How To Disassemble the new Nikon D7000 DSLR
Nikon’s new D7000 is an awesome camera full of great technology. But what’s on the inside? The Thai site vimoncamera.com takes it upon themselves to pull the case apart piece by piece to show the innards for us to all enjoy. One thing that…
Watch Beginners Shape and Glass Surfboards To Learn From Their Mistakes
All surfers begin to contemplate building their own board at some point. Maybe it begins on a day of slow rolling waves, while the long boarders take all the rides a hundred yards behind the one guy on a shortboard. Or while watching the…
1958 Land Rover Series II and Defender 90 Rebuild Timelapse Videos – Two of the Best 4x4s Ever Getting Assembled
In case you didn’t know, I’m a classic Land Rover nut. Their rugged, no-frills style matches everything I like in life. Go-anywhere badassery, marching through deserts and over mountains. Or even better, desert mountains. After my brother-in-law Steve got me bit by the LR…
Video: From Steel – Custom Steel Bicycle Fabrication
Another great documentary from Michael Evans (who shot the awesome video “Naturally Risen,” about Una Pizza Napoletana’s Anthony Mangieri). Watch as master bicycle maker Sean Walling expertly glides from machine to machine, cutting, grinding, and welding his way towards a gorgeous, custom steel frame…
HiJack Lets You Interface With The iPhone Through the Headphone Jack
As computers progress, get smaller, become more powerful, the peripherals that we used to stack next to our desktop machines have begun to disappear. Modems, various types of disc drives, printers and scanners – all are now internalized with 3G connections, Library of Congress-sized…
Notes, Tips, and Recipe from my Birthday Pizza Cookout
For the past five years, I’ve had an annual pizza party for my birthday each January. It’s my excuse to get to cook as many pizzas as possible at one time, to test my pizza-making skills, to try to bring the best I’m able…
Levitate a Magnet Over A Home-made Superconductor
The Meisner effect is a great demonstration on one of the unique ways superconductors behave when cooled to super-cold temperatures. When placing a magnet over the supercooled superconductor, it appears to defy the laws of gravity, and floats over the surface. At this temperature,…
How to Fix A Dent On Your Car: Hairdryer and A Can Of Compressed Air
Backed into a pole? Someone open their door into your car in the parking lot? Errant football throw bang your hood during a tailgate party? Now you have a dent in your brand new car. Pricey to fix, ugly to see. But before you…
Tuning A Trebuchet For Maximum Distance – A Look at the Components and Variables
Here are some notes on adjusting your trebuchet or catapult to help maximize the distance it will launch an object. Happy flingin’! ======================== Catapults and trebuchets originated more than 2000 years ago, and over time became highly sophisticated machines that represented the pinnacle of…
Build Your Own RC Rock Crawler For Backyard Off-Road Fun – Or Just Watch Videos Of Other People Doing It
Rock crawling is a specialized hobby. Take automotive off-roading and narrow it down to just one specialize part: carefully climbing up craggy hills and over tall boulders at super-slow speeds. Sometimes done with stock trucks, but usually using highly modified vehicles with huge amounts…
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!