The Pied Piper’s Magic!

Come read the latest exciting release from JEF Press in this illustrated thriller by Jacob. “It’s a real page-turner!” exclaimed the author’s mother. “You’ll be on the edge of your seat until the surprise ending,” suggests his father. According to…

$2 Hot Wire Foam Cutter

Here’s a hot wire foam cutter that I made from scraps, following a general design I saw in Make magazine a couple years ago. I picked up 20 feet of 30-gauge nichrome (nickel chromium) wire on ebay for $2.09, shipping…

How to Make a Pen from Start to Finish

Here’s a 20-minute video of the entire pen-making process — everything from selecting the wood to preparing the blanks, through to turning the pen on the lathe, finishing it to a shine, and assembling it. Virtually none of the process…

Rubber Band Gun

Okay, let’s get some parenting concerns out of the way first: I believe that a rubber band gun is probably one of the safest ways to teach a kid a bit about gun safety, partly because it actually shoots something…

How To Fake Dynamic DNS

I have everything I need to keep tabs on my home IP address without signing up for a DDNS service like No-IP or DynDNS. My Synology NAS always knows its address when it’s online, and because it’s essentially a little…

A Few Turned Pens

Here are a few pens that I made for Christmas gifts this year. (I can post them now because everyone’s received them!) Click the image for a larger view. From left to right, there are two pens turned from holly,…