Brass

Many makers have found uses for the telescoping brass tubing from K & S Engineering. This tubing is available in sizes from 1/16" up to 21/32" (modeltool.com is one retail source), and one of the useful features of this material is that each adjacent size telescopes neatly into the next. I use the tubing to make small organ pipes and tuned bicycle horns, generally working with the thin-wall (.014") variety, and I have developed a few techniques to adjust the fit between adjacent sizes, making airtight slip-fits and press-fits of adjustable tension, and also snap-together fits. These techniques all involve stretching or compressing the brass, and they don't involve the use of gaskets or adhesives. Whatever the tubing is to be used for, these techniques might give a maker some useful ideas for future projects.

Len is a longtime friend of The Steampunk Workshop, fellow Wimshurst maker, and the creator of The Majectic Bellophone, among many of accomplishments. - Jake

In the comments about my CNC mill project over at Hack-A-Day, Jarkman posted a link to this really beautiful CNC'd brass scarab brooch and I can't help thinking that this would make a lovely computer mouse too!

Quote from L.A. Bike Show Website "What is it? Some bike contest entries defied classification and description..."

We know what it is, don't we folks?  It's Steampunk!  

This is the home of Dave Geertsen's home made metal sculpture on wheels,the wheels are straight but his custom motorcycles are anything but off the shelf. If you have a creative idea or a custom motor bike part you would like to have made or created by a true artist, metal worker, craftsman and biker you have come to the right place, the home of bentwheel.         [via THE NEW CAFE (RACER) SOCIETY]

I am just speechless.  More here und here via Burnlab

Long before I got into Steampunk, in fact long before that name had been coined, I had a love for scientific instruments.

I would rescue the catalogues of instruments and demonstrations from the dumpster behind our school at the end of each year when the science teachers would discard them and take them home to pour over like the Sears xmas Wishbook (or maybe the lingerie supplement ;-) )!

Here's a marvellous resource for the Steampunk fabricator, with hundreds and hundreds of pictures of vintage scientific instruments organized by area of investigation. It's a place I often look to for inspiration.