When we decided to collaborate with Eric Wilhelm and the folks at Instructables on a best-of book, we knew it was going to be fun and challenging, we had no idea just how fun and how challenging. We also had no idea how deeply interwoven we’d all become with the Instructables community itself.

The book you’re holding represents the enthused effort of hundreds of people. As the staffs at MAKE and Instructables were busy choosing our favorite projects, Instructables ran a contest so members could choose their favorites. Thousands of votes were cast. The top 75 can be seen starting on page 304. Projects chosen by both the editors and the community have a special “Contest Winner!” icon throughout the book.

Translating web content to a book is challenging, especially when you’re dealing with so many contributors. These are not professional writers or photographers. These are people who are passionate about the things they create and about sharing the results of their effort with others. We tried not to tinker too much with their voice, letting different styles and personalities shine through (glare and all) as much as possible. The authors couldn’t have been more generous, taking new pics when possible, correcting errors, proofing layouts, and offering us constant support and encouragement. To all of them we give a resounding Thank you!

A book can only capture some of what the Web has to offer. For each of these projects, a web address is listed at the bottom. Before building a project, go to the Instructable page, check out the additional images and videos, read the comments, and look for updates and corrections.

While this book may represent some of the best projects on Instructables, through this process, we discovered that the best of Instructables is really the community it engenders. The best of Instructables is the willingness of those involved to roll up their sleeves and help out (when you spend your time hanging out on a “how to” site, “can do” is the pervading ethos). And ultimately, the best of Instructables is the itchy excitement one feels while browsing these projects. It’s no exaggeration to tell you that it was all we could do, as we edited these pages, to resist the urge to abandon our desktops for our workbenches and start making stuff.

From all of us, editors Gareth Branwyn, Brian Jepson, and Patti Schiendelman; project manager Terry Bronson; designers Sutton Long and Gretchen Bay; art director Daniel Carter; Eric J. Wilhelm and the team at Instructables; and the wonderful worldwide community of Instructable authors, we hope you have as much fun making the projects in The Best of Instructables as we did in making the book.

—The Editors