The Bulbdial Clock show you the time in shadows.

With Thanksgiving creeping up on us this Thursday, we are officially entering holiday gift buying territory.  If you're wondering what to get the DIY enthusiast in your life, here are some great suggestions, all made or supported by local Bay Area companies:

TV-B-GONE: Probably one of the most fun kits to put together! Invented by local Bay Area maker, Mitch Altman, this allows you to turn off any TV within range. This kit takes less than an hour to build and provides endless entertainment! Kits are under $30 and can be purchased here.

Bulbdial Clock: Sunnyvale's Evil Mad Science has put together this kit which works just like an indoor sundial, but with three shadows of different colors to represent, seconds, hours and minutes. These kits start at $65 and go up depending on the components you'll want to include. Evil Mad Science has quite a few kits and projects that are accessible for beginners as well as more experienced electronics fans. Learn more about what they offer here.

Retro Scanner: Completely new to soldering and looking for an easy kit to get started with? Look no further than Applied Platonics' Retro Scanner. Developed by San Francisco maker, Josh Myer, this kit takes roughly an hour to put together, and comes with comprehensive instructions to guide you each step of the way. When complete, you'll have a cool set of blinking lights to show off. The Retro Scanner starts at $15. Check it out!

Monkeylectric LED Bike Lighting: If there's a cyclist in your life, this gift will delight. Designed by Monkey Lectric in Berkeley, their LED Bike kit will light up the spoke of your wheels in an array of pre-programmed designs and colors. These kits are plug and play, so there's no configuration on your part. Simply use the board's interface to select a design, affix it to your wheel and ride! These lights start at $65.

LED Menora, Christmas Tree and Yule Logs: Want to get into the spirit of the season? Holiday kits are all the rage and the Makershed sells them all!

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Probably the hardest thing to get your hands on for this project will be the four gold-plated neodymium-iron-boron magnets. Not something you usually find at the local 5-And-Dime. (Or maybe I was just looking in the wrong aisle.) But I'm sure Make Magazine can point you where to get them. Once you do, here's a safety tip: The magnets are very powerful, so make sure they are securely taped down or they might slam together and shatter. Then you'll have to go out and find more gold-plated neodymium-iron-boron magnets.

Do try this at home. But be careful out there. Adult supervision is always a good idea. And make sure to aim your Tabletop Linear Accelerator away from your little brother.

Download Instructions for the Tabletop Linear Accelerator (419.3 KB .pdf)

Watch the Make At Home Tabletop Linear Accelerator television story report online.

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Do-it-yourself tabletop biosphere..

We started with a Table-Top Biosphere, or as MAKE called it, a "Tabletop Shrimp Support Module" or TSSM. The whole idea is to create an entirely self-sustaining aquatic ecosystem within a completely sealed jam jar. If you do it right, your freshwater shrimp "aquanaut" will be able to survive for months without your ever needing to feed it or even open the jar. The ecological balance you create supplies all the air, filtering and food for all the creatures within the jar to survive in perfect harmony. If only the real world was this easy.

Watch the "MAKE it at Home: Table-Top Biosphere" TV Story online, as well as find additional links and resources.

Here are the instructions to make your own table-top biosphere.

Chris Bauer is a Segment Producer for television on QUEST.