Customer Reviews

The Best of Make (Make 75 Projects from the pages of MAKE)

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I have enjoyed O'Reilly's MAKE magazine a lot, so when you get a full-length book of 75 of the "best" projects, it's worth reading. In The Best of MAKE by Mark Frauenfelder and Gareth Branwyn, you'll find a wide swath of projects and tips that are not only fun to work on, but that have practical purposes. And not all of them involve soldering irons and electronics...

Contents:
Tools; Electronics; Microcontrollers; Toys & Games; Robots; Music; Flight & Projectiles; Photography & Video; Cars & Engines; Index

Chapter 1 - Tools - preps you for what you'll need to get started on DIY projects, such as breadboards, needlenose pliers, lots and lots of wire, etc. Even in this chapter, there are projects you can do, such as planning your own toolbench using Google's SketchUp software, making driver bits to unscrew "tamper-proof" fasteners, and what emergency items you might want to have on a keychain. I really liked the list of items you should include on a USB thumbdrive that you carry around with you. I have a "must do" project right there. The following chapters divide up the projects based on general topic. For instance, Electronics has you making LED "throwies", low-powered LED lamps, adding a rumble-pack to your mouse, and interfacing your digital clock radio to a gaming system gun. Imagine shooting your alarm clock each morning to turn it off... :)

One of my favorite projects did not even require any real tools. The author of this particular project showed how you can use "urban camouflage" to make your car or truck appear to be a corporate fleet vehicle. With some strategically placed numbers, letters, and colored tape, your plain while SUV can become an official motor vehicle that appears to have some level of importance and can cause others to not question its presence. Not a bad ruse if you're needing to stop somewhere for 10 minutes, and the only option is the official "loading zone". Of course, I'm sure you'll never use this information to do anything illegal or wrong, either... :)

If you're at all into off-beat hacks, strange contraptions, and unusual conversation pieces, you'll find plenty to consider in The Best of MAKE. If you're already adept with electronics and soldering irons, there's not much in there that you won't be able to do. And if this is your first foray into that world, you can afford to make plenty of mistakes, as most of the projects use cast-off items you can find in your local junk yard or thrift shop. Either way, you'll have fun and learn a few things in the process.

MAKE is a magazine for tinkerers and hobbyists that like to build fun projects with their spare time. If you are one of these people you will find 'The Best of MAKE' to be well worth your reading curriculum. With 75 projects that deal with technology, electronics, music, etc there is something in here for everyone!!

This review is going to be short and simple. If you like to play with a variety of things and enjoy playing in your basement or garage building and experimenting, you WILL like this book. If this isn't your cup of tea, well stop reading and go do something else :^)

Seriously, if you are interested in this type of stuff there is no way you won't find this book well worth your time for reading, enjoy!!

***** RECOMMENDED

My husband saw this in a bookstore and later said he wished he'd bought it, so I found it on Amazon - and it was a bargain. My husband and 16 year old son have found a couple of neat projects to replicate. Now all the neighborhood boys are making ping pong ball shooters using cardboard tubes, plastic water bottles and hairspray. Next up is a potato launcher.

Inpire a lot of stuff I could make for fun.

One is "Impulse Jam Jar Jet" I was thinking about making that a car to race each other.

Very cool book,
Love it.

The Best of MAKE: Technology on Your Time is a must have for any weekend DIY-project enthusiast. I've only had the book for three hours, but I already have at least two projects in plans for the upcoming two weeks. [...] It unites, inspires and informs a growing community of resourceful people who undertake amazing projects in their backyards, basements, and garages. So, if you missed it at the newsstand, here's your chance to look at the best 75 projects discussed in the magazine in the past 2 years.
There are 9 chapters in the book, covering electronics, microcontrollers, toys and games, robots, music, flight projects, photography and video, and engines. Don't get alarmed, the majority of projects are not as complex as you think, and the instructions are very clear. The projects are also very well illustrated, and you'll find them easy to follow. The book will guide you from start to finish, and in case if you're lost, each project has a list of reference URLs for more information, instructions, supplies sources, etc.
[...]
Kudos to O'Reilly for another great product!

I bought this for my husband as a Christmas gift. It's the perfect guide to fun things to do on weekends when we are bored and want to do something to stimulate our brains. There is a good mix of projects and I think we are going to have a lot of fun with this book. I recommend this as a gift for anyone who takes stuff apart and tries to put it back together the second you give it to them.

A friend told me about Make a few years ago and this book really delivers on what he described. Fun projects across the spectrum from home made robotics to a cat feeder constructed from a VCR (assuming you can set the clock).

The step by step instructions are great with pictures to highlight the important details.

And even better, these are not just instructions that tell you how to build the project, but what the design issues are so that you understand why it works that can help you build other similar projects.

If you like to tinker and want to know what you can do with that old VCR you have sitting in the basement, then you will definitely get a kick out of this book.

My son loved this book...he has read and re-read it many times and he has only had it for a month! I got big smiles when he opened this Christmas morning!

Some of the best projects from Make Magazine. If you like creating new things, reading about awesome ideas you can do yourself, and learning about new products--Make is the place for you. This book brings together some of the most exciting projects from past issues of Make.

Book title: The Best of Make
Publisher: Make Books, O'Reilly Media
Publish date: October 2007
ISBN-10: 0-596-51428-X
ISBN-13: 978-0-596-51428-0
Review by: Curt Blanchard, Tucson Macintosh Users Group (11/15/07)

I have to let you in on a secret - I'm a secret Make fan. Make is a newish, magazine published by O'Reilly Press with an oddly punctuated title. It is good, clean, geeky fun! Each issue is full of projects you can make yourself. Some are simple and some are wildly complex, but all are fun and absorbing - in a Science Guy/Mr. Wizard kind of way. Remember Erector sets when you were small or later, huge Lego sets? If these interested you then, Make continues this fascination updated for today. Some recent projects for which there are thorough instructions are: a Solar Powered Xylophone , a Blimp Bot or a speaker made from a Styrofoam plate.

In case you're not a subscriber, a compilation book has just been released - The Best of Make published by Make Books, a division of O'Reilly Media. It contains seventy-five projects (a whopping 380 pages) covering everything from Robots and Microcontrollers to Toys, Games and flying machines. Discover how to build an ornithopter or a blimp. Be amazed by a two-can Stirling engine or a hacked Roomba. Get out your tools and your imagination - you're going to have fun! In fact, you don't really need to actually make any of these; just reading about them will provide hours of enjoyment.

--Curt Blanchard - 11/15/07