Make: Kit Reviews

Recreate the Internet sensation in your own backyard! Fresh from their performance at Maker Faire, the guys at EepyBird hand-crafted replica PVC nozzles just like the ones they use themselves. Each kit contains a variety of nozzle cuts to give you the coolest, highest-shooting geysers. They even throw in a pack of Mentos to get […]

Toys & Games: Coke Zero, Diet Coke, fountain, Games, geyser, Mentos, Science, toys

Thousands of people mastered soldering for the first time at this year’s Maker Faire events in the Maker Shed’s “Learn to Solder” tents, with the helpful coaching of Mitch Altman, Jimmie Rodgers, and dozens of other hackerspace volunteers. Participants left the Maker Shed with smiles on their faces, new skills, increased confidence, and a cool […]

Electronics and Controllers: electronics, kids, skills, soldering

Hobby rocketry leader Estes Industries makes more than a dozen inexpensive launch sets (launch pad/rod, launch controller) for beginners, but their included rockets are either pre-built or not much of a challenge. For a good first build, I’d instead suggest the Quest Astra 1. Its balsa fins are mounted “through the wall,” making it easy […]

Rockets: kids, rocket-powered, Rockets

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: fermentation, food, sauerkraut, vegetables

In MAKE Volume 25, Sparkle Labs showed how to hack your TV remote control to make it solar powered. Just add a tiny solar panel and rechargeable batteries. It works with any AA- or AAA-powered remote. Now they’ve put together this easy kit: a flexible 4.8V solar cell with soldered leads and connector pads, and […]

Home & Shelter: home, remote control, solar energy, TV

This is loads of fun — a way to get the kids out of the house during the winter, or make a cheap little ice fishing house that’s disposable. Any type of snow can be compacted into this nifty device to quickly create hundreds of perfectly formed, slanted, stackable igloo building blocks. The Eskimold differs […]

Home & Shelter: home, igloo, kids, shelter, snow

I save recipes on cards and always get bits of food or water on them, but laminating them with this hot laminator kit makes wiping them off a breeze. Use it for scrapbooking or for special photos you want to protect, or make your own laminated crafts such as luggage tags, signs, and more. Any crafter […]

Craft: crafts, laminator, scrapbooking

This easy-to-assemble, no-solder kit lets you create your own unique LED light show. The only tool needed is a pair of pliers for crimping the wire connectors. The RGB (red-green-blue) LEDs create a slow, ever-changing, multicolored glow that’s perfect for setting the mood of any room. Makes a great nightlight, too!

LEDs: art, electronics, LEDs

Build your own life-size grasshopper and explore solar power with this educational mini solar robot kit. The snap-together, attention-getting  Solar Frightened Grasshopper teaches how solar energy can be used to generate electricity. This easy-to-use science kit is perfect for first-time experimenters with little or no experience. Ages 10 and up.

Toys & Games: Games, kids, solar energy, toys

Who would have thought a company that makes pencils and pens could come up with such a cool robotics kit for all ages! Inside the box are five windup mechanisms, plus various arts and crafts goodies to make a veritable army of whirring and walking mechanical denizens. You get some pre-cut stiff paper to construct […]

Robotics: robotics, robots