Here's the final iteration of my foundry furnace. I've re-built the burner to be fired with propane and waste oil rather than gasoline and waste oil. I built my oil injector based on plans from the wonderful folks over at Lionel Labs, it's essentially identical to "The Brute."  

I also added a light pole. Since I have a day job, night-time is often my only opportunity for recreation of the metal melting sort.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/steeljam/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Lynette Fibonacci was frustrated, after rebooting three times she still couldn't get on the net. Maybe she would relent and let her boyfriend install his precious Linux - but then she was on and the thought faded from mind. Normally she loved her laptop, it had been a gift from Mom & Dad at the beginning of her Senior year at Boston University and although, at 4 years old it was at the trailing edge of technology, she treasured the connection that it gave her to friends and family. But today she just wanted to smash it, only the fact that she could not afford to replace it right now staid her hand.

This morning Lynn had awoke to a typically rainy sky. It was April and still pretty cold but there was a sense that warmer days were coming and she was uncharacteristicly cheerful. Maybe life didn't suck so hard after all.

. . .

Part 4 of my foundry furnace build, the gasoline burner assembly. I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out and the test firings have all of the neighbors asking "What's he building in there?What's he BUILDING in there?!"

Click through for the full story as well as a larger version of the video and many pictures!

I've been thinking a lot about Goth lately. I missed the advent of Goth almost entirely. In my youth I was a devotee of Punk and New Wave, a child of the second British invasion.  Goth didn't really get going until just about the time I was entering the workforce and my own attentions were focused on coming to grips with adult life in a capitalist society. Thus, it wasn't until quite recently that I started paying attention to the Goth aesthetic and musical forms.

Right now some of you are nodding knowingly and some of you are looking puzzled.  The puzzled ones are the folks who, like me, missed out on the Goth sub-culture and have no idea how closely Steampunk and Goth are related. 

Here's a real quick hack to keep the door of your dryer closed when you dry bathroom mats or a pair of sneakers . . .

Back in August I received a slightly odd email:

Phil is drawing a cover for Windycon's Blaylock short story collection, and he sort of used you as the guy building a mechanical dragon in his garage... Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. 

If it wasn't, and you'd rather we made it not look quite like you, please e-mail me and let me know! 

(I know we should have asked first, but we got carried away... sorry!) 

Thanks-- 

--Kaja

Of course I was deeply flattered and quickly responded that I, in fact, felt honored that they chose to use my likeness!

Click for a larger version and the opportunity to buy a print if you so desire

If you dropped by my house you'd probably be disappointed. Because (with the exception of my office, which is more post-apocalytic than anything else) it's simply not very steampunk. I do have plans, but none have come to fruition.

However, a couple of weeks ago I was invited by Bruce Rosenbaum to visit his home in Sharon, Massachusetts and what I found there was just stunning!

This year I decided to do something a little different with my gift guide. Rather than try for a steampunk theme, I decided to apply a steampunk philosophy.

I thought back over the things that I purchased that have pleased me greatly.  Often they were purchases that I agonized over.  Purchases where I stretched and bought something I really couldn't afford or where I bought the most expensive version of something rather than heeding the conventional wisdom of "shooting the middle."  

To quote Bruce Sterling:

It's not bad to own fine things that you like. What you need are things that you GENUINELY like. Things that you cherish, that enhance your existence in the world. The rest is dross.

So enjoy, these are a few of my favorite things . . . 

I have several 6 volt lantern flashlights kicking around the shop.  However, I never use them because I generally baulk at the $7 they want for a lantern battery that can't be recharged.

So I modded a flashlight to take a 6 volt 4 Ah lead acid battery I bought at Home Depot . . . 

The day after I returned from SteamCon in Seattle I got into the car to go to the day job and discovered that my battery light was on in my 2007 Toyota Yaris.  Being an old Volkswagen man I resisted the urge to get out and hammer on the the alternator with a monkey wrench.  Instead I turned everything off and then listened carefully to the engine RPM as I turned on the rear window defroster.  When I pressed the defrost button the engines revs did indeed drop about 100 and the engine lugged for a moment until the ECU gave it a bit more gas to smooth out the idle.  Good. This exercise told me that the alternator was charging the battery and that the problem was with the warning light itself. I could safely drive the car for the rest of the week and figure things out at my leisure.

This morning I started working the problem . . .