Pros: Get inspired and learn to make stuff with project instructions and good online content
Cons: Projects can get expensive; content can be scattered, and is sometimes available elsewhere
The Bottom Line: If you like to take things apart and want to work for the Mythbusters, you'll enjoy this do-it-yourself technology magazine. You'll need a soldering iron and more, though!
"There's a magazine I like, Make Magazine……it's all about how to build little robots out of Altoid tins, and how to make sea monkeys into giant blood-sucking rats. It's pretty cool and it's a lot of fun."
- Jimmy Kimmel
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I am not an impulse buyer. I am, in fact, the opposite: I will have a list, go to the store, and while there will decide not to buy things ("I don't really need kleenex!"). I have spreadsheets of product costs that I need to consult before buying many items. So when I was waiting for someone at a New Seasons a couple of years ago, there was no chance I was going to buy the magazine I picked up to read. It was a nice looking magazine, and, at nearly 200 pages, more like a book. But its price was $14.99! I picked it up because the cover article was "Hack your plants: 9 backyard biology products." I was going to glance at it and return it to the shelf.
Two minutes later I was shelling out fifteen hard-earned dollars because I knew my life would be incomplete without this magazine. I started my subscription the next month.
The Basics
Make's pages are smaller than regular magazines, at about 6.5 x 9.5 inches, and the issues usually have about 200 pages. I really like the magazine's look and feel: it's more of a matte finish than the standard glossy magazine page, and the pages themselves are thicker than you'd expect. Not a huge deal, but it's nice.
Make Magazine is issued quarterly, so the yearly subscription price of $34.95 works out to $8.74 an issue. I went with the "premier maker" subscription, which takes $5 off the price and can be cancelled anytime for a refund of the un-mailed volumes. As with many magazine subscriptions, this refund (which brings the price per volume down to $7.49) is available when you enable automatic renewal. They do give you 30 days notice before the renewal, though.
Subscriptions in Canada are $39.95; the rest of the world is $49.95.
With any subscription, you can choose to add digital access for free. This lets you see an exact online replica of every issue. You can browse using the table of contents, or search for specific things. There are also embedded video clips and links to online content.
The Content
There are a few basic parts to every issue of Make; I'll give examples from the most recent one (issue 14):
The first section has short articles about interesting things that other people have made. My favorite from this issue is the Aquaduct Mobile Filtration Vehicle, winner of the 2007 Innovate or Die competition. It's a bike with a storage tank, designed for transporting and filtering water in developing nations.
The second section, Upload, deals with digital projects like putting up a free website, or retouching a digital photo to make it look like it's an old, damaged film print.
The third part is the main one: Projects. Here, you can find instructions on making your own taffy puller, or spy sunglasses that record what you see and hear. Want to make an LED bike headlight from a garden hose adapter? That's here too.
There's also additional content like interviews, columns and puzzles, as well as product and book reviews.
Make Digital
The digital version is surprisingly fun and quick-loading, given the high quality. It's actually quite similar to reading the magazine in print. When viewing the online articles, you'll sometimes see embedded video clips, which are very nice. You can print pages from all the issues and e-mail articles to friends, who will get temporary access.
Make states, "MAKE Digital Edition can be viewed from any web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc.)" I've only tried to access it with Internet Explorer, so that's all that I can verify, but it's worked perfectly for me, and I didn't need to download any software or anything like that.
There's also free online content, outside of what's offered in the magazine. This includes separate project instructions, videos and forums. Make has an associated online store where you can buy gear with their logo, as well as books, tools, materials and kits for some projects.
The Appeal
Not every project in Make is practical. Okay, most of them probably aren't practical at all. There aren't a lot of people who really need a wireless camera hookup so they can get a bug's-eye view from their remote-controlled car. But there are some of us who take delight in a multi-part series about building and installing your own solar panels.
Obviously, this magazine appeals to a very specific audience. If you enjoy Popular Mechanics, but want less "look at this fancy car!" and more "here's how to make a magnetic vacuum cleaner attachment for finding screws in the garage," then Make may be for you.
Having subscribed for a while now, I have mixed feelings about Make. The projects cover such a wide range of topics that only some of them really interest me. I'm a civil engineering student, and that's really where my interest lies. So the solar panels and the spectrometer to analyze liquids really get me going. The resin-encased LED night light and the Evasive Beeping Thing (a descriptively-named prank) just don't do it for me. And with websites like instructables.com (as well as the free online content from Make), a lot of this is available free.
The thing that has kept me subscribing to Make is the fact that it does push me outside of my comfort zone by making me at least glance at articles about software, circuits and conceptual art. It's kind of like buying an album and discovering new songs, rather than just downloading one song that you like.
Are You a Maker?
I'm the kind of person who keeps old broken stuff, confident I'll find a use for its parts. This included electronics, even though I barely knew what to do with them before my Make subscription. So I started out with some of the stuff I'd need to use for these projects, and chose my initial forays based on what I could do cheaply. Most of the projects require a soldering iron and various wires, resistors, etc. If you don't have any of these things, there will be some initial investment to buy them.
I'm not actually particularly mechanically skilled. When I find something I want to make, I blunder through it. Make has improved my knowledge in this area, since some of the projects are quite easy, and you can work your way up to the complex ones.
I think I would get more enjoyment out of Make if I were retired, or otherwise had more free time. Not to mention disposable income. One project I'd like to try someday is the spectrometer from the current issue. However, when the author says "I spent less than $100 on this project, and it took just a few days," I'm thinking, "Well I'm 0 for 2 there!" (Some of the projects include estimates of how much cost, time and skill you'll need. I wish more of them did, though.)
Also, the civil engineering curriculum is pretty light on mechanics and electronics (not surprisingly, those are left to mechanical and electrical engineers!), so the more complex projects can be a bit intimidating. Still, they're something to work towards.
So basically, I'm busy and poor and not very good at making things, and I still enjoy this magazine! I actually get excited when it comes in the mail. I think it's more about a style of thought. If you take things apart, watch the Discovery Channel and wish you could work for the Mythbusters, then you'll probably enjoy this magazine.
Overall
My husband is a former mechanical engineer, but he's more about building big things with power tools. I'm studying civil engineering, but am also interested in electronics. Between us, we get our money's worth of enjoyment out of this well-presented magazine. I have a friend who's an artist who hasn't made any of the Make projects, but just enjoys reading it. Clearly, this magazine appeals to many audiences.
There's a lot to discover here, especially if you explore all the online content. For that reason, I'm going with five stars. If you're at all interested in how things work, you should at least scan through an issue. Your library may have it, especially since they've started compiling all four quarterly issues and selling it as a book at the end of the year. I'm glad I subscribed to it. It's been worth $29.95 a year to me to retrieve this magazine from the mail, start reading and go, "Oh, cool!"
4 issues: Make unites, inspires, and informs a growing community of people who undertake amazing projects in their basements, backyards and garages.More at eBay
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