So we were messing about on YouTube, and David found a video about making an IR filter for a digital camera. We determined to attempt this tonight, and I'm quite pleased with my efforts. I used an aggregate process culled from various online tutorials, so the project is by no means original. But it is very fun!
I took a few pictures of the process, but really it's no different than anything else you can find out there. I'm just happy about the output I've got so far, which is up on Posterous... nice video of the mini-blowtorch and a hot needle. Huzzah!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Oh. Yes. That.
What? Hmm? You've noticed my flash drive looks a little strange?
Rather like a ray gun, perhaps?
Perhaps.
I'd toyed with the idea of making some steampunk goggles, but for several reasons dragged my feet. A, they're overdone, B, I don't do plastic but hunks of metal + face = cumbersome, and C, I couldn't immediately come up with a solution for the lenses. (Again, I don't do plastic.) But I wanted another project. And then one night I was sitting around, and I realized what I must do with those clock gears I've had laying around my bedroom.
It's time to build a ray gun.
This will be a secondary blaster, mounted above a larger one and set back a little. I'm currently thinking of making TWO guns, because I have too much excellent stuff to fit on one. I have:
• Clock gears/sprockets
• Burgundy and black suede for the grips (only one grip color for each gun)
• A small purple glass flute vase for a barrel (with ray-shooter mounted inside)
• A double-lensed jeweler's loupe
• Two frightening-looking needles (I think they're for injecting marinade into meat... but for me they shall be ray-focusers):
• Ring of ball bearings, clock part for crosshair, random bit of copper, clock part for trigger:
• 5-gigabyte Rio Carbon that largely died a few years back, but still functions well enough to work as a storage drive:
I'm particularly excited about this last element. I reshaped the metal backplate to fit more snugly around the thing's guts, and it will be the crowning bit of geekery inside. I've also changed the settings to keep the backlight on, which will give me some red LEDs to display. I also have a ring of 9 white LEDs, which are lovely and bright, so I can even have it be a flashlight as well. Bwaha. Bwahahaha. Bwa... ha.
(I am very happy that this has inspired my friend Link to make himself a raygunlight for use at the office. Excellent, excellent.)
In other news, I brought my mandolin up to North Campus and recorded a far more strange version of "I'm Not Sorry" (steampunk/speculative folk song), with layers and layers of mandolin. I'm very happy about this, as it has much better vocals. I still trip up a couple of times, but my voice isn't all over the place. I also got to sing with Jess when she performed at Café Verde last Saturday; we did "Sons and Daughters" by the Decemberists, an excellent song and oh so improvisable.
Good times.
Rather like a ray gun, perhaps?
Perhaps.
I'd toyed with the idea of making some steampunk goggles, but for several reasons dragged my feet. A, they're overdone, B, I don't do plastic but hunks of metal + face = cumbersome, and C, I couldn't immediately come up with a solution for the lenses. (Again, I don't do plastic.) But I wanted another project. And then one night I was sitting around, and I realized what I must do with those clock gears I've had laying around my bedroom.
It's time to build a ray gun.
This will be a secondary blaster, mounted above a larger one and set back a little. I'm currently thinking of making TWO guns, because I have too much excellent stuff to fit on one. I have:• Clock gears/sprockets
• Burgundy and black suede for the grips (only one grip color for each gun)
• A small purple glass flute vase for a barrel (with ray-shooter mounted inside)
• A double-lensed jeweler's loupe
• Two frightening-looking needles (I think they're for injecting marinade into meat... but for me they shall be ray-focusers):
• Ring of ball bearings, clock part for crosshair, random bit of copper, clock part for trigger:
• 5-gigabyte Rio Carbon that largely died a few years back, but still functions well enough to work as a storage drive:
I'm particularly excited about this last element. I reshaped the metal backplate to fit more snugly around the thing's guts, and it will be the crowning bit of geekery inside. I've also changed the settings to keep the backlight on, which will give me some red LEDs to display. I also have a ring of 9 white LEDs, which are lovely and bright, so I can even have it be a flashlight as well. Bwaha. Bwahahaha. Bwa... ha.(I am very happy that this has inspired my friend Link to make himself a raygunlight for use at the office. Excellent, excellent.)
In other news, I brought my mandolin up to North Campus and recorded a far more strange version of "I'm Not Sorry" (steampunk/speculative folk song), with layers and layers of mandolin. I'm very happy about this, as it has much better vocals. I still trip up a couple of times, but my voice isn't all over the place. I also got to sing with Jess when she performed at Café Verde last Saturday; we did "Sons and Daughters" by the Decemberists, an excellent song and oh so improvisable.
Good times.
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