Creation Station: La Quinta's MakerSpace

William's Infinity Mirror Code      Hey Makers! William here! You may have seen my short video show-and-telling about my infinity mirror! During the video I offered to show my code for it, so here it is!  If you wanted to use this at home you'll need some form of Arduino and you'll need the FastLED library which can be found here .  You'll probably want to look into changing the value of "NUM_LEDS" to fit the number of leds you have in your project. Or perhaps you just wanna read for yourself what some silly Arduino noob programmed? Observe away! I have some limited commenting that may explain some of what is going on. Code comments are in green. Spelling errors included for posterity.  Make yourself a great day,  William

Matcha Sugar Cookies INGREDIENTS: 2 1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour (In our recipe we used a 1-to-1 Gluten-free flour replacement) [11 1/4 oz.] 1 teaspoon Baking Powder 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda 1/2 teaspoon Salt 1 tablespoon (or more to taste) Unsweetened Matcha Tea Powder 2 oz. Cream Cheese , softened and segmented. 6 tablespoons unsalted Butter , melted and liquid 1 Large Egg 1 Tablespoon Milk 1/3 Cup Vegetable oil 1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar, plus extra for doughball rolling [10 1/2 oz.] 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract Pre-Heat Oven to 350F.  Gather baking sheets and line with parchment paper. Place extra sugar for rolling (~1/3 cup) in a medium/large bowl and set aside. Combine Dry Ingredients: Add flour, salt, baking powder, Baking soda and matcha powder in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Set bowl aside. In another large bowl: Add sugar (1 1/2c) and cream cheese. Whisk and mix until combined. Pour Melted butter into the Sugar and cream cheese bowl. Whisk an

Papercraft Jawa Transcript ORIGINAL DESIGN CREDIT TO AUTHOR AT CUBEECRAFT.COM William:" Hello Makers! Its star wars week at Makercraft Live! May the Fourth Be with you as we make some papercraft Jawa! I’ll be making a pair of Jawa! They will both be made from the same pattern, however one will be printed out of a standard printer and the other will be cut out of cardstock on the laser cutter we have at the Creation Station. This Pattern is a modified version of the http://www.cubeecraft.com/ basic template. I modified the pattern to work with our laser cutter, but all credit to the author at cubeecraft.com. To follow along at home you’ll need the pattern which can be found on our blogger or facebook posts associated with this video. Print the pattern out on standard printer paper! Or you can use cardstock if you know how with your printer You’ll also need a hobby knife and I’ll use a cut proof glove You’ll need Coloring supplies. Here I have

Recipe for Chocolate Eclairs from MakerCraft LIVE! Day 1 PASTRY FILLING Ingredients 2 Cups Whole Milk 6 Egg Yolks 1/2 - 2/3 Cup Granulated Sugar (Depending on taste) 1/4 Cup Corn Starch 1 Stick (8 tbs) Unsalted Butter 1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract (or scrapings from 1 vanilla pod) * 1/8 tsp Lavender Extract Paste (Optional) 1. In a Medium sauce pan, combine milk and stick of butter.  Heat over medium-high heat while stirring constantly until the butter is melted and there is a rolling boil. 2. Remove from Heat and add Vanilla extract (or scraped beans from Vanilla pod) and sit for 15 minutes. 3. Separate 6 egg yolks into a mixing bowl and add the granulated sugar.  Whisk well until the mixture turns light yellow in appearance. 4. Next add the corn starch slowly and whisk carefully until the mixture starts to thicken.  5. Temper the egg mixture by gradually pouring some of the milk mixture 1/4 cup at a time until both mixtures are combined. 6. Pour the combin

Leaky Battery Video Transcript William: " Hello Makers! Today we're going to try to fix some leaky alkaline battery damage on some electronics. This is a pretty common situation that we've all probably ran into at some time. I have two remotes and this little Altoids can synthesizer that need to be fixed. First, though, why do Alkaline batteries leak? Alkaline batteries produce our desired electric potential and current through the reaction of several different chemicals. A consequence of this reaction is the production of  hydrogen gas. As the battery is discharged and used, more of this hydrogen gas is produced. This increases the pressure inside the battery. If the battery is physically damaged or the pressure inside becomes too much it will rupture. Once ruptured, the alkaline battery will leak electrolytes and other chemicals. Of particular interest is Potassium Hydroxide. This chemical will leak out and react with the carbon dioxide in the air to fo

Desoldering: An Introduction Please be careful not to burn yourself.      Not everything permanent has to be permanent forever. Our intentions may be that we should solder a part into place and never touch it again, but that didn't stop us from putting the wrong part in place or having the wrong part to begin with. This is where desoldering comes in. Desoldering is the process of removing solder OR components from a solder-situation you'd like to change.  The techniques and concepts involved in desoldering can also be applied to soldering things together and will promote a better feel for what works with soldering in general. Practice may also increase your confidence. Lets take a look! Basic Principles of Desoldering      Lets talk about solder! For the rest of this article we will be referring to the properties of leaded solder. We're not going to get technical here, but lets start out by saying that solder loves to stick to and spread out over hot copper. Thi