We’re All Makers

A quizzical little magazine called Make: appeared in bookstores and on newsstands in 2005, stuffed with geeky DIY projects like “Kite Aerial Photography” and a hacked VCR Cat Feeder. And I do mean “little”—its small format was eye-catching, more like a paperback book than a traditional magazine. Suffice it to say, Make: got noticed by a new generation of readers itching to take technology into their own hands and get building things. I hopped aboard as a humble copyeditor, and it’s been my great privilege to ride the wave ever since—surfing along at the forefront of a burgeoning Maker Movement. We published The Best of Make: in November 2007, collecting 75 beloved projects from our first 10 issues.

Then things got really busy. The Make: website took off like a rocket, posting maker news and projects every day. Our “Weekend Projects” video series broke out on YouTube. Craft: magazine inspired a new audience to transform traditional crafts. Maker Faire began in 2006 as a Bay Area DIY festival and erupted into a global phenomenon, with Faires in New York, London, Shenzhen—more than 100 cities in 2015. We launched our Make: books imprint, as well as the Maker Shed store to purvey the finest in DIY books, kits, and tools. Two years ago, Maker Media, Inc., spun off from O’Reilly Media. We moved our digs to San Francisco and relaunched the magazine in a full-size format aimed at a wider audience, kicking off our most exciting chapter yet.

Next thing we know, Make: is 10 years old, with editions published in China, Japan, and Germany, and as of this writing we’re coming up on our 50th issue. It’s time we served up another slice: The Best of Make: Volume 2—65 great projects and skill builders for all levels.

Change accelerates, but the essence of Make: is eternal—people just love making things and learning new skills. While we delight in chronicling the brilliant makers and powerful new tools that are driving the Maker Movement, to my mind it’s the DIY projects and tutorials that remain at the heart of Make: magazine. We’ll always teach you to solder new circuits and MacGyver new gadgets from old—it’s what we do.

Have the projects changed over the years? Absolutely. Technology waits for no one. Laser cutters are everywhere now. CNC routers and personal 3D printers have evolved from quirky prototypes—remember the plywood MakerBot on the cover of Make: Volume 21?—into smart, reliable tools for new kinds of making, like fashionable, flexible 3D printed “Cyberpunk Spikes” or an ear-splitting “CNC Air Raid Siren.”

And drones—radio-controlled aircraft with the robotic brains to level themselves, fly acrobatically, and even navigate autonomously—went from faraway headlines to the familiar multirotor copters (like you’ll find in “The HandyCopter UAV” and “Build Your First Tricopter”) that everyone’s nephew is building and flying today.

Maybe most significant, the rise of inexpensive microcomputers you can embed in almost any project—from Arduino microcontrollers to credit- card-sized Linux computers like the Raspberry Pi—has made possible new kinds of inventions, like a “Million Color HSL Flashlight” or a “Raspberry Pirate Radio.”

And if Maker Faire has taught us anything, it’s the enormous variety of people who identify themselves as makers. We’ve discovered new communities of DIY innovators, in traditional arts and crafts reshaped by digital design, in wearable electronics (“Luminous Lowtops”), and in modernist cuisine, ranging from new cooking technology (“Sous Vide Immersion Cooker”) to the art and science of fermented foods (“Three-Day Kimchi”).

The projects in this book cover a very wide range of topics, for every skill level—from robots and rockets to making soap—because we see all makers as part of the Maker Movement. I’m most satisfied with Make: when it’s a variety show like Maker Faire: high tech meets arts and crafts, garage engineering, backyard science, a big portion of family fun, peppered with delightfully unclassifiable projects. Why would you build “The Most Useless Machine”? How could you not?

As I scan the projects in this book, I’m overwhelmed by happy memories of the entire Make: editorial and creative teams, anchored over the years by Dale Dougherty, Mark Frauenfelder, Paul Spinrad, Shawn Connally, Goli Mohammadi, Gareth Branwyn, Mike Senese, Jason Babler, and our new chief, Rafe Needleman. I have them to thank for my sense of what Make: is and what it can become.

But really I’d like to thank the makers whose words you’ll read in this book. For sharing their projects and workshops, their tips and tricks, and their genuine joy in making things and showing you how to make them too. It’s that spirit of glee and generosity that moves the Maker Movement. You’ll find it in abundance in these pages. It’s a wellspring you can drink from again and again.

—KEITH HAMMOND, Projects Editor, Make:

P.S. What will Make: be ten years from now? You tell me! E-mail me your delightful projects at [email protected].