DIY

Add lighting effects to your stereo

Adding blinking lights to anything is a surefire way to make it totally obnoxious. For some of you, that's a good thing.

Here are two techniques you can use to add sound-reactive lights to your stereo, boom box, computer, or pretty much anything that makes music.

The first option is to use something like an EL Wire Sound Kit. These are sold online from various places and include some combination of electroluminescent wire, a power adapter, and a special power inverter that drives the wire's power in response to sound picked up by an integrated microphone.

The whole … Read more

DIY e-mail purse looks a lot like a Gmail purse

What happens to e-mail when you print it out? Is it still e-mail or has it moved into a different plane of existence? Regardless of the existential questions that arise, you now have a very fitting place to put your printed e-mails. Stuff them into a DIY Mail Purse.

The DIY Mail Purse gets part of its name from the fact you have to assemble it yourself. Don't worry, ThinkGeek says it will only take 15 minutes of your time. It comes with precut polyester felt pieces, cotton rope, basswood splints, and a shoulder strap. Assembly is just a matter of running the rope through some holes.… Read more

Underwater wheelchair flies through the liquid blue

Wheelchair-using British artist Sue Austin can fly... underwater. In a series of live and film events called "Creating the Spectacle," Austin uses a modified wheelchair to move gracefully about in the blue.

Austin is challenging the perception of wheelchairs with her creation. According to BBC News, the wheelchair is fitted with two dive propulsion vehicles to propel it through the water.… Read more

Man blows off own hands, builds new ones

Few would have mustered the optimism or the ingenuity.

But Sun Jifa didn't have the money to buy replacements. What else was he supposed to do but build his own?

Did Sun, 51, of Guanmashan, northern China, need new seats for his car or coffee tables for his living room? Not quite.

He needed new hands, after he'd blown off his own.… Read more

DIY: The $10 gliding camera strap

Back when I discussed the seven things every photographer should have in his arsenal, I mentioned replacing the neckache-inducing camera strap with one of the many alternatives that can be found online. From necktie-inspired straps to the geeky-but-awesome Spider Holster, superior options are abundant.

Originally made popular by Custom SLR, the gliding camera strap is my favorite of these alternatives. Using the tripod mount as an anchor, the gliding camera strap gives you the comfort of an over-the-shoulder hang with the convenience of grabbing your camera and hitting the shutter button at a moment's notice.

The unexpected genius of … Read more

Custom BioShock pinball machine is Rapturous

There are plenty of geeky pinball machines in existence. You can conquer a pinball version of "Lord of the Rings," bash bumpers with Transformers, and roll your way through "Avatar."

What happens when the object of your obsession isn't available in pinball form? You make your own. Pinball hacker/maker rasmadrak is going all BioShock on a custom-made pinball machine.… Read more

H.R. Giger Geiger counter is frightening and useful

An offhand Twitter comment about a "Giger counter" launched a maker into a project to build a Geiger counter done in the style of "Alien" creator H.R. Giger. It's a pun come to creepy, wonderful life.

Steve D of Mad Art Lab combined a half-scale human skeleton model, a Geiger counter kit from Adafruit, some flexible tubing, and plenty of Carbon Mist metallic paint into a disturbing-looking Geiger counter.

The Geiger counter part of the creation does actually work. It makes all the right blipping sounds and a red LED lights up on the back of the alien creation's "head."… Read more

Make your own glow-in-the-dark Kryptonite candy

Jon Johns managed to max out the comments section on a Google+ post when he hit 500 comments. What got everyone so excited? Glow-in-the-dark candy, of course.

Johns, a community engagement specialist for O'Reilly Media (publisher of Make Magazine), shined a light on a Make recipe for creating Kryptonite Candy for a recent Maker Camp project. Johns talked with Crave about his secrets for making glowing candy that actually tastes good, too.… Read more

Transfer VHS tapes to your computer

Unlike your old vinyl record collection, those VHS tapes you stored away in the back of your closet aren't going to see a resurgence in popularity. There are no videophiles extolling the superior experience and fidelity of these analog tapes. No, VHS is a dying medium that fully deserves to be put in its grave.

But before your tapes turn to goop or VCRs become as rare as eight-track players, let's take a moment to archive any sentimental home movies you still have on tape. Honestly, those really should be the only VHS tapes you're still holding … Read more

How to make a supersimple bounce flash for your dSLR

The internal flash of a dSLR comes in handy when shooting in low light and indoors but can sometimes be too harsh on your subjects. Bouncing the flash is a great way to distribute the light more uniformly, allowing for more than just foreground assets to show up in the photo. Bouncing the flash is also great for avoiding harsh shadows and those pesky red eyes.

So how do you bounce a flash? Well, the easiest way is to use an external flash attachment. The problem is that external flashes are bulky, heavy, and cumbersome to travel with. This makes them less desirable to carry around and decreases the chances you'll actually have one when you need it most.… Read more