Tyler wrote in about the adjustable height desk project he posted on the Adafruit blog:
I built a desk based off of your CNC Workstation Cart design. Thanks for your great write-up and materials list. I used your tab design exactly and everything fit together like a glove!
Paul writes on twitter:
I ported your snowflake generator sketch from 2008 to js and added SVG export for easy laser cutting!
Also good for other kinds of CNC snowflakes, too.
We’re running a Thanksgiving sale in the shop: save 20% or more on selected kits and components, Black Friday through Cyber Monday with free US shipping for all orders over $75.
Joyce sent us this picture of her 2013 Lord of the Rings Pez dispenser LED menorah.
I thought I’d share my new menorah hack with you all. Friends even started asking about “this year’s theme” so I guess it’s now an official tradition.
She incorporated our new multi-colored LED Menorah kit into this one. You can find our previous LED Pez dispenser menorah posts here and here.
LenShustek posted in the forums about his mod to our Deluxe LED Menorah kit to make it play music for Hanukkah this year. He also published his source code for others to try out.
Joe over at Hack Things received his WaterColorBot recently and has posted a review.
Within an hour, WaterColorBot was spitting out drawings (it paints pretty fast!) and causing giggles. Mission accomplished!
aberson asked about our new Deluxe Electronic Breadboard Menorah kits:
Would it be possible to post the assembly instructions for the solderless kit? (if there are any) I’m wondering if this kit would be suitable for somebody who has no electronics experience at all. Does it call out the row/col number for every resistor, jumper, etc?
Printed instructions do come with the kit, are very helpful, because there’s an actual size component bending guide on the page. We have also posted a pdf version on our documentation site. No prior knowledge of electronics is needed, and we call out the location for each component and provide clear diagrams to follow.
We recently acquired this beautiful Erector Rocket Launcher Set from 1958. While not quite complete, it is still tantalizing with its girders, nuts, bolts and motor. The printing on the metal box is beautiful.
The motor is labeled “Erector Electric Engine” and features a clever mechanical gear shifter.
While our set did not come with instructions, there are online resources for vintage building sets, and Girders & Gears has a thorough description and pictures of a more complete set. They also have instructions available for download, which include the following practical warning:
CAUTION: Be sure there is no one in front of the launcher when the rocket is fired.
The Peek-O-Book is a close relative of the Snap-O-Lantern. The book occasionally opens and peeks out with its LED eyes before snapping shut again to look like a normal book on a shelf.
A compartment is cut into the pages of the book and the circuitry is hidden inside.
The orange LED eyes are affixed to a small piece of wood which is then glued to the cover of the book so that they just fit inside the compartment. The rest of the electronics are nestled inside the compartment.
We made the Peek-O-Book for The Art of Tinkering book release party at the Exploratorium Afterdark event last week. Many of the tinkerers featured in the book were invited to hack a copy of the book. The cabinets in the Tinkering studio were packed full of hacked books and projects from the book. You can see pictures of some of the other hacked books in our photo set.
Andrew Probert, the designer of the Cylons for the original Battlestar Galactica TV series, wrote to say:
Years later, now, I just was made aware of this great pumpkin idea of yours and wanted to thank you personally for keeping my toaster ‘alive’ in a fun new way… this is SO cool.
Our Cylon Jack-O-Lantern project and Larson Scanner kits are carrying on the tradition!
