This week on Maker update: a skeleton with a drinking problem,
upcycling vinyl signs,
What happens when a mouse and a controller love each other very much?
Fake windows tinker tips, and adding
*plastic noises*
*creaking*
*ooooh yeah*
to your videos.
Hello and welcome back to Maker Update.
I'm Tyler Winegarner, and I hope you're doing great.
It's good to see you.
It's September! We made it to September.
Give yourselves a pat on the back.
The air is starting to get a little bit cooler,
and the leaves are coming down from the trees
and it's high time to get busy on some Halloween projects.
So let's check out the project of the week.
As maker channels go, Wicked Makers is pretty much your one stop shop
for DIY Halloween props and projects.
But with their latest design, they've hit on something really amazing.
This is a pirate skeleton drinking his eternal guzzle of wine.
And the best part is it's a fountain installation.
If you give this project a good squint, you can probably tell what's
going on here. The wine barrel acts as the reservoir for the fountain.
A pump moves the water through a tube that runs up the skeletons arm
and into the downward turned wine bottle, which then pours into the skeleton’s mouth,
down its throat, and back into the reservoir.
But just because the problem is fairly simple doesn't mean its execution is.
And there's a ton of great tips all throughout this video,
like how to use wood stain to make your skeleton look more aged.
How to pose it in exactly the way you want, using heat guns, saws
and hot glue, and weathering the clothing and the bottle,
So doesn't look all fresh off the rack.
Though one of my favorite tips
is looking to your local goodwill for Halloween decor.
In the interest of transparency, Wicked Makers' video is sponsored by Goodwill,
but it turns out they're a great and economical resource for your Halloween
decor and props, and a left-field alternative to your typical craft store.
Whether you need weird clothing for your spooky scarecrow
or some second hand speakers for some sound ambiance,
definitely check out your local thrift or salvage store.
More projects! Speaking of salvage, Laura Kampf has a new video about how
she's made this waterproof dry bag out of an old vinyl sign.
After cutting out the pattern, she's using an industrial sewing machine
to stitch it all together and attach some fabric carry straps.
I know it's been a while since we've had conferences and expos
to generate endless resources, have reinforced vinyl signage.
But you can probably still find this stuff around
if you know where to look or who to ask.
So there's a ton of clever products out there to help you attach
your phone to fence posts, street signs or whatever else
you might want to use as an In-situ tripod.
But on Instructables, I found this design by MrBalleng.
That might be the cleverest.
This is just a simple loop of steel braided cable that's passed through
a couple of 3D printed bits that carry some fairly large neodymium magnets.
The magnets not only help
secure the mount to metal structures or even drywall screws,
but it can also provide enough friction to keep the cable secure.
The cable loop at the end can be used to hold the phone
through the use of simple loops like this lark's head knot.
It looks like you have to think pretty creatively to get the most out of this.
But once you get your head around it,
you can attach your phone in a ton of different situations.
Bob and Josh at I Like to Make Stuff have this great project
on creating fake windows for a basement bedroom for Josh's son.
It sounds pretty silly until you've dealt with it,
but being deprived of natural light over time can have a pretty serious
effect on your mood.
They're using these large led lighting panels and mounting them into a wall
and then framing them just like you would a window.
They've even put them on a timer, so they dim up and down
with the natural daylight cycle.
This doesn't quite provide
all the benefits of having access to natural light, but they definitely make
this basement room feel a lot more inviting in the daytime.
And it should make it a more pleasant place to be for long hours.
Over on YouTube, I found this video series by Tech Yesterday
about their hunt to make the perfect game controller for first person shooters.
There's been a longstanding divide between controller players
and keyboard and mouse players, and they want the best of both worlds.
In their latest iteration, they've added an optical sensor from a mouse
to the controller right at the base of the spherical recess in the controller,
and the user manipulates it using this disc shaped thumb pad.
It's great for fine accuracy, but for gross movements
like quick turnarounds, it's not great.
Which is why there's another analog stick on the back of the controller.
There have been a ton of different approaches over the years
to bring mouse control to game controllers like the steam controller.
But this looks like the best yet.
And it's great to see it coming from makers.
Time for some tips and tools.
The Crafsmen Steady Craftin' YouTube channel just dropped a fantastic episode
on improving the sound in your videos.
The front half of this video
is all about adding sound effects, a step that I admittedly often neglect.
There's a ton of great tips on sources for creating foley sounds.
But the back half is really where it's at. Understanding microphone terminology,
why recording sound the way they do,
How to make sound sources seem distant,
and how to remove unwanted sounds like
when a garbage truck drives by during a recording.
As someone who's always championed audio production in videos,
I love this one. Don't miss it.
And our very own Donald Bell just dropped this post
about 22 tips to get you started with Tinkercad.
I don't know about you, but I tend to get stuck in the rut of
my favorite CAD tool. When I run up against its limitations,
It's really disheartening.
Tinkercad is one of the many free alternatives out there,
and there's a huge degree of flexibility in your modeling options.
Keep this one in your back pocket.
It's almost guaranteed to save you some day.
David Picciotto of Make Something has a great tip
on how to use gauge blocks in your workshop.
You've heard us go on and on about 1-2-3 blocks, and these are similar.
They're machined pieces of metal
that you can reliably use to set up tools in your shop.
But they come in a broader variety of measurements.
They seem simple enough, but he shows a ton of different ways to use them.
That might not seem obvious, like he always says, check it.
And finally, we have a fantastic tutorial about weathering metal
from Off Earth Cosplay.
His technique starts with the base metallic coat
and then working in alternating layers of light and dark, using a very dry brush.
He later uses a toothpick dipped in alcohol
to scratch away some of the effect to create a different kind of wear
if you're looking to recreate beat up metal.
This is where to look.
For this week's Digikey spotlight, we're checking out the latest
in The Great Search series by Lady Ada and Adafruit.
This one is all about slide switches.
If you've ever wondered what all the designations mean, double
pole, single throw, single pole, double throw and all the others.
This video begins with a great explainer on what those terms mean.
She also reminds folks to always read the data sheet,
since the order of the pins might not match the switch position.
Personally, I'm a big fan of toggle switches.
But the satisfaction of any mechanical switch just can't be beat.
All right, and that is going to do it for this week's show.
Thank you so much for watching.
If you enjoyed the show, give us a thumbs up hit subscribe and leave us a comment.
I want to know if you've got
any Halloween projects of your own in the works. For me,
I've always wanted to have a replica of this sign from Beetlejuice,
and I really want to get it
done for Halloween, even if it's just a miniature version of it.
As always, huge thanks to the spooky but helpful folks at Digikey
for having all the parts and making this show possible.
Take care out there, I'll see you soon.