Snip, Burn, Solder, Shred Seriously Geeky Stuff to Make with Your Kids

508 Pages·2010·17.46 MB·English

by  David Erik Nelson

Snip, Burn, Solder, Shred
David Erik Nelson
Published by No Starch Press
DEDICATION
To my wife, Cara Jeanne, and our son, Otto Sam, without whom this all would
not only be impossible but also kinda pointless.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book would never have come to exist without the enduring patience,
kindness, charity, and friendship of hundreds of folks, from loving kin to affable
store clerks to the many industrious makers who’ve tinkered in solitude and
shared their findings online. Two standouts in this latter group are Steven L.
Sachs (who, unbeknownst to him, taught me most of what I know about
didgeridoos) and Tim Escobedo (much-loved throughout the Internet for his
simple and fun sound circuits).
More immediately, I’d like to thank everyone at No Starch Press for both their
patience with my innumerable revisions and faith in this project — thanks that
should be especially amplified for Bill Pollock (No Starch’s publisher), Tyler
Ortman (my editor), and Riley Hoffman (both a dear friend and a fantastic
compositor and graphic designer). I similarly would like to thank my technical
readers: Sara Swanson (along with her son, Oscar, and father, Doug Schneider,
who tested most of the toys; her brother, Matt Schneider, who crafted the first
PVC teepees I ever saw; and her husband Fritz, for pizza boxes, diddley bow
feedback, and sharing his boyhood experience with NASA’s Finest Paper
Airplane), Vince Russo, Tom Clark, and J.P. Sweeney (especially for his help
with the Marshmallow Muzzleloader firing circuit and the Ticklebox schematic).
More casual toy testing — as well as vital enthusiasm — was provided by my
own son, Otto, and my nephews Jake and Griff.
Lots of folks provided little notes that had a big impact on specific projects: My
brother-in-law Paul Spindler schooled me on the limitations of step-up
transformers; David Helder provided input on the Spring Reverb and the $10
Electric Guitar; and my own father, David Robert Nelson, had surprisingly
helpful suggestions on business in general and the specific design of the $10
Electric Guitar’s tuning machine. The $10 Electric Guitar likewise benefited
from the luthiery opinions and anecdotes of Adam Stein
(http://www.steininstruments.com/). The flying toys in this book owe their
existence to Ted Bailey and Hamil Ma. In the summer of 1996, Jason Michael
drunkenly demonstrated his potato canon to me, doing fatal damage to a sober
pumpkin. I was impressed. There’s no way of getting around the fact that I
basically stole and miniaturized that design thirteen years later. Thank you,
Jason. I also stole a propane torch from Dean Melmoth and deeply appreciate the
fact that he has never pursued me on this matter. Finally, I’d like to thank Dale
Dougherty of MAKE magazine, whose enthusiasm for this book — and for
making in Detroit — gave me a needed boost as I rounded the final bend.
Introduction
In my old life, before my son was born, I taught at a small, innovative private
school where students were asked to take control of their educations, make their
own choices, and then reap the rewards or endure the consequences. Staff and
students were required to treat each other as equals. Because of the realities of
private education in America, such a school had to be run on a shoestring budget
and largely served “troubled” kids.
The big-hearted, late-1960s ethos of the place was unspeakably foreign to me: I
had myself attended an elite prep school and Big Ten university and had no
training in education; fortunately, at that time, Michigan’s stringent requirements
for a private school teacher was that he or she be hired by a private school to
teach something. I passed the background check. I was not given a drug test.
The environment was stressful for everyone, but it was good for the students:
Many came in with drug problems, having just left psychiatric institutions, or
having spent months or years out of conventional school because of anxiety or
abject misery. They left our school feeling better about themselves and their
futures; went on to attend colleges, universities, or vocational programs or enter
the work force; and now are musicians, sound engineers, academics, artists,
carpenters, or deep in the mire of grad school.
What’s between these covers represents the best of what I learned as a teacher at
this radically egalitarian school with a good heart and no budget. Many of these
are the same projects I built with those kids. Every single project in this book has
three key qualities:
You will make a wicked awesome Thing.
You will do it for cheap (or free!).
In making this Thing you will pick up a transferable skill or fundamental
understanding of the Thing and thus be able to modify or make new
Wicked Awesome Things.
What’s in This Book?
The 24 projects in this book are grouped into three parts. Within each section,
the projects are organized roughly by how challenging they are to build, with
easier projects coming first — that said, you should build whichever project
strikes your fancy right now.
Part I showcases projects suitable for a range of ages (both in their construction
and the final product). The skills taught include basic sewing, carpentry, and
electronics. The toys and games go from toddler-friendly (the Lock-n-Latch
Treasure Chest and the PVC Teepee) to more suitable for middle school–aged
and older kids. Heck, most adult men will get a kick out of the Ticklebox, and
the whole family can make a game night out of Go, Tafl, or Shut-the-Box.
Part II is all music projects and calls for slightly more advanced carpentry and
soldering skills — several of these (including the Dirt-Cheap Amp and the core
of the Cigar Box Synthesizer) were projects I used to teach soldering to young
high schoolers. The resulting instruments are safe for all ages (my four-year-old
and his friends love the drums, Electro-Didgeridoo, and $10 Electric Guitar) and
can make real music.
The final section, Part III is dedicated to flying and projectile toys. Some — like
the Cardboard Boomerangs and FedEx Kites — are safe and easy even for
elementary schoolers, although they captivated even the most jaded teenage
smokers back when I was teaching. Others — like the Marshmallow
Muzzleloader and Putt-Putt Boat — are going to require a little more technical
acumen and manual dexterity.
Every project is written with the absolute beginner in mind — this can be the
first time you’ve ever threaded a needle or warmed up a soldering iron, and you
can expect to get a decent result. And these projects run the gamut: If you’re a
sewer who’s never touched a saw, I’ve got projects for you. If you’re a musician
who’s never soldered, flip to Part II and start building your electro-skiffle band
today. But before you jump in, I want to impress a few safety tips that I picked
up while teaching at the Hippie School for Troubled Youths:
In order to learn about the real world, you need to use real tools; nothing in
this book is dumbed down or babyfied. Show caution, heed the warnings,
and wear goggles, masks, and work gloves when advised to do so: Sawdust
and PVC chips can wreck up your eyes; soldering irons, torches, and fire
can burn you; saws and knives can cut you; pins and needles can poke you;
electricity can zap you.
Work outside when advised to do so; I mention phosgene gas (released
when PVC is heated) several times — please take this seriously! The same
goes for spray-paint or anything else fumey.
Just like working out of Betty Crocker, make a point of reading every step
of a project before doing anything; you want to have a full understanding of
what’s going to be asked of you and what you’ll need at hand before
launching into making.
And lastly, don’t let these warnings dissuade you from making these
projects! Drug-addled teens were able to complete them without injury or
mishap.
Further Reading
About half the projects in this book are devoted to musical instruments and
electronics — areas of homebrew tinkering that seem to invariably capture the
adolescent imagination. If any of these projects end up tickling your fancy, then
go out and get a hold of these books:
Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking by Nicolas Collins.
This is a great book on building experimental electronic instruments (even
simple, high-quality microphones), modifying noisy toys into instruments, and
creating sound-art installations. You’ll clearly see its influence on projects like
the Spring Reverb (Chapter 14) and the Blinkie Tremolo (Chapter 15).
Electronic Projects for Musicians and its companion, Do-It-Yourself Projects for
Guitarists, both by Craig Anderton. Some of Anderton’s pro-grade designs are a
little out-of-date, but you can buy complete kits for them online (mostly through
PAiA, http://www.paia.com/). Both books offer plenty of great design ideas and
improvements you can add to electric guitars yourself (and adapt to other
electrified instruments).
Guerrilla Home Recording: How to Get Great Sound from Any Studio by Karl
Coryat. This is a hardware/software agnostic primer on audio engineering and
will help you squeeze great recordings out of any old setup you can hack
together.
If robots are more your speed, then get copies of JunkBots, Bugbots, and Bots on
Wheels: Building Simple Robots with BEAM Technology by David Hrynkiw and
Mark Tilden and Robot Builder’s Bonanza by Gordon McComb and Myke
Predko.
Electronic tinkerers and makers of all levels will benefit from a handful of books
by Forrest M. Mims III. A great place to start is Getting Started in Electronics,
which offers a solid foundation in basic electronic theory and skills, as well as
scads of great, simple circuits. His books are often sold in RadioShack stores;
they are sparse (mostly schematics with little further explanation), but the
designs are robust, with lots of opportunities to adapt them to new and novel
projects. Circuit benders (folks that make a hobby of torturing new, noise-
musical sounds from old electronic toys) love Mims’s designs and frequently
hack them into their creations.
Support and Contact
The Snip, Burn, Solder Blog lives at http://www.davideriknelson.com/sbsb/ and
features videos, tutorials, Q&As, templates, and archived webpages of some
resources that have recently become scarce online (such as Steven L. Sachs’s
didgeridoo pages and circuit designs by T. Escobedo). The best way to contact
me is through my website. If you drop me links to pictures and videos of what
you make, I’ll add them to the online gallery.