Author Archive
Modern Alchemy – The building of Ignatius The Firepig.
You may recall Patrick Johnson’s marvelous short film Granite Copper Motor from earlier this year. Recently Patrick spent some time with my friends David, Dennis, and Brady, while they designed and constructed a steam boiler dubbed ‘Ignatius the Firepig.’ I do so love Patrick’s calm and peaceful treatment which is the
Foundry Furnace – Part 2

I wasn't quite ready to start in with the grinding and welding this past Monday so I thought I'd ease into the day by adapting these photo-copy station lights I found at the dump to my drill press. They sure do make hitting that little automatic punch dimple a
Today’s Road Find

Today’s road finds, a #2 Phillips screwdriver with tip in excellent condition and a partial roll of electrical tape. Electrical tape is a very common find, I think they must fall of off linemen’s and phone company worker’s trucks. BTW: You should really throw out your worn
Foundry Furnace – Part 1

This past Monday I finally got started on my foundry project! I’ve been collecting material for some time so I was ready to roll once Maker Faire ’09 concluded. The goal is to built a foundry furnace capable of melting brass and perhape iron, if I’m lucky. I’m
Dump find – Roofer’s Tool?

I found this at the town dump last week, I'm speculating that it's a roofer's tool for bending flanges on to sheets of copper. It's about 4 feet long, the hinges are brass and there is a steel blade edge on both side of the central slot. It
The Road Giveth

When I bike to work I always keep a weather-eye on the road surface. Here in New England you must always be prepared to bunny-hop the odd pot-hole (yes, you can hop a recumbent, just not very high) but I also find some very nice tools on my
Lovelace and Babbage

I’ve just discover a new web comic via @nathanfhtagn called "Lovelace and Babbage" and it is pretty brilliant! Even better, in the finest Steampunk DIY tradition, there are "Making off" blog enteries interspersed with the content, these are as entertaining as the comic itself! Stuff like this: I’m
Dieselpunk Casemod

So I've been thinking of doing some Art Deco inspired mods and it seems like the internet is reading my mind again! I love this Dieselpunk casemod from Germany! Follow that link for a few more pics but what really caught my eye was some shots of a
The Gear Box

TxInkman writes: I dabble in the restoration of old wood maschinist’s chests. Gareth over at the Make blog wrote a very nice article about of a couple of my boxes and Toolmonger has featured a few of them. One you might particularly appreciate for it’s moderate Steampunkyness, the
Damnation Hildebrandt!

Things have been far too quiet, I have heard nothing from the labs of my arch nemesis Jake-of-all-Trades Hildebrandt – and now I know why. Not since Kirk bellowed "KHAAA….AAN!!" has the interwebs heard such exasperation! So THIS is what you've been up to? My god man, what have