The Big Book of Maker Skills (Popular Science): Tools & Techniques for Building Great Tech Projects Flexibound – November 4, 2014

it's just a well written and creative formatting of actual useful information. It's not a huge book but it's contents will take you well past beginning hobbyist to serious lifestyle changes and even survival...

I bought this as a gift for a women who is branching out from traditional artwork to explore various creative opportunities. She is not afraid of tools but is not well experienced. I feared this would insult her intelligence (she has some class and professional training with tools) but changed my mind after seeing the practical advice from the author, Chris Hackett. This is a book that even many experienced DIYers, tinkers, and makers will find useful for its advice about some tools one might be hesitant to blindly purchase (like welders). Nice art layout, well organized (including practical advice on first aid -- like when to get stitches), broad in its coverage. I have a ton of DIY books, from basic carpentry to computer hacking. This book will serve many folks looking for early insight about methods and tools while beginning a project.

Lots of pictures ! Thats great . Absolute a good beginner book for aspiring tinkerer , fixers, hobbyists and gadgetpeople .

This was a good book for me. I've dabbled in electronics, electrical, woodworking, and more, a typical handyman and DIYer, and I have several books on home “DIY” and maintenance, so I was familiar with many of the skills covered by this book. So while the skills covered by this book have some overlap with those, overall it supplements them very nicely. I found this book covered far more skills I didn't know, than I knew. My first thought upon looking through the book was 'this is what I needed back in school for my science projects."In particular the skills in this book on working with metal (forming and welding) and plastic will be valuable to me. I was also impressed with the coverage of the tools required for the skills covered. I also like the clarity of the articles and pictures.I'm impressed with it enough, that I'm going to get a copy of this for my adult son.

Pros: Great photos, graphics and page layout (except for the word art pages with busy backgrounds)Cons: This book covers 200 skills, tools, or techniques. If you have made things before, or do any DIY work around the house, you may not learn much of anything. It's not helpful as an encyclopedia as once you read it, you won't need to look it up again. For example, one of the 200 topics: there are steel, wood, and masonry chisels (with a photo of each). But the projects tend to swing the other way, most just skim the surface and show a diagram and 5 steps. Just a bit odd to cover soldering your first wire splice and building an AC generator (with an electric motor and oil filled capacitors) in the same section.What I wished this book to be: Interviews with crusty old shop guys sorted by skill or tool. Show me their personal hacks or 5 ways to do the same thing with different tools. Some of this is there (how to remove a stripped screw a few different ways), but most of it is the equivalent of what you would find when looking at the Home Depot website and clicking "About Saws".Since the cost to return this is half the cost of the book, I guess I will just keep it for my kids.

I would give it more than five stars if I could. I am 65 years old and have been tinkering a building stuff since I could hold a screw driver. But, there are whole areas of building and making that I nothing about. The sections of the book on things I know well accurate and give enough info to get you started. That fact gives me confidence that the sections of stuff I have never done provide a good solid starting point for mastering those tools and processes.I did get a few solid laughs from the cultural differences between New York and Texas. He warns about getting between a junkie and his next fix. Living in Texas I would have warned about land owners with guns.

I remember watching the author on a tv show and was really inspired by him. He has great ideas for projects and show you how to get the material to build them. Dont need to be a engineer to make these projects; just a little know how and little elbow grease.

When I bought this book, I was expecting a slim book with a few skills that would facilitate working in a workshop. When the book arrived, I was pleased to discover that it was thicker than I had anticipated (about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch) and contained fairly detailed instructions on different workshop processes, from hammering to oxyacetylene welding to microprocessors. My one issue is that the final section (electronics and robotics) was a bit underdeveloped and could benefit from the addition of more information and tricks. Other than that, this book was fantastic.