Steampunk Car Project – Initial Survey
Late in 2007 I spotted this car on eBay with a "Buy it Now" price of $1500 and, well, bought it then. Its a 1929 Mercedes Gazelle SSK replica made by Classic Motor Carriages. CMC made these cars in the late '70s and early '80s. In fact, I remember
Car Carrier Trailer
If you’ve visited here before you know that one of my long term projects is to built a fully road-able steam powered automobile. In addition to requiring a great deal of research, such a project requires tools. I will need machine tools such as a lathe and a milling
Halloween Decorations 2007
Flying Crank Ghost !! Here’s a daylight movie of our implementation of the PhantasMechanics Flying Crank Ghost: And here’s a night time shot: Field Trip to Hell !! Pictures of our complete Hallowe’en setup are coming but I thought I’d share with you the main attraction this year. Our
Jake’s Hollywood Adventure and Etching an iPod
OK, I was reckless. I went ahead and etched my iPod without doing extensive tests on electrolytic etching of stainless steel. But you see, I had a deadline – a flight to Los Angeles to be on television and I wanted the iPod done for the show. I began
Steampunk Flat-Panel LCD Mod
The Steampunk Keyboard looked terribly anachronistic sitting in front of my Dell 1907FP flat panel monitor and while I hesitated to tear open a $300 monitor that was still under warrantee, art must be served. Inside I found that the whole thing was encased in steel sheet. I
Gas Mask Sawdust Respirator
Update: Sometimes when I'm working in the shop I just need to wear a respirator for a short period. For instance if I just need to walk into the paint area to shoot a second coat on a small part or make a quick cut on the table saw
How to Make a Large Flash Diffuser
Making nice photographs when all you have for lighting is a bunch of tungsten shop lamps can be a real challenge. It is particularly hard to photograph polished brass under these conditions. So this weekend I set out to build a flash diffuser to improve the quality of the photography
Telegraph Clacks out RSS Feeds
When I was a boy my father brought home from work a telegraph sounder replica kit. He was the director of the library for a local college and the sounder kit was one of several museum quality reproductions of 19th Century technology the library had acquired. The lovely brass
Gallery of Found Objects
On Saturday when I go to the dump I carry with me a long steel hook which allows me to fish interesting things out of the metal re-cycling dumpster. I’ll also stop and look through intersting piles left curbside for collection on trash day. Some find this practice unseemly, but
Philatelic Keyboards – More Model M Goodness
Andy sent me a couple of shots of his beautiful stamp decorated keyboards. He write that he's made about 10 of these beauties. Each of his keyboards are made with the stamps of a single nation and often commemorate a royal coronation or celebrate a particular sport. Andy's friends