The Ultimate Kit Guide

Kit Completeness: 2

(5=Most complete) How complete is the kit? Plans only? That rates a 1. Parts bundles and kits rate 2–5, depending on whether it’s just key components, almost every- thing, or absolutely everything you need, including any unusual tools.

Bread Making Gear

Bread Making Gear

Make Kit Reviews

Bread Making Gear

$13 starter, up to $50 for other tools

Complexity:
Components:
Documentation:
Community:
Completeness:

TAGS: , , , ,

Reviewed: November 11th, 2011

While not exactly a “kit,” Cultures for Health has everything you need for making sourdough bread: 15 starters from all over the world, clear instructions, and a great selection of useful bread-making tools, like cookbooks, dough scrapers, bread bags, and baker’s blades for scoring that classic ridge down the middle of your loaf. I experimented […]

Food: , , , ,

Vegetable Fermenting Gear

Vegetable Fermenting Gear

Make Kit Reviews

Vegetable Fermenting Gear

$20 starter, plus $62 for cookbook, mandoline, and jar

Complexity:
Components:
Documentation:
Community:
Completeness:

TAGS: , , ,

Reviewed:

To make sauerkraut, all you really need is cabbage, salt, and a jar with a lid, but you can make your life much easier with a mandoline slicer, vegetable starter culture, and fermenting crock from Cultures for Health. (A copy of Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz will only help the cause.) They carry charming crocks […]

Food: , , ,

Wise Clock 3

Wise Clock 3

Make Kit Reviews

Wise Clock 3

$62

Complexity:
Components:
Documentation:
Community:
Completeness:

TAGS: , , , ,

Reviewed: November 3rd, 2011

The Wise Clock 3 is an easy and highly customizable driver for a 32×16 RGB LED matrix display (included). Its default program includes several different clock modes, but it can also display the date and temperature, or any message. Check out all the different clock faces, including Pong and Pac-Man.

Clocks: , , , ,

Peggy 2LE

Peggy 2LE

Make Kit Reviews

Peggy 2LE

$75

Complexity:
Components:
Documentation:
Community:
Completeness:

TAGS: ,

Reviewed: October 27th, 2011

Peggy 2LE provides a quick, easy, powerful, and efficient way to drive a lot of big, bright LEDs — up to 625 — in a matrix. With it, you can make an LED sign for your window, a geeky valentine for your sweetie, one badass birthday card, the next generation of low-pixel-count video games, or […]

LEDs: ,