COOL KITS FROM THE MAKER STORE
For these and more kits, visit store.makezine.com.
Vacuum Tube
Radio Kit
$100 Product code: GKSSVTR
Put together a handsome vacuum tube radio from an easy-to-make kit. It includes a pin straightener for the vacuum
tubes, a testing microphone so you can make sure everything is hooked up correctly to make sound, rubber feet on
the fiberboard to minimize “howling,” a variable condenser
to allow for finer tuning, and a powerful transformer for
volume and sound quality.
Photograph by Midel Toriyama / Mike Richards
Peggy LED Boards
$80 Product code: MKEVLPEG
Another evil project from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories,
this light-emitting pegboard display (affectionately known
as “Peggy”) provides a quick, easy, powerful, and efficient
way to drive a lot of LEDs (up to 625) in a big matrix covering
almost 1 square foot of area. You can make an LED sign for
your window, a geeky valentine for your sweetie, one bad-ass
birthday card, or freak the holy bejesus out of Boston. Your
call. It’s a versatile, high-brightness display. How you configure it and what you do with it is up to you.
Mechamo Kits
$60– 80 Product codes: GKMKC-P, -R and -IW
Make metal inch, scuttle, and undulate
with these satisfying kits. The final robots
are as sculptural as art, but even more fun
in motion. One remote works for all three
kits, so you can have robotic insect wars
between the inch worm and centipede, and
then watch the crab crush them both!
Telekinetic Pen Kit
$15 Product code: MKTELEPEN
From MAKE, Volume 13, comes this great
DIY magic trick. Using a small battery,
a magnetic reed switch, and a miniature
pager motor, this device can be concealed
inside a fine-point Sharpie pen. When
the magnet is drawn near, the reed switch
closes, making the Sharpie dance and
vibrate as if by magic! Only you will know
it’s really just sufficiently advanced
technology.
Make: 179
