The Big Book of Maker Skills: Tools & Techniques for Building Great Tech Projects

by Chris Hackett

Overview

Makers, get ready. This is your ultimate, must-have, tip-packed guide for taking your DIY projects to the next level—from basic wood and metalworking skills to plugged-in fun with power tools, and from cutting-edge electronics play to 3-D printing wizardry. Join Chris Hackett, intrepid DIY-er, on a rummage through the toolbox of yore—and a foray into the technologies of the future.

Packed with demystifying explanations and helpful tips, The Big Book of Maker Skills covers:

HAND TOOLS

A classic is a classic for a reason. Learn to build your own metal forge, screen-print whatever you want, swing a hammer better than your ancestors, and repurpose what Hackett calls “obtanium”—but what others might call trash—into your own mad-scientist creations.

POWER TOOLS

Discover the supreme joy that is angle-grinding, rig your own welding machine out of a junked car battery or three, and meet and master a whole host of electronic gadgets—LEDs, piezo buzzers, solar panels, and more.

ROBOTS & BEYOND

When it comes to making, there’s a whole new skillset in town. Get started with CNC milling, laser-cutting, programming microcontrollers, and 3D printing in a chapter that’s all about building what’s next.

MUCH MORE

Setting up a hackerspace, drones and space exploration tools, circuitry basics, sourcing and crowdsourcing and biotechnology-just to name a few more. You name it; it’s probably in this book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681884325
Publisher:	Weldon Owen
Publication date:	09/18/2018
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	669,290
Product dimensions:	6.73(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Hackett is an artist; the founder and director of Brooklyn’s maker combine, the Madagascar Institute; occasional television presenter; adjunct professor at New York University; and contributing editor to Popular Science. Hackett likes his coffee strong and his physics Newtonian, and he is a firm believer in “build it, then measure it.”

Table of Contents

Introduction from Chris Hackett

Basics

1 Set Up a Workspace

2 Plan a Project from Start to Finish

3 Play Nicely with Others

4 Keep Track of Tasks for a Team

5 Run a Safe Shop

6 Decide If You Need Stitches

7 Flush Out Your Eyes

8 Rescue a Smashed Foot

9 Save a Finger (or a Toe)

Hand Tools

10 Wield a Tape Measure

11 Learn Tape Measure tricks of the Trade

12 Go with a Combination Square

13 Make Micro Measurements

14 Swing a Hammer Like They Used To

15 Keep Your Hammer in Top-Hitting Form

16 Persuade with Sheer Hammer Force

17 Nail it with a Nailset

18 Pick a Hammer

19 Get Mechanical Advantage from Simple Machines

20 Know Your Fasteners

21 Go Threaded or Unthreaded

22 Decode Screw Heads

23 Sink Some Screws

24 Beat Specialty Screws

25 Deal with a Pesky Stripped Screw Head

26 Put More Torque on a Small Screw

27 Pick a Wrench

28 Improvise a Spanner When You Have No Spanner

29 Boost Leverage with a Cheater Bar

30 Wield a Combination Wrench

31 Get a Grip with a Pipe Wrench

32 Hack Your Pipe Wrench

33 Pick a Saw

34 Focus on Wood

35 Familiarize Yourself with Finishes

36 Master Butt Joints

37 Sand It Right

38 Shear and Saw

39 Use a Tube Cutter

40 Choose Sheet Metal Snips

41 Know Your Chisels

42 Pick a Vise, Clamp, or Jig

43 Use an Old-School Tool for a Manufactured Effect

44 Tap a Hole Like a Pro

45 Thread a Pipe with a Die

46 Set Up a Gas Welding Station

47 Protect Your Floor from Sparks

48 Check Gas Tank Hoses for Leaks

49 Make Your First Oxyacetylene Weld

50 Braze with a Torch

51 Bend Metal with Fire

52 Build Your Own Welding Table

53 Cut Heavy Metal with Fire

54 Flame-Cut in Straight Lines

55 Go on the Hunt for Obtainium

56 Assemble a Paint-Can Forge

57 Forge a Knife

58 Cast a Shot Glass

59 Transform a Forge into a Foundry

60 Craft a Crucible (or Two)

61 Fashion a Crucible Carrier

62 Assemble a Crucible Pourer

63 Hammer a Dross Skimmer

64 Refine Aluminum

65 Focus on Masonry

66 Mix a Batch of Concrete

67 Make a Solid Base for a Structure

68 Butter a Brick

69 Cast a Plaster Mask

70 Set Up a Glass Work Space

71 Mount Glass

72 Cut Glass Bottles with String

73 Pick Pliers

74 Tackle Tapes

75 Choose an Adhesive

76 Lock (and Unlock) That Thread

77 Focus on Papers Cardboard

78 Make a Screen for Screen Printing

79 Burn an Image onto a Screen

80 Screen-print by Hand

81 Assemble a Maker's Sewing Kit

82 Know Your Stitches

83 Create Quick and Dirty Patterns

84 Win at Life with No-Sew Fasteners

Power Tools

85 Pick a Power Saw

86 Make Masterful Curves with a Jigsaw

87 Choose a Circular Saw Blade

88 Slice with a Circular Saw

89 Work with a Portable Bandsaw

90 Bench-Mount a Portable Bandsaw

91 Get Inventive with a Bandsaw

92 Respect the Angle Grinder

93 Pick a Sander

94 Do It All with an Angle Grinder

95 Pick a Wheel, Any Wheel

96 Use a Cut-Off Wheel

97 Drill Better Holes

98 Drill Glass Without a Crack

99 Handle a Hole Saw

100 Chain-Drill Slots

101 Pick a Drill Bit

102 Know Your Rotary Tools

103 Transform a Rotary Tool as a Tiny Drill Press

104 Focus on Metal

105 Understand Electrical Welding

106 Set Up a Space for Electrical Welding

107 Start with Stick Welding

108 MIG Weld an Inside Corner

109 Try Some TIG Welding, Too

110 Weld Like a Badass

111 Hack Together a Welder

112 Fuse Metal with Your DIY Welder

113 Set Up a Soldering Station

114 Solder to a PCB

115 Solder Wires Together

116 Decode Circuitry Schematics

117 Prototype with a Breadboard

118 Etch Your Own Circuits

119 Pick Electronic Components

120 Know Your LEDs

121 Wire the Simplest Circuit

122 Store Energy with a Capacitor

123 Regulate with a Potentiometer

124 Direct Current with a Relay

125 Calculate LED Resistor Needs

126 Pick Illumination Sources

127 Fade an LED

128 Wire in Series or in Parallel

129 Work with High-Power LEDs

130 Master Multiplexing

131 Get the 411 on the 555

132 Set Up a Free-Running Oscillator

133 Wire a One-Shot Timer

134 Meet the 555 Family

135 Get to Know Your Multimeter

136 Check for Continuity

137 Measure Voltage

138 Gauge Power

139 Sew Circuits on Fabrics

140 Insulate Your Conductive Thread

141 Pick Fabric for Its Resistance

142 Focus on Textiles

143 Experiment with Flexible Switches and Sensors

144 Use a Multimeter to Check Material Resistance

145 Sew a Simple Soft Circuit Cuff

146 Know Your Photo detectors

147 Improvise a Pressure Sensor

148 Build a Loop Switch

149 Decipher Decibels

150 Get Various Noises from a Buzzer

151 Work with Speakers

152 Build a Basic DIY Amp

153 Master Microphones

154 Explore Sounds with a Piezo Mic

155 Bend That Circuit

156 Get to Know Radio

157 Listen in with a Trench Radio

158 Rig a Cell-Phone Blocker

159 Give a Homopolar Motor a Spin

160 Wire Up a Reverse Switch

161 MacGyver a Generator

162 Strip a Drill for Parts

163 Roll Your Own Gears

164 Shim a Gearbox

165 Pick a Power Source

166 Harvest Electronic Obtainium

167 Cook with the Sun

168 Get Solar Panel Savvy

169 Save Daylight in a Jar

170 Scheme Up a Wind Turbine

171 Power Up with Pedal Power

172 Build a Bicycle Generator

Robots & Beyond

173 Meet Your Robot Minions

174 Scope Out the Software

175 Get Access to High-End Tools

176 Understand 3D Printing

177 Find a 3D Printer Near You

178 Prepare to Print a 3D Model

179 Enter the New Age of Replicators

180 Focus on Plastic

181 Pick a Microcontroller

182 Accessorize Your Microcontroller

183 Make a Case for Prototyping

184 Use Programming to Blink an LED

185 Pick an Input or Output

186 Take a Superquick Programming Primer

187 Build an Add-On Board

188 Hail the Lasercutter

189 Lasercut the Right Materials

190 Make Your First Lasercut Design

191 Troubleshoot a Lasercutting Job

192 Set Up a Hackerspace

193 Pick a Crowdfunding Platform

194 Put Together a Pitch Video

195 Build Community

196 Learn the Basics of Robot Anatomy

197 Build a Simple Proximity Detector

198 Make Your Robot See

199 Give Your 'Bot Touch Sense with Guitar String

200 Help Your 'Bot with Distance Detection

201 Hack a Servo for Continuous Rotation

202 Clown Around with a Balloon Gripper

Glossary

Index

Acknowledgments & Credits