Unexpected Celebrity DIY Book: Build and Repair With Concrete, with Don Knotts
When it comes to trustworthy home tips, there’s one name I always look for. Unfortunately for this publisher, that name is not Don Knotts. Build and Repair With Concrete : The Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual (Found this gem of a book in my friend’s parents’s…
Forgotten Detroit – Kickstart this indie film
Making an independent film embodies the tenets of DIY to the max. With that in mind, I got excited when I heard about my friend Sarah Pierpont’s new project — she’s producing a film called Forgotten Detroit, (“About learning when to let go–something Detroit…
Cut-and-Fold Paper VW Touareg and Other Papercraft Rally Cars
Rally racing, awesome as it is, tends to be a European phenomenon. Hilly, public tracks, often off-road. Rallies have been around since the advent of the automobile (mimicking horse-and-buggy races), and nowadays are high-speed, handbrake-turning, hump-jumping affairs. Outside of the European races, a few…
How to Make a Balsa Wood Canon DSLR Mockup
(Note–if you like this post and other cool DIY projects, make sure to add me on twitter and grab the DOIT feed) In 2003, Canon posted a how-to on their website about making a Canon 1D mockup in balsa wood. The post sat on…
Weekend Garage Sale Purchase: Bolts, Nuts, and Hydraulic Pipe Fittings
Saturday mornings, I love to peek at the local garage sale listings on Craigslist, usually to see what people are unloading in the way of tools. This weekend, I saw a “handyman special” nearby, and strolled over to it with an early morning coffee….
Wide-angle HD Micro-Camera Mounted to a Firework
Happy Fourth of July! Here’s a fun way to get a first-person view of a rocket’s trajectory and mid-air detonation. The setup was put together by Jeremiah Warren (friend him on facebook). The camera is the 808 Car Keys Micro Camera #11. 720p…
Happy Father’s Day, Dad!
Dear Dad, Every Father’s Day, I tell you you’re the greatest dad in the world, but that’s never slowed you down from continuing to educate and inspire me. From teaching me how to use a soldering iron when I was five years old, to…
Secret Surveillance Garden Birdhouse – Notes and Plans from my Build
This Friday I’m doing a workshop for Craftsman in Chicago, for their first annual blogger summit. The different presenters each introduced themselves by building a birdhouse project that represents them. I started the project by drawing a set of blueprints, knowing that I wanted…
How to Change the Tail Light on your Nissan Versa
A few days ago a friend asked me to help change a burnt out tail light on her Versa hatchback. Sure, piece of cake, right? Well, Nissan had other plans, and made it a little tricky. Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting into your…
How to Make a Homemade Comet With Household Ingredients, and Fun Comet Facts
A quick and easy way to make a replica of a comet. The replica is only for demonstration purposes; it won’t travel on a multi-century interstellar orbit, but it does give a good example of the popular “dirty snowball” description of the comet’s composition….
Hi, I'm Mike. I’m the executive editor of Make: magazine, and host of Discovery channel’s Punkin' Chunkin' and Catch It Keep It, TV shows where I build and explain crazy machines that crush stuff, blow things up, shoot fire, all in the name of science.
I've previously worked at Wired and ReadyMade magazines, writing about how to utilize new technology in our everyday lives.
This site is where I keep a list of instructions for fun projects I've done, am working on, or draw inspiration from. I encourage everyone to get involved — get up and do something!