to bring you this roundup of our favorite handmade geekery from around the web.


CoolRockets

Collector’s Edition Giant Custom “The Moon” Rocket Cabinet by Jeff Brewer of Cool Rockets. This is a one-off, 6′ tall cabinet in the form of a gorgeous, snazzy 1950’s moon rocket! It’s a custom job, so you may need to commission your own, and I don’t have any idea about the price. It’s based on the 12″ tall cast resin Fleet Edition rocket, which is arguably more affordable at $64.95. Jeff custom builds, molds, and hand-casts these in resin, then paints and hand-weathers them to perfection. I’ve have a few friends with these sitting on their desks, and I’ve long coveted them! — John Park

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Make: Gift Guide 2009: Creativity tools

10-Dec-09


Everyone has those days when they need a little inspiration, something to give those neurons a boost. On a good day, it might be a cup of coffee to get you going, on a bad one, who knows what will work? The following is a roundup of gifts that will hopefully help inspire creativity in their recipients.

Books

thecreative.jpg
Twyla Tharp: The Creative Habit (Simon & Schuster, $25)
When I first saw acclaimed choreographer Twyla Tharp’s Catherine Wheel performance, I was in awe of the creativity and discipline in evidence. As I watched, I tried to image all of what would go into conceiving and executing such a complex and muscular dance piece. That creative discipline, developed over a lifetime of Tharp being one of the most creative, celebrated choreographers of our time, is laid out in this impressive creativity workbook. Reading The Creative Habit makes you realize how horribly most self-help books are written. This one is a joy to read, filled as it is with great stories, eye-opening insights about the creative process, and exercises that you likely won’t be embarrassed to try. Given Tharp’s incredible resume, and her intense work-ethic, it’s not surprising that this book is extremely practical and focused on developing a discipline around your creativity. As the title makes clear, she argues that creativity, the ways and means for it to happen, anyway, can be practiced and become habitual. Even if a high degree of order in your creative chaos is not your style (it certainly isn’t mine), there are all sorts of great lessons and exercises to take away from this book. In fact, I can’t imagine anyone reading it and not getting smarter in how they approach their creative process. — Gareth Branwyn

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Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Crafting for guys

09-Dec-09

by Paul Overton

Since I started my blog a year ago, I have been amazed at how many guys have emailed me to say that they’ve enjoyed doing crafts for years but thought they were alone in the world. Me? I’ve been doing crafts since I was a kid. Both my parents are artists and my mom worked in the craft industry, so I always had a brush or a hook or a needle and thread in my hand. My craft-type interests are all over the map, and because of that, so is this guide. It’s mostly centered on things I own, know, love, and use for the majority of the crafting work that I do, and since crafting is such a wide category, prepare yourself to travel a considerable distance in the next few paragraphs. Also, while there are some relatively inexpensive items on the list, I’ll ask you to bear in mind that “cheap tools aren’t good and good tools aren’t cheap.” The same holds true for tattoos, by the way. Let’s get started…


Janome TB12 ($199.00)

If you have someone interested in sewing in your house, and you’re on the verge of your first machine purchase, I would definitely consider the Janome TB12 Threadbanger (named for those adorable kids over at threadbanger.com). This is a no-frills, 12-stitch machine that is a real workhorse. While it won’t do leatherwork, or industrial-type sewing, it’ll do most anything else. The motor is super-quiet, the light is good, and there’s not a lot of reading the manual that needs to happen before you start laying down some stitches.

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Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: All-Arduino!

08-Dec-09

Arduino lovers have a whole lotta hardware to choose from nowadays. From Arduino clones optimized for a variety of different users, to an arsenal of shield attachments specially designed for nearly every type of project. We’ve got a lot to cover here, so let’s get started, first with the basics -

(Read on for the whole shebang)

Arduino Main Boards

Arduino Duemilanove($34.99)
The new standard Arduino main board. This latest model auto-switches its power source between USB and DC jack, whichever is available. “Duemilanove” means 2009 in Italian (the year of its release). Specs include:

  • Microcontroller – ATmega168
  • Operating Voltage – 5V
  • Input Voltage – (recommended) 7-12V
  • Input Voltage – (limits) 6-20V
  • Digital I/O Pins – 14 (of which 6 provide PWM output)
  • Analog Input Pins – 6
  • DC Current per I/O Pin – 40 mA
  • DC Current for 3.3V Pin – 50 mA
  • Flash Memory – 16 KB (of which 2 KB used by bootloader)
  • SRAM – 1 KB
  • EEPROM – 512 bytes
  • Clock Speed – 16 MHz


Arduino Mega ($65)
The Arduino Mega is the latest microcontroller from the Arduino team. The Mega is built around the ATmega1280. It’s perfect for anyone looking for more room for code or to be able to control a lot more LEDs, sensors, servos, or motors. It has 54 digital input/output pins (of which 14 can be used as PWM outputs), 16 analog inputs, 4 UARTs. Another great feature is the Arduino Mega is compatible with most shields designed for the Arduino Duemilanove or Diecimila. Arduino is a tool for making computers that can sense and control more of the physical world than your desktop computer. It’s an open source physical computing platform based on a simple microcontroller board, and a development environment for writing software for the board.


Arduino Nano ($49.99)
So tiny you’ll want to eat it! Arduino Nano is a surface-mount breadboard embedded version with integrated USB. It is small, complete, and breadboard friendly. It has everything that Diecimila has (electrically) with more analog input pins and onboard +5V AREF jumper. Physically, it is missing a power jack and power-select jumper. Since the Nano can automatically sense and switch to the higher potential source of power, there is no need for the power-select jumper. Nano’s got the breadboard-ability of the Boarduino and the Mini+USB with smaller footprint than either, so users have more breadboard space.
Features:

  • Automatic reset during program download
  • Power OK blue LED on the bottom
  • Green (TX), red (RX) and orange (L) LED
  • +5V to AREF jumper
  • Auto sensing/switching power input
  • Small mini-B USB for programming and serial monitor
  • ICSP header for direct program download
  • Power OK blue LED on the bottom
  • Standard 0.1″ spacing DIP (breadboard friendly)
  • Manual reset switch


Arduinominiplusadapter

Arduino Mini Board ($36.99) & Arduino Mini USB Adapter ($19.99)
The Arduino Mini offers the same power and flexibility of the standard boards, but in a much smaller package. This makes it an ideal choice for projects where space is at a premium. The USB adapter (pictured above) is used to program the Mini from your computer and can be removed from a project once you’re done writing and uploading software.

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Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Media for makers

07-Dec-09

What maker doesn’t like to unwind with a good movie, TV show, game, or book? We tend to focus a lot of attention around here on being productive, and consuming lots of non-fiction guides to specific tools and techniques. To change things up a bit, we decided to compile this guide to Make: leisure. Warning: may contain themes of cleverness, mischief, gadget-loving, subversion, and inventiveness. We call it “media for makers.” Enjoy, and please add some of your own maker-tinged favorites in the comments.

Movies


The Prestige ($15)
When I first saw this film, Michael Caine’s character made me want to drop everything and pursue a career as an ingénieur, building tricks for magicians. Prestige is a satisfying thriller about the extremes a stage magician will go to to create the ultimate illusion. Bonus: it’s got a wonderful turn by David Bowie as every maker’s favorite scientist, Nicola Tesla.



World’s Fastest Indian ($15)
“A wonderful film about the incredible Kiwi maker Burt Munro, who re-built a 1920s Indian Motorcycle in his garage, in the 50s and 60s. It took him forever because he couldn’t find most of the parts and had to build them himself. He used up his savings, and contributions from neighbors, to bring the bike to Bonneville, where all the young turks sneered at him. What happened? Watch it…” — Dan Woods

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Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Hobby Radio

05-Dec-09

Here are some great hobby radio gift ideas, ranging from radios themselves, to books, to the perfect radio-related vacation, everything you need to transmit a bit of holiday cheer. di-di-di-dit dah-dah-dah di-di-di-dit dah-dah-dah di-di-di-dit dah-dah-dah.

Radios

When looking for radios, I really like Universal Radio. They have comprehensive descriptions of all of the radios they carry and model comparisons of different brands. The site is easy to understand, especially for someone without an electrical engineering degree (such as myself).

HobbyRadioGiftGuideElecraft.jpg
Elecraft KX1 ($299.95, Elecraft)
For those who like the challenge of QRP (operating with low power), this is a great kit for a super deluxe, high performance CW (continuous wave) transceiver. Very low power radios transmit Morse code, which uses less power than voice. Small Wonder Labs has a more affordable kit for $55.


HobbyRadioGiftGuideVX3r.jpg
Yaesu VX-3R ($154.95, Universal Radio)
This is a really great handheld radio for someone getting started who doesn’t have an operating license. The VX-3R is the smallest HT (handheld transceiver) and is super portable. But due to it’s size, it has good receive-coverage, but doesn’t transmit very far. If you don’t have a license, this is a great radio, since you can listen without a license (but you are not permitted to transmit). It’s great for listening to local repeaters, nets (meetings on local repeaters), police and fire departments, air traffic control, weather, etc. For more power, check out the Icom IC-91A ($274.95) which works well for both receiving and transmitting. These handhelds operate on VHF/UHF frequencies and can receive broadcast shortwave stations.


HobbyRadioGiftGuideft817.jpg
Yaesu FT-817ND ($599.95, Universal Radio)
This low power (5W) radio is great for portable operation. Like the handhelds, it transmits on VHF and UHF, but also on HF (high-frequency), which can travel hundreds, even thousands of miles (as opposed to VHF/UHF which only communicates locally). However, since this radio is low power, the coverage is not as good as the larger portable and desktop radios. A comparable radio is the ICOM IC-703 ($729.95).

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