Last January, I wrote about how to make your own traditional painted-leather “bomber” jacket, in a tutorial about how I made my Classic Lego Space Flight Jacket. Since then, several people have asked us for a future update post, to see how well it has aged after a year. And so, here we are. After a year of regular use, how well are those nifty flexible leather paints holding up?
I loved this little piece by Bryan Kennedy titled “It’s just wood.” A concise philosophical statement about the freedoms that come along with knowing how to make things.
The same approach applies in so many different contexts. Sometimes, it’s just aluminum, just software, or just silicon. It also reminds me of what a physics professor of mine used to say when explaining how simple something was: “It’s just math.”
Jens added a new tool option to his DIY Laser: a pen holder.
Due to safety concerns I couldn’t run the laser out in public, but to be able to show of the CNC capabilities I built a penholder.
The pen holder design was inspired by the WaterColorBot’s brush holder, with its parallel flexure hinges.
Andreif shared this timelapse of building a Bulbdial Clock Kit on twitter:
Bulbdial from
@EMSL completed. Thanks again to@maltman23 &@jprodgers for the terrific solder workshop at@netz39.
Jens demonstrates using StippleGen2 with his low-power (300 mW!) DIY laser cutter and a classic image of Louis Armstrong.
After letting StippleGen2 crunch the numbers for a while I imported the resulting vector graphic file into inkscape and generated the G-code so that I could use my laser cutter to cut the image into a black paper. 2 hours and 23 minutes later I had a 20×20 cm piece of paper with about a 1000 holes in it and it looks awesome! Would be perfect for a lamp shade or just nice to put up in a window and let the sun shine through. I can highly recommend StippleGen2 it’s super easy and a lot of fun.
Our friend Steve Hoefer cleverly modified a pair of wind-up chattering teeth to serve as a toothbrushing timer with an integrated toothbrush holder/switch to help ensure thorough brushing. Learn how to make your own (using a 555 timer!) at Make Projects.
Ann posted instructions in our forums for creating an electric kistka (wax pen) for the Eggbot for traditional Pysanky egg dying techniques. She used nichrome wire, krylon tape, a modified kistka, and a 2xAA battery holder with a switch and described how to mount it in the Eggbot. She posted a couple of designs to Thingiverse demonstrating the technique including the rose design pictured above.
For a Humpty Dumpty design, she wrote up how she made it:
Using eggbot and custom electric kistka, plotted the Humpty Dumpty picture and text on an egg. First plotted outline, dyed brick, colored in bricks by hand with kistka, dyed blue.
You can check out her other designs for the Eggbot on Thingiverse.
Here’s a little project that we’ve been working towards for a long time: a custom-painted leather flight jacket (“bomber jacket”) featuring the “Classic Lego Space” logo. (Yes, I totally spent years serving in the Lego space corps!) And, if you’ve ever wanted to make your own painted leather jacket — whatever the theme — here’s how to do it.
Matt commented on our Snap-O-Lantern kit:
I took the more DIY model and built a LEGO Snap-O-Lantern.
Gabe Hoffmann wrote in:
I heard you on Science Friday talking about halloween, went home and looked on your website at Snap-O-Lanterns, and was inspired. I added a phototransistor and infrared LEDs to make a motion sensing small pumpkin that can try to bite you.
Thanks for sharing your project, Gabe!
If you built a Snap-O-Lantern or were inspired by any of our Halloween projects, we’d love to see your photos in our flickr group.
