DIY Alien invasion

Flickr photo pool member Jcruss69 made an out of this world Alien invasion "haunted house" (and entered it in the MAKE & CRAFT contest) check out the complete photo set, outstanding work! - >>>Link<<<

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12 Pikachu circuit bent orchestra

There isn't a sound sample -yet- but check out these photos of a 12 modded Pikachu circuit bent orchestra! [via] - >>>Link<<<

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Apple in the Garage

This looks like a great event if you're in CA... If any Makers are going let us know, we'd love a recap/report! Apple @ 30 1976: Apple in the Garage will be held at the Vintage Computer Festival 9.0 on the weekend of November 4-5th, 2006 at the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA - >>>Link<<<

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Halloween Automaton - Surprise top hat

Dug North writes - "An Automata-maker made this rigged top hat. A hidden cable controller activates a mechanism hidden within the hat to provide a little halloween surprise. Check out the video" - >>>Link<<<

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HOW TO - Make a T-Rex Rooftopper

MAKE Instructable member Hirerob writes - "Fun with misused hardware supplies. Pretty simple: 1) Make a skeleton with pvc and attach it to a piece of plywood. 2) Use chicken wire to create the form. The eyes are kick balls. 3) The skin is good ol' duct tape (much easier than the paper and glue thing). 4) Paint. 5) To get it on the roof I had to actually contruct a ramp and pulley system - if not careful this can quickly become a guillotine. 6) Last step was to put more holes in my roof. And there you have it." - >>>Link<<<

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OPERATION - The Halloween costume

Jack writes - "Inspired by the original created by Felix Jung (http://www.avoision.com/portnoy/2004/october/29.php) in 2004 and somewhat by Jack W. Bell's take in 2005 (http://jackwilliambell.livejournal.com/86072.html), I took it upon myself to reproduce it this year with the addition of the mask and light up nose." - >>>Link<<<


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John Farr's Skeleton Bike

This custom bike is freaking sweet (and Halloween-ish!)... [via] - >>>Link<<<

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Jack-O-Laser of Doom

Vatosupreme writes - "Ok, I thought the Laser Vortex was the coolest Halloween project yet. So this project pays homage to it. For my project, however I needed to make it small and portable to fit into a pumpkin. I also needed to make the laser and spinning mirror all 1 unit. So with a couple of mods, the Jack-o-Laser of Doom was born. I got one of those smoke machines at Target for 20 bucks and it is not the greatest but I think the effect is cool.. This would work better inside because the smoke dissapates outside due to the wind. My wife wasn't as excited about putting this in the house as i was so.... Its on the porch." - >>>Link<<< & entered in the MAKE/CRAFT contest!

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HOW TO - Pacman arcade costume

Russ writes in with his MAKE/CRAFT contest entry, a MAME costume! - "After being invited to an 80's themed Halloween Party, I spent weeks (OK, minutes) trying to come up with a cool idea for a costume. Sure, I could go as He-man or Punky Brewster, but I wanted to make it something that had to be built, incorporated some technology and might be a bit of a challenge. What the heck was going to scratch my geek-itch?

Since I've been toying with the idea of making a MAME arcade cabinet, why not make one I could wear? Provided I could shoehorn my laptop into a mini arcade cabinet and still have room for my growing belly, I figured it would be pretty straight forward. And if I'm going to have to pick an arcade game from the 1980's, why not pick the one that really started the arcade craze? I'm referring to Pacman, of course (not that hack-job of a game, Mrs. Pacman). While the original and basically identical Japanese version (Puck-man) came out in 1979, the American version lists 1980 on it's attract screen. That was good enough for me." - >>>Link<<<

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Building live steam locomotives in 1/8 scale

Paul writes - "Here's picture sent to one of my mailing lists by a fellow model engineer, of a boiler he's building. Looks very much like a Jack-o-Lantern... He also blogs his progress on a number of different locomotive projects, heres the page. Not sure, but I thought this stuff may be of interest to your readers. It is certainly in the same vein as the steam bicycles and the work I-Wei Huang." - >>>Link<<<

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Costumes from Makers... Mr. Potato head, Bipolar junctions. aliens, Spy vs Spy, crayons and more...

Costumes from Makers... Mr. Potato head, Bipolar junctions. aliens, Spy vs Spy, crayons and more...

Jody's Mr. Potato head .

>>>Click for more info<<<

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Hard drive belt buckle

Hard drive belt buckle

MAKE Flickr photo pool member Schtyle did the only thing you can really do with an old broken hard drive (besides making a clock, speakers, ok - there's lots of things...) but this is an another belt buckle... stylin! VIA.

>>>Click here for more info<<<


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New glowing mushrooms found in Brazil

New glowing mushrooms found in Brazil

Here's an incredible photograph by Rodrigo Baleia @ National Geographic news of a newly discovered glowing mushroom in Brazil... - "Like a black light poster come to life, a group of bioluminescent fungi collected from Ribeira Valley Tourist State Park near São Paulo, Brazil, emanates a soft green glow when the lights go out.

The mushrooms are part of the genus Mycena, a group that includes about 500 species worldwide. Of these only 33 are known to be bioluminescent--capable of producing light through a chemical reaction. "

>>>Click here for more info<<<

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HOW TO - Build a solar iPod charger

HOW TO - Build a solar iPod charger

Here's a pretty simple DIY solar iPod charger from "M"@ yosemiteoutside.com - "I looked everywhere for a lightweight solar iPod charger. Nothing fancy, just something I could attach to the top of my backpack. I couldn't find one anywhere, I couldn't even find instructions on how to build one. So, I set about building one for myself. As this was all about getting very light materials, this set-up is very simple but the charger has no protection from branches, rain, or marmots. Also, understand that I am not an engineer. I have attempted to safely mimmic the power from a USB connections. Namely, 5VDC and less than 500mA. But, this could destroy your iPod, create a rift in space-time or bring about the end of the world. It's your call, baby. I'm just saying this is how I did it."

>>>Click here for more info<<<


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HOW TO - Make a 30tonne hydraulic press. Squash anything!

Hoarp001 writes - "This instructable will show you how to make a 30tonne hydraulic press. In my press i use some serious hardware, and the final press is going to end up weighing 86kg, which is 164lbs or 13.5 stone. I use M42 threaded rod which is 42mm wide and weighs a tonne. There is nothing to stop you using smaller hardware, I am told that M30 rod (which you can buy from RS for 10 quid will take 26 tonnes, so two of those would handle it fine.

However you build it, its a nice project, and the finished product is great fun to use.

Below are some damage photos. Theres also a video i made of a santa candle being crushed. I sped the video up so its not too long, the press does not operate at this speed... " -

>>>Click here for more info<<<

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The Darby Steam-Digger

The Darby Steam-Digger

MAKE pal Benjiwenjifoofoo sent in this I-Wei style tractor from the 1800's - "The Darby Steam-Digger, a light traction engine, was invented circa 1879 by Farmer Thomas Darby and built at Lodge Farm Pleshey, near Chelmsford in Essex, England. Robert Hasler, seen driving the Digger, helped to build this first prototype. In effect the machine was an early tractor designed mainly for ploughing, and could accomplish one acre (1 m²/s) an hour to a maximum depth of 14 inches (360 mm). This first digger was constructed on pedestrian principles and had six "feet" and really did walk over the fields. Unfortunately it jumped too much to be really successful. The digger was later modified to have wheels in place of the legs."
>>>Click here fore more info<<<


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