Djotto

The "Image Fulgurator" by Berlin-based artist Julius von Bismarck (which recently picked up a Golden NICA at this year's Ars Electronica Festival) is a device that physically manipulates photographs by implanting messages onto the object being photographed. The device senses if a camera's flash goes off and synchronizes a projection on the object being photographed at the same time. The result, as can be seen in the video on the site, is that tourists and others taking photos end up having bizarre images mapped onto their photos. Check out the details on how it works at the link below, and there's even info about his patent application for the gadget.

Image Fulgurator, [via]

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Squeeze a penny hard between your thumb and forefinger and what have you got?  The imprint of a penny on your sore thumb.  But you really wanted to crush a penny into an elongated shape with the visage of your favorite tourist attraction on it - what do you do?

Enter the elongated penny machine.  Drop in a penny along with fifty cents to pay for the pleasure of cranking a penny between two ratcheted wheels, resulting in your freshly minted prize.  I've seen these machines at vacation spots, restaurants, I've even seen a version carried around by a street vendor.  They're everywhere.  If you don't care to travel, you can also collect the coins at Penny Collector, Pressed Penny or even Ebay.  Or perhaps we could set something up on RetroThing to trade between different countries, counties, and planets!

Install your own machine
History and legality of mooshing pennies

Funky things happen when you load a thirty year-old roll of film into your trusty Instamatic. Sean collects toy cameras such as Holgas and Fujipets. In an effort to make things even quirkier, he feeds them a diet of expired film including Kodak Brownie 120 rolls from the 1930s and Kodak Plus-X that expired in February 1953. Exhilaratingly unpredictable stuff!

"Rather than only showing shots I've taken with expired film, I thought it would be interesting to post pictures of the actual film. The boxes are pretty interesting, and many of these companies aren't around today. I use the film, though most of these are still unopened. I feel like I have to make them last "just in case," though there does seem to be plenty of expired film on the Web."

Expired Film [via TeamDroid]

If you're tired of paying The Man at Kodak or Fuji, why not try your hand at creating your own photographic emulsion? This silver-based mixture is intended to be coated on glass or film (yes, you get to play with a squeege). You'll need some sort of large-format camera that can accept a photographic plate (this technique will work wonderfully with a simple homemade pinhole camera as well).

The ingredient list reads like a toxic flavor of Jello: Gelatin, potassium bromide, potassium iodide, and silver nitrate. Remember that your emulsion is light-sensitive and you'll have to work in a darkroom with illumination from a safelight. If you're not adventurous enough to mix your own, you can buy premixed liquid emulsion from Photographers' Formulary.

Make a simple film emulsion (via a thread started by Paul Cotto at filmshooting.com)

I gained access to a little model making shed in Oxford at the tender age of eight. Many hours days were squandered in that stuffy little hut. My initial attempts were pitiful -- military vehicles that looked like they'd been cocooned by marauding glue-based lifeforms for an episode of Doctor Who.

I eventually improved my manual dexterity and built up a reasonable immunity to glue fumes. I also picked up a few tricks of the trade (in a nutshell: open the damn window, less glue is best, pins and toothpicks work wonderfully to apply glue in hard to reach spots, and remember to put the pin down before scratching one's nose).

Maybe this explains: (a) why I have a soft spot for plastic models, and (b) why I'm not a Nobel prizewinner.

"Fantastic Plastic is a scale modeling site that celebrates the weird, the wonderful, the odd, the radical, the exotic and the just plain cool air- and spacecraft designs that have been captured in styrene (and resin) over the past half century. From bizarre WWII-era "project planes" to the latest sci-fi concepts, here is a chronicle of Man's highest aspirations as expressed through his flying machines, both real and imagined."

Visit Fantastic Plastic (don't forget to browse their online store, which features some "never before released" limited edition designs.)

Cheap journals are false economy. Spiral bound pads tend to disintegrate with heavy use and looseleaf often flutters around my house like leaves in the wind. Moleskine books are certainly popular, but everyone seems to have one in their pocket these days. A handmade leather book from Renaissance Art is guaranteed to stand out from the crowd, unless you hang with Druids.

These beautiful books feature 5 ounce soft tempered covers and hand-sewn threading. Arches Text Wove paper is included in all of their writing and sketching journals. It's 100% acid-free cotton rag, so your musing will pass the test of time. Each book is kept closed by a flat hand-braided cord. Prices start at around $20, although you'll pay at least $150 for a large sketchbook or music journal.

Renaissance Art handcrafted leather books [via Honky-Tonk Dragon]

In the 80's, this was one of the gold standard bearer toys for me.  I didn't have one, but I thought that every kid who did was incredibly fortunate to have their house patrolled by a tank/dump truck/TV static generator/robot like Big Trak.

Dark grey Big Trak (white and called "bigtrak" in the U.K. for some reason) was a programmable toy vehicle put out by game maker Milton Bradley - apparently it was developed by everyone's rubber-keyboard superstar Clive Sinclair.  Video & handheld LED games were the rage at the time, but some of the microchip revolution made it into the brains of more traditional toys like this. 

The top panel of Big Trak has a membrane keypad where you program a sequence of moves & functions.  There is no readout or other feedback, so short of running the little program you have no way of knowing whether Big Trak will be successful in the stealthy mission you imagined, or instead will take a header off the patio steps.  You could also get an accessory trailer that dumps its payload on command.  Probably not the best way to deliver dad an opened can of beer, but perhaps he'd enjoy a high tech truckload of pistachio nuts - red, of course...

As always with tech toys, the manufacturer promised future expansion with details shrouded in secrecy.  If you're tired of waiting more than 25 years for an official upgrade, some enterprising folks on the internet have reverse engineered Big Trak.  There are plans online for adding new parts, replacing old ones, and interfacing your new gear with decades old plasti-tech.  Take a look at the second link below just to appreciate how terribly clever the innards of Big Trak are.  It takes some real engineering oomph to reduce a sophisticated technological concept into an affordable toy.

Extensive Big Trak home page

Pimping your Big Trak

The high-end audio world is a weird place, filled with "strident yet ethereal highs," "boisterous bass" and $23,500 speaker cables. As with any expensive hobby, there are thousands of clever audiophiles trying to produce truly high-end sound at bargain basement prices.

And what could be more bargain basement than an old game console? There's a growing legion of music fans who are convinced that the lowly PlayStation 1 (Model SCPH-1001/1002) offers CD audio quality that rivals units costing thousands of dollars more. A reviewer on 6moons.com enthuses:

"I had heard rumors of just how good this particular version of the PS1 is when used as a CD player and was curious to give it a listen. This kid's video game player really does have outstanding audio performance. I'm guessing you'd have to spend more than $6000 on a one-box CD player to equal let alone better it."

I'm always skeptical of such claims, especially when they're not backed up by hard evidence. After all, it could just be that the audio output of the PS One is louder than other CD players, or perhaps the Digital to Analog converters color the sound in a musically appealing manner.

Some users report that the PlayStation sounds best when left on for several days before a listening session, which strikes me as alchemy - solid state electronic equipment simply doesn't need time to warm up like vintage tube equipment. The unit will reach "normal" operating temperature within a few minutes, and extreme heat is never a friend of precision integrated circuitry.

I'd definitely be interested in hearing from readers who have tried the PlayStation One with a high-end stereo: Does it really sound better?

Need a high-end CD player? Why not use your old PlayStation? [ars technica]

Somewhat related:
A Look at the inexpensive Sonic Impact T-Amp
Athena Speakers: Bargain Priced Hi-Fi

Photography has been around for a surprisingly long time. This shot was taken in 1840 and features Constanze Weber - Wolfang Amadeus Mozart's wife - at the age of 78 (front left). Mozart died in 1791, widowing Constanze at only 29. She went on to marry a Danish diplomat and lived to see 80. Others in the photo include her friend Swiss composer Max Keller and his relatives, along with the family cook.

This print of an original daguerreotype was found in the town archives of the Bavarian town of Altoetting in Germany. The technique was brand new at the time and required amazing care. Images were captured on a copper plate coated with silver and developed in hot mercury - hardly an environmentally friendly process. This paper print must have been made at a much later date with traditional negative film, because the daguerreotype process created a direct positive. There was no easy way to make multiple copies.

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre's process was unveiled to the public in August 1839 and initially required exposures ranging from 3 to 5 minutes. The chemical process and camera optics rapidly improved to reduce exposure time to less than a minute, making it possible to shoot portraits. A properly sealed daguerreotype can last indefinitely, and images of many prominent figures of the mid 19th Century exist, including Edgar Allan Poe and Abraham Lincoln.

A photo of Constance Mozart found!

The Dishmaster. Because there's an incredible amount of fun to be had with a scouring brush that rotates at 3600 RPM and a sink full of dirty dishes. Am I the only one who'd love to see an automotive version of this gadget? [via Flickr]

United Nuclear sells a wide range of unusual and difficult to find scientific stuff, including a 13.8 lb meteorite (above), uranium, x-ray tubes, 600,000 Volt Van de Graaff Generators and other irresistible mad scientist gear. Looking for a great conversation piece that won't set off any Geiger counters? Their $15 'Hydrogen Bomb" t-shirts proudly display a complete & accurate schematic of a Thermonuclear Bomb on the front.

The neatest historical stuff they sell is Trinitite, the name given to the desert sand melted into glass by the heat from the first Atomic bomb:

"Early in the morning on July 16th, 1945, the first Atomic Bomb was detonated at the Trinity test site in the New Mexico desert. The nuclear explosion produced a blast equivalent of 18,000 tons of TNT and a ½ mile diameter fireball - with a temperature over 10 million degrees Fahrenheit, far hotter than the surface of the Sun. The intense heat melted the New Mexico desert sand into a light green, glass-like substance which was later named "Trinitite".

The resulting crater lined with Trinitite was buried for security reasons not long after the explosion. As a result, authentic samples of Trinitite are quite rare and very difficult to obtain. A few drums of Trinitite was saved from the burial... and this is that material. Once it is gone, there will never be any more. As supplies diminish, expect Trinitite prices to skyrocket."

Everything United Nuclear sells is legal to purchase in the USA, although I wouldn't try shipping a box of radioactive ore across international borders.

United Nuclear Scientific Equipment & Supplies 

Needle Doctor offers an awe-inspiring variety of turntables. The Minneapolis company has been around for almost 30 years and offers nearly everything an audio junkie could wish for, including replacement cartridges for vintage turntables. I was just browsing their site and realized that we've never mentioned them.

Their turntable selection is billed as "the world's largest." You'll find everything from the incredibly affordable $99 Numark PT01 portable DJ model to high-end works of art such as the $17,000 EAR Disc Master. Anyone who claims that vinyl is dead obviously hasn't taken a look at the hundreds of different turntable designs on the market these days. Workhorse models such as the Technics SL-1200 (first introduced in 1972) are still produced 36 years later, having been through a half dozen updates.

Vintage vinyl can often be found on Craigslist or at garage sales for next to nothing, allowing you to build a vast music collection without breaking the bank. There's also a growing movement to release (or re-release) limited edition LP versions of major albums, although these are often pricey. Nevertheless, you will be pleasantly surprised to discover how good modern records sound.

Browse the Needle Doctor turntable selection

related
Affordable Turntable Roundup
Sound Burger: Vintage Portable Turntable

There's always been a lot of mystique surrounding the PXL-2000, a late 80's kiddie camcorder that manages to squeeze a few minutes of grainy black and white video onto an audio cassette tape.  The camera was a market failure - what 80's kid was going to be content with shooting a few minutes of low resolution gray video?  Since then the legendary camera has gone on to be an expensive rarity, mostly used by filmmakers and artists.

It may seem unbelievable that toymaker Fisher Price created such an artsy filmmaking tool.  Since this was a major product released in large numbers, I feel like the PXL shouldn't be as rare as it seems to be.  Then again, who knows how many were produced before Fisher Price decided to hang up their filmmaker jodhpurs & berets?

There's more to this mystery.  In the late 90's, word splashed across the dark pixelated corners of the internet that a company in Japan was producing new PXL cameras.  The camera bore the name Sanpix, but looked to be identical in every respect to the original model.  Rumors abounded about this new run of cameras being from the company that originally manufactured the cameras for Fisher Price.  Or were these just left over stock from the 80's?  Even the existence of the camera was met with some suspicion.

So through an elaborate chain of cause and effect, I found one a few weeks back (I don't know how to get any more of them, so don't ask).  As you can see, it's completely new.  It is a Sanpix unit (the brand is hidden under some decorative striping).  As you can see, the camera is labeled for "Georgia", a Coca-Cola brand of coffee drink in Japan.  The leatherette hood is a PXL accessory that I don't remember ever seeing in America.  Could this camera have been a mail-in offer or a promotional giveaway?

The manufacture of a new PXL camera in the late 90's is just so unlikely it boggles the mind.  Who were they expecting to rush out and get this?  I'm just glad to have a backup for my trusty ol' PXL cam.  I just didn't expect it to be brand new!

Related:

Wickedly lo-fi PXL-2000

Looky Toy Camera

3D 16mm movie camera

Even though it was the fourth man-made satellite successfully launched into space, Vanguard 1 has earned a special place in history as the oldest spacecraft in orbit. The shiny 1.47kg (3.2lb) spherical spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 17, 1958. Scientists originally believed it would remain in orbit for several thousand years, but solar radiation and atmospheric drag have reduced its off-world vacation to about 240 years.

America's second successful satellite (an earlier failed Vanguard Project launch was dubbed 'Flopnik' by thre press) was equipped with two radio transmitters, including the first solar powered transmitter to reach space. The primary battery powered transmitter lasted until the batteries were exhausted in June 1958, while the solar equipped radio remained operational until May 1964. Vanguard now orbits the earth silently once every 132.4 minutes and has traveled a whopping 10 billion kilometers over its lifetime.

Vanguard 1's rudimentary transmitters enabled researchers to determine that the earth was slightly pear shaped. It had a diameter of only 16.5 cm (6.44 inches), causing Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to dismiss it as "the grapefruit satellite." Still, Vanguard's successful launch into a permanent orbit using a three-stage rocket and its pioneering use of solar technology were indeed vanguards of things to come.

NASA's official Vanguard 1 page

related:
More of The Right Stuff: A New Lunar Documentary
Cosmonauts paid less than McDonald's employees

The Amiga 500, released in 1987, was Commodore's most successful Amiga model, thanks to its all-in-one good looks and reasonable $595.95 price tag. Dutch electrical engineer Dennis van Weeren never forgot his Amiga 500 and launched an ambitious project to build an FPGA-based version of the machine in early 2005.

The end result was the Minimig, a 12cm x 12cm board based on a modern 3.3V version of the Motorola 68000 processor. The Amiga's custom chipset was implemented in a Xilinx Spartan-3 FPGA chip, and the board includes 2MB of RAM and an MMC flash memory card connector for program storage. van Weeren thoughtfully included a standard PS/2 keyboard and mouse connectors, along with a 9-pin joystick port.

It's amazing that someone managed to successfully recreate a machine as complicated as the Amiga. There are a few little glitches that still need to be worked out (some sprite bugs and a few file system limitations), but basically everything works as you'd expect.

The Minimig board design and software has been released under the GNU General Public License, so anyone with fairly decent soldering skills can build their own Amiga clone.To get the system running, you'll need an  image of the original Amiga Kickstart ROM loaded into a memory card, along with a copy of the Workbench. Now just sit back, plug in your favorite Commodore-compatible joystick and enjoy a game of Lemmings (which was the first game to successfully run on the machine).

If you're not up to soldering together your own motherboard, Acube Systems Srl in Italy offers a fully assembled board with 1GB SD flash card for €138 plus shipping. One thing you should be aware of is that van Weeren's design includes ports on several sides, making it challenging to house. Luckily, Swedish enthusiast Illuwatar stepped in to produce a version in a standard Mini-ITX form factor, allowing you to house your little Amiga clone in a standard PC case.

Minimig - An Amiga in an FPGA

The Tortuga 5 is a stunning limited edition pinhole camera, handmade in Luxembourg. Its polygonal case incorporates five pinholes that can capture five overlapping images simultaneously (with 242 degree coverage) or in sequence. The camera accepts standard 120 format film which can be loaded without requiring a darkroom or changing bag, and includes a standard tripod mount which enables you to position and level it to capture the best images.

As with all pinhole cameras, you'll need long exposures to capture good images (2 seconds with 400 ASA film in sunlight, significantly longer indoors under subdued light). Oh, and don't expect to snap too many photos with this device - each roll of 120 film holds only two panoramic exposures.

In keeping with it's old European charm, the Tortuga 5 is crafted from solid European plumwood with brass fittings and has been manufactured in a limited production run of only 30 units. The price -- including worldwide shipping -- is €1,230 ($1,925), putting it beyond reach of all but the most dedicated pinhole fanatic. That said, one has to admire the craftsmanship which has been poured into this beautiful device - from the brass exposure calculator built into the case to the clever cable release mechanism and the hand finished woodwork. This was once the way all cameras were made, after all.

Explore the official Tortuga site for details

We've mentioned Peter Jensen's work in the past -- he builds a line of affordable Nixie clocks offered by Ramsey Electronics. He gave us a shout to let us know that he offers a broad range of kits and assembled clocks, ranging from a $99 4-digit kit ($135 assembled) to a $495 six digit masterpiece machined from a solid block of aluminum and polished until it resembles the forehead of an old-school Cylon.

Peter offers a little background, "The Nixie tube made its debut in 1954, and provided some of the first digital displays for the latest scientific equipment of the time. Once utilized primarily in research and military equipment, Nixies are now prized for their modern aesthetic.

These clocks feature new, old stock space-race era Russian Nixie tubes. The numbers glow soft orange in blown glass tubes. The Russian built tubes also feature a unique conversation starter: the number "5" is an upside down "2," reflecting an efficient and cost effective design philosophy from the cold war superpower."

Peter Jensen Hand-crafted Nixie Tube Clocks & Kits

Way back in 1975 -- when Kodachrome color slides and Kodak Instamatics were all the rage -- Kodak researcher Steve Sasson built the first digicam, cobbled together from spare parts and bleeding edge digital technology.

The lens was from a used parts bin on Kodak's Super 8 camera assembly line, it used a futuristic CCD image sensor (now commonplace) and took 23 seconds to record a crude 100 line black and white image onto cassette tape.

Sasson explains, "On the side of our portable contraption, we shoehorned in a portable digital cassette instrumentation recorder.  Add to that 16 nickel cadmium batteries, a highly temperamental new type of CCD imaging area array, an a/d converter implementation stolen from a digital voltmeter application, several dozen digital and analog circuits all wired together on approximately half a dozen circuit boards, and you have our interpretation of what a portable all electronic still camera might look like."

The device was semi-portable, and a massive VCR-sized microcomputer was used to display the images on a TV screen using a primitive frame store, but I doubt that the Kodak executives saw digital technology as a credible threat to their existing product line.

The Kodak Apparatus Division Research Laboratory team demonstrated the technology to a number of people within Kodak in 1976 as "Film-less Photography." I can't imagine the title went over well, considering Kodak's position as the world's leading producer of photochemical film. Still, 32 years later it turns out to be prophetic as Kodak struggles to reinvent itself as a digital company.

A patent was issued for the technology, but it was decades ahead of its time. Sasson kept the prototype as he moved around the company, but Kodak didn't publicly acknowledge the creation of the world's first digicam until 2001.

Kodak: A thousand nerds - We had no idea

The original RCA COSMAC ELF appeared on the front cover of the August 1976 issue of Popular Electronics. It was a complete computer based on the RCA 1802 CPU and cost under $100 to build from a bare board. Another $20 would get you a B&W video display. Outstanding value, and these things lingered in the classified section of magazines like BYTE throughout the early 1980s. Spare Time Gizmos has recreated the machine, and even offers discrete logic replacements for some parts that might be hard to find. The price for a partial kit is around $100, but be warned that you'll have to key in programs using 12 switches on the front panel.

The secret to the ELF's success was its incredibly low price. It was sold through detailed display ads, catering to budget computing enthusiasts who wanted to try their hands at programming but couldn't afford something more advanced. The base unit featured a two digit 7-segment LED display and a mere 256 bytes of program memory.

By early 1979, Netronics Research and Development was offering an assembled ELF II with built-in B&W video and hexadecimal keypad for $99.95. Accessories included a $39.95 "Giant Board" with cassette I/O and various serial and parallel connectors. 4K of static RAM cost $89.95 and an ASCII keyboard was another $64.95. With a bit of forethought, it was possible to build a respectable system over the course of a few months without breaking the bank.

The 1802 processor is still manufactured by Intersil, leading Spare Time Gizmos to release an updated design as the Cosmac ELF 2000. The new machine includes 32K RAM and an optional 32K EPROM containing utilities and BASIC, FORTH and CHIP-8 languages. There's a six-digit LED display. It also supports the original video chip (no longer in production) and there are fully decoded I/O ports. A bare board costs a mere $20 and a partial kit full of the most important components can be yours for a very reasonable $100. Should you wish to add 80 column video, flash program storage or extended I/O, that's possible too.

Check out the Spare Time Gizmos COSMAC ELF 2000
The history of the COSMAC ELF

When I was a kid in the late 1970s it was normal to carry a tiny Swiss Army knife in my pocket. I vividly remember sitting on the school playground, carving little sticks with my friends after school. Such deviant behavior would probably warrant a police investigation and a flurry of counseling sessions these days. Luckily, us 'big kids' still admire a well-made knife and haven't forgotten the fun we had.

The Benchmade Knife Company was founded in California in 1988 and now occupies a 35,000 sq. ft. facility in Clackamas, Oregon. They've become known for innovative and attractive blades, including custom branded Harley-Davidson and HK Knives.

The company stands apart, thanks to their state of the art manufacturing equipment and craftsmenship. They explain, "The Benchmade manufacturing arsenal contains ultra-modern laser cutters and machining centers dialed in for spot-on tolerances of 0.0005” on command. Our computerized machining centers offer the precision and control usually found only in the aerospace industry. Most of our products are hand assembled for a “go together” fit and finish typically seen only in a custom knife."

It's been a long time. I wonder if I still remember how to carve wood?

Benchmade Knife Company

This was on my list of "Things to do for MAKE" and after seeing this Instructable, I just may cross it off. This is a great how-to with lots of pictures and instructions. You can have a lot of fun electroforming all sorts of cool stuff for your next project.

Read more about Electroforming an Iris Seed Pod

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This is an amazing robot created by David Bowen. Here is how he explains his Growth Rendering Device:

This system provides light and food in the form of hydroponic solution for the plant. The plant reacts to the device by growing. The device in-turn reacts to the plant by producing a rasterized inkjet drawing of the plant every twenty-four hours. After a new drawing is produced the system scrolls the roll of paper approximately four inches so a new drawing can be produced during the next cycle. This system is allowed two run indefinitely and the final outcome is not predetermined.

Read more about the Growth rendering device - via ComputerLove

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Designer Jens Praet makes furniture from shredded paper. He compressed it with resin into a mold, and out comes a new piece of furniture. I'm not sure how eco-friendly that resin is, or how much paper it uses (I'm guessing a lot, which keeps it out of a landfill), but the material technique sure is neat, and strong! Via Core77.

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"King Cotton" created a huge demand for land and (slave) labor that changed early America's borders, population, and economics. But just as cotton affected history, history affected cotton: the story of naturally colored cottons -- brown, green, yellow, mauve, and reddish cottons -- has almost been lost.
Slaves in the American South, forbidden from planting white cotton lest they sell it for profit, grew this colored cotton in their gardens to spin their own clothes. These heirloom varieties, and colored cottons being grown in the former Soviet Union, were considered too difficult to spin commercially, and were almost lost until an untrained textiles enthusiast named Sally Fox single-handedly pioneered the revival of some of these cotton colors. Her cotton plants are grown organically (amazing for cotton, the most pesticide-dependent crop in the world!), drought tolerant, and their fibers require no toxic bleaching or highly carcinogenic dyes.

Undyed colored cotton, raised organically in Peru by artisans through a collective called Pakucho, is also sold online here (Knitter's Review likes it a lot). And on a fun note, companies like Levi Strauss & Co. have now come full circle -- the original Levi's jeans were made in both the traditional indigo-dyed white cotton and in natural brown cotton, the latter of which fell out of favor. Now Levi's makes jeans out of Sally Fox's cotton.

Since I seem to move house every six months or so, I have ample opportunities to test new strategies. This time around I experimented by putting plastic storage totes through FedEx Ground, and for the items I moved myself I used cardboard boxes with the addition of nonadhesive strapping tape and tubular handles. Much quicker and easier, less effort, no breakages, big success.

-- Charles Platt

Plastic Totes via FedEx

Wal-Mart sells them for storing items such as bedding and clothes in the home, but their semi-rigid construction makes them ideal for moving fragile possessions such as dishes and stereo components. They are stackable, waterproof, easy to pick up (recessed handle at each end), reusable (can be nested during storage), and will pass unscathed through FedEx ground. Best of all they barely cost more than cardboard boxes! My local FedEx-Kinko's was skeptical about accepting them for fear that the lids would pop off during transport. I allayed their fears by putting 2-inch tape around the perimeter of the lid and folding it under the rim. I had to make little notches in the tape so that it would seal properly either side of plastic strengthening ribs under the rim, but this was still much easier, quicker, and safer than using cardboard. Wal-Mart sells gray Sterilite brand totes (the type I prefer) through its stores, but not online. Models 1830 and 1835 are the ones I have tested through FedEx without any problems. You can pay a little more and get "latch totes" (models 1940 and 1945 with a flip-up latch at each end) but since you'll still need to add tape, I feel the latches are unnecessary. (NOTE: One reader pointed out that plastic totes may buckle if they are stored in a very hot place with heavy objects on top of them. I haven't encountered this problem myself, but I do follow the standard practice of filling each container to minimize empty space inside it)

Strapping Tape

If you still want to use cardboard boxes for items you move yourself, or if you are moving stacks of books secured with cling wrap (as I have suggested previously), consider adding half-inch nonadhesive plastic strapping tape. This is the stuff you sometimes see wrapped around boxes containing big items such as refrigerators being transported as freight. Often it's yellow in color. Shipping departments have a tensioner that they use to pull the tape tight, but you don't need that. You can get 3000 feet of half-inch strapping and a lot of little buckles, with a manual tensioner, for $36. You thread the tape through the buckle, pull up on it while bearing down on the box, and you have it as tight as you need it. You trim the tape near the buckle. The advantages are that it greatly strengthens the box while giving you something to grab it by, especially if you augment it with a handle (described below). Also you can link two or three boxes together so that you can carry them easily with one hand, especially up and down stairs. Much more efficient and secure than cradling boxes in your arms, less hazardous (you can see your feet and obstacles in your path), and less risk of back injury, since you don't have to stoop to pick them up. Note that FedEx and UPS don't like string or strapping that can snag their package processing machinery, so strapping is for transporting packages yourself or with assistance from movers.

DIY Box Handles

Make handles from half-inch plastic water pipe sawn into 5" lengths. My local Lowe's sold me six feet of pipe for around $3 and you can use any wood saw to cut it. You may feel this is a luxury, but if you want to protect your hands from the edges of the plastic tape, handles are nice to have.

Thread tape through handle.

Turn box upside-down and cross the tape ends.

Turn box right-side-up and thread one of the returning tape ends through the handle.

Add the buckle.

After pulling the tape tight, your box is now very easy to carry.

Related items previously reviewed on Cool Tools:

Lay-It-Out

Moving Heavy Things

Furniture Sliders

Jenny @ CRAFT writes:

Heavy Petal has a great tutorial showing how to drill an alder log and fill it with mushroom spawn-laced wooden plugs to create a super-cool log that will eventually sprout shiitake mushrooms galore.

My favorite is the last step: "Then you make omelettes."

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This is a functional glass seismograph for measuring earthquakes. It stands about 40" tall, and is about 48" wide installed. It measures vibrations along the x and y axes (side to side), as well as the z axis (up and down), on three helicorders. Ideally, it should be bolted into bedrock for accuracy...

Andy Paiko Glass

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The electronic peasant has an interesting project, prime for audio investigators -

There are a number of different ways to send vibrations travelling down a spring, but most spring reverbs use torsional (rotational) motion, which is less sensitive to interference from external vibrations. Here is an experiment that The Peasant did with a Slinky Jr (R) and some old speaker drivers which delivers loooonng delay low frequency DIY reverb for almost no cost.

Not the simplest fun you could have with a slinky, but definitely looks worth a try. - Slinky Spring Reverb

Or, if your after a more professional, albeit more costly, sound -

check out the Center Stage reverb project

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Weird things have been happening across North America as fuel prices hit all-time highs. Suddenly, small cars are cool. Basic vehicles that wouldn't have received a second glance five years ago are now attracting interest like never before.

A case in point: The little 3-cylinder Geo Metro, also sold as the Suzuki Swift. This popular econobox was produced from 1989-2001. In addition to a low sticker price, it squeezed as much as 49 mpg from its 1.0L power plant. In fact, one variant -- the lighweight XFi -- featured a detuned engine capable of sucking well over 50 miles from a single gallon of regular unleaded on the highway.

It hasn't taken long for modern opportunists to realize that the Geo Metro is an ugly duckling capable of providing almost the same fuel efficiency as a sleek new $25,000 hybrid. Prices have spiked as these elderly vehicles trade hands on the basis of their remarkable (by American standards) fuel efficiency.

These subcompacts - which sold for less than $10,000 new - are now fetching as much as $7,000 on eBay. Most have lived tough lives, driven by teenagers and low income drivers. That means they might not have received top-notch maintenance and are nearing two decades on the road. Unless you're an experienced back yard mechanic, you'll find yourself forking out a small fortune to keep an old Geo roadworthy and fuel efficient. You should also keep in mind that modern vehicles are designed to be more crashworthy, and the Geo didn't excel in crash tests when new, earning a less than stellar rating from the NHTSA in the early 1990s.

As with most other crazes, the sudden interest in elderly subcompacts should be taken with a grain of salt. There are numerous  modern vehicles such as the Toyota Echo/Yaris, Hyundai Accent and Chevy Aveo that get almost the same mileage. However, used examples of these miserly vehicles tend to sell at a premium these days, so your best bet might be to hang on to your rapidly depreciating SUV and drive it sparingly.

I suspect GM is paying careful attention to the sudden interest in the Metro XFi. Perhaps the recent flurry of attention will be enough to encourage them to introduce a lightweight variant of their Korean-made Aveo/Wave with a high efficiency small displacement engine in the near future. Maybe even a diesel.

1989 Geo Metro Gets 75 mpg
Gas prices drive Geos from clunkers to chic [CNN]

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