If you have a DIYer on your gift list, then you know they're often the hardest to shop for because half the time they'll just make something themselves instead of waiting for someone to release a product. For those types, it's often best to give them the tools they need to make things. Here are some of our favorite DIY-friendly gifts to give this holiday season.
For the DIYer on your list who seems to have everything, you might need to dig a bit deeper to find something they can use. For that, the KeyTool Keyring Multi-Tool is a great addition to anyone's keychain. With it, they'll always have a screwdriver, nail file, bottle opener, wire cutter, and tweezers on them all the time. Sure, they're not going to be able to add on a new room to their house with the KeyTool, but they'll certainly be able to hack together a solution from just about anywhere. If the KeyTool doesn't seem like the right fit but a keychain tool will do the trick, you have a few other great options.
A Leatherman is a fantastic gift for any do it yourselfer on your list, but chances are they already have one (or 10) by now. If you have someone on your list who likes to play around with electronics, the Circuit Breaker Leatherman is a great Leatherman built specifically for MacGyvering together electronics. It comes with the traditional tools of a knife, pliers, screwdriver, and scissors, but also has wire cutters and strippers.
While any DIYer who has been making their own stuff for a long time certainly already has a good set of tools, the budding DIY aficionado could certainly use a little help. After all, tools are expensive and it's hard to figure out exactly what you'll need. When we asked you what you needed in your tool kits, responses were all over the place and depended on the type of projects you typically do. That said, everyone needs a set of basic tools. A general repair tool kit is a great place to start, and Denali's home repair kit manages to include all the basic tools everyone needs.
The Raspberry Pi is a small, single board computer that's not much larger than a wallet and can run certain builds of Linux. At its core, the Raspberry Pi is a very simple little machine, but for the DIYer on your list it's an amazingly versatile little device capable of running a table arcade machine, a private cloud storage system, or XBMC. Unfortunately, it's still a little difficult to find a Raspberry Pi, but many retailers are showing ship dates by the end of November. If you want to get something a little more than the $35 board, Adafruit's starter kit includes all the cables they'll need, a charger, breadboard, and plenty more.
The Arduino is a fantastic gift for the electronics DIYer who likes to write their own code and make their own machines. The Arduino microcontroller is well known for its variety of uses, ranging between everything from an automated bartender to self-watering garden system. It's also not too hard to learn how to use it, and if they need a little help our guide to getting started making your own electronics is a solid place to start. The Arduino itself is great, but if you really want to go all out, a starter kit is a fantastic gift. We like the Arduino Starter Kit from the Arduino.cc because not only does it include a ton of components, but it also has instructions (and parts) for 15 different projects, 10 video tutorials, and pretty much everything an Arduino-newbie needs to get going.
The MaKey MaKey might be one of the most unusual DIY tools we've seen in a long time, but it's remarkably interesting nonetheless. Essentially, the MaKey Makey is a way to easily add a controller to DIY projects, and in turn, just about anything can become a controller. If you have someone on your holiday shopping list who loves making things with an Arduino or other electronics, the MaKey MaKey is a fantastic and quirky gift that's sure to keep them entertained.
Sugru is an incredibly handy putty-like material that's great for fixing everything ranging from laptop cords to headphones. The putty is easy to work with and hardens within 24 hours into a flexible material. If you have someone on your gift list with a tendency to break things often, Sugru is an excellent way to fix or customize all sorts of things.
Every good DIYer has their own graph paper notebook filled with sketches, notes, and everything else related to their projects. If you're looking for a gift with a little more character, the Maker's Notebook is a fantastic little notebook. It comes with a table of contents so they'll be able to easily reference projects, engineering graph paper, 20 pages of reference guides of various symbols, and more. While most any DIY-lover would be happy with any old stack of graph paper, the Maker's Notebook makes a much more personal gift.
If you have someone on your gift list who loves both basic chemistry and cooking, the Molecular Cuisine Starter Kit is a great gift. They'll get everything they need to get started with molecular cuisine, including 50 chemicals, tools, and a recipe DVD. With the kit, they'll be able to make all types of amazing meals ranging from spaghetti made out of tomato soup to fruit juice caviar.
For the hacker in your life who loves to meet people, a membership to a local hackerspace is a fantastic gift. Hackerspaces are great places to get involved and meet a community of like-minded people, and they're also a good place to go if they're learning new DIY skills. Every place has different membership rates (and some are free), and you'll find a list of different spaces and membership costs on Hackerspaces. Every hackerspace has different specialties and tools, so make sure you do your research before picking out a space to get a membership at.
A special thanks goes out to everyone who provided suggestions last week! It made putting together these guides a lot easier, and a better fit for you.
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