MADEONEARTH
PlayStation Wizard
Learning to use an oxyacetylene torch was just the
spark Max Maruszewski needed to set his interest
in building things afire. Now, when he’s not working
on a school play or racing around a parking lot in
the “wheelchair” he and a buddy made out of a
shopping cart, this 16-year-old’s almost certainly
“coming up with crazy stuff to build.”
Boredom can play a large part in a teenager’s
life, but for Maruszewski, it’s often his muse. Take,
for instance, his Lego PlayStation conversion. “The
PlayStation box came from pure boredom, late at
night when my friend Doug West came over,” he
remembers. “Mainly I just get bored and decide to
go make something weird.”
Maruszewski’s interest in making things started
when he was a youngster, hanging out in his father’s
bicycle shop in San Francisco. From there, he was
lucky enough to find a venue for learning often-neglected maker skills. “It really started to pick up
when I started a machine shop class at Petaluma
High School,” he says. “I learned how to use an oxy
torch and how to use lathes and such. These skills
motivated me to acquire some more ‘hardcore’ tools.”
He’s now working on a remote-control “
shopping bot” that he and a pal hope to send down to
the local 7-11 for chips and salsa. “It will hand the
cashier a credit card and get the receipt and bring it
back. It’s going to be quite a challenge,” he predicts.
Maruszewski continues to take machine shop
classes, and after school he’s earning his second-level credential with the National Institute for
Metalworking Skills (NIMS). The NIMS credentials
will allow him to apply for a degree in CNC machining
later on, something he’s very keen on doing.
For now, he’s content to continue his schooling and
have a little teenage fun. “Doug and I like to go to the
local [grocery store] and get a train of carts attached
to the back of the wheelchair. We zoom around the
store grabbing coupons, then leave really fast.”
Ah, the vagaries of the youthful mind. Maybe next
he’ll build coupon-dispensing robots.
—Shawn Connally
>> Maruszewski’s Projects: makezine.com/go/maxm
Photograph by Max Maruszewski
28 Make: Volume 13
