I really enjoy Jack Conte‘s music, creative video editing, and now, his behind-the-scenes look at the making of his latest video, Pedals. Please check out the video itself, and then enjoy his enthusiastic making-of video. Jack has maker skills!

The hexapod, Dmitiri, in the video was built and programmed by Matt Bunting and the face robot is by Kevin Felstead. Great work, guys.

via BoingBoing

I just got this excellent staple gun at a yard sale for 50 cents. Made in Chicago, patents are from 19030s and 40s, haven’t researched it yet. Love the cast grip and cylindrical spring tube up front.

We just got this excellent folding schoolhouse bench/desk at the Rose Bowl Flea Market. It’ll be going inside the house, and I’m considering screwing it into the floor rather than mounting it on a finished piece of wood (to replace the 2x4s).

Not sure about its history (seller had gotten it at an estate sale). The iron legs have this to say:

 No 1  PAT FEB 3 1868 FEB 20 1872

If you have any guesses at its origin, I’d love to know more.

I’m building a square wave synthesizer into a ukelele body for a musician friend of mine.  I’ll be documenting the process to write up in Make: and I’ll be presenting on it at Bay Area Maker Faire 2013.

Four hose clamps, a drawer handle, and some screws and bolts = a sturdy handle for this 6.5 gallon carboy for beer brewing.

I’m laser cutting a wood veneer to apply to the back of my slightly cracked iPhone back. The starting point for me is the dimension drawings from Apple. You can get them here.

Rather conveniently, the drawing pdf imports into Rhino (the NURBS modeling/drafting application I use) as curves, so I don’t need to trace and redraw the dimensions.

I’m only using the inner curve from the camera back and the camera keep out guide, which recommends the distance from camera lens and flash hole to avoid vignetting or tinting your photos.

Next step was to apply 3M adhesive to a sheet of wood veneer.

This is the back of my phone — notice the hairline cracks in the glass from dropping it a couple of weeks ago.

Always use a wrench to weigh down your wood veneer sheet in the laser cutter bed.

I decided not to etch an image on this first try, so I only vector cut the veneer and adhesive. On an Epilog Zing 16 this is 80% speed, 40% power.

Once cut out, I peeled off the backing.

I think I’ll adjust the camera/flash cutout in a little bit, this is crazy thin at the edge (due to kerf). This is the adhesive side, not sure what that straight line is all about, it’s not in the wood.

Applied to the phone back.

Very stylish self portrait of my iPhone with its new wooden back.

Here is the link to Machine Project Tonic & Bitters class ingredient research.

I just cleaned up some surface rust and gunk from this nice little clamp I rescued from a rusted out toolbox I bought, then hit it with some oil to protect the surface.

Here’s a look at the other side:

This being the internet and all, there is a webpage for people interested in the history of clamp companies. From this, the clampguy.info site, I present some history, including the fact that my clamp was designed by the grandfather of the author:

Hargrave brand of Cincinnati Tool Co

The Cincinnati Tool Company was founded in 1877. In 1925, it changed its name to the Hargrave Company, which continued until 1955.
The information below was provided through the kindness of John McCutcheon, of Grand Rapids, Michigan
A “circled H” on tools made by Cincinnati Tool Company signifies that it was designed by my grandfather, John M. Hargrave (1889-1975).
Edward Hollister Hargrave worked for Cincinnati Tool Co. in the late 1800′s. By 1911 or 1912, when he died, I think he was running the company.
John Morris Hargrave (his son) had just graduated from M.I.T., with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He was called home to take over the company. (I don’t know if he owned the company or not at that time, but I am pretty certain that he did eventually. I believe he sold the company and retired sometime in the 1950′s.)
The company made a complete line of hand tools of all kinds, from bar, cee and wooden jaw clamps to cold chisels, star drills, etc.

Here is a drawing from Hargrave’s Patent No. 1,918,469 which I found on the Directory of American Tool and Machinery Patents

Great unexpected gift from a friend a work who knows my style down to a T.
I’ve already used it to transport Bloody Mary fixings and tools to a brunch party. It’ll make a great weekend bag, too. Plus, I’m sure I’ll use it to haul actual tools around when I’m fixing things on the go. Thanks Charlie.

Klein Tools bag