Super-Powered Goggles

I broke down and made some goggles! Ones that actually improve my vision, by accident (see below). We had a night for goggling at the AHA! Shop. Would that I had brought my camera... these are all progress shots from later.

The backing piece is thick ruddy suede, part of a large cache I procured from the Scrap Box a while back. On the left (right eye), we have half a silver-plated napkin ring, with a piece of stainless steel plate soldered in, plus a ring bearing, surrounded by excess solder. On the right, some more steel plate riveted on, with pinholes drilled in... surmounted by a clip-on jeweler's loupe. In the forehead is a brass grommet / third eye aperture. (This project was excellent practice with pop rivets and grommets, both of which are a lot of fun. No wonder I've never gotten good at sewing.)

The left-side pinholes have the curious property of augmenting my vision. My sight isn't terrible, but I can't wear glasses with the goggles. But the pinholes' small apertures restrict the angles at which light can enter the eye, making things clearer. I spent a lot of yesterday comparing eyes; they're usually pretty identical in ability, but with these on I can read things with my left that are blurry through my right, even when I squint. Once I noticed the effect, I remembered reading about pinhole glasses some years ago, but had completely forgotten that until now. Serendipitous!

Originally, both eyes were to be halves of this napkin ring. It came from Antelope Antiques, where the shopkeeper started polishing off the tarnish despite my protestations... but it still looks lovely. I hacksawed it in half (on an angle for face-fittage), cut it to shape with some metal plate snips, then smoothed the edges with a metal rasp.

The left eye was going to be covered with more steel, like so... but I couldn't get it to attach properly, so the plate went on instead. The right-eye napkin ring is attached by tabs of the suede backing.

I bent the stems on my loupe so the lenses sit in front of my left eye when it's clamped to the side strap. Enjoyable!

Interlude I: Noam Tries to Lick the Plasma Light Bulb

Interlude II: Nate's Sweet Goggles

Sleepy Nate used brass and rubber plumbing gaskets, set in tan suede. His goggles have a dust mask that can be detached from the right side, to hang out of the way when not in use. (Picture by Noam)

Back to the main feature...
I used a couple of electrical clamps on each side, which not only looks awesome but also provides some adjustability. Attaching these to the strap proved to be the main stumbling block, and the reason why I stalled for a week before finishing them for the Hands-On Museum Local Tech Event last night. (AHA! and 826michigan shared a booth, thanks to sponsorship from Tom Root... more info about our project later.)

The holes in the clamps were too small to push rivets through, and I couldn't find a working drill for many a tiresome day. Once one was located, that and a triangular metal file made the job rather easy (although the rivets barely made it through the whole thickness of leather and metal).

Copper pop rivets installed!

Plate side, minus the loupe (which I do think adds a lot).

I also added some decorative rivets and a mended tear on the right side. Can't have my battle goggles looking shiny-new.

Goggle pics from the Local Tech Event... these were taken with my near-IR webcam and run through Quartz Composer. Further details to come...

Happy happy

I love this picture :D
We were stationed across from Current Motor Co., represented at the event by John Harding, who gave an awesome presentation at Ignite 3 in March. I wandered over and saw the sweet "inverted" motor (ring of magnets on the outside, coils on the inside) that drives their wheels. That's their motorcycle on the left. Mmmm pretty.

Stay tuned for Rotary Ruminations (Sorta) and Robo-Vision!

Musical Cyborg Juggling Apparatus

6 1/2 hours in the AHA! Shop and a chocolate-peanut-butter sandwich brought us to this. I'd been stalled out on the method for weeks, and then the clouds suddenly broke, early on April Fool's Day.

So what is this? It is a harness that turns the action of juggling into buzzing noises, flashing LEDs, and arcing electricity. Each palm has two separate copper wires exposed, one of which is hooked up to the positive terminal of a battery, while the other connects to a motor (or bank of LEDs, or people-shocking device). When the wires are bridged by a tinfoil-covered juggling ball, the circuit is closed and the motor (people-shocker, eye-blinder, etc.) runs. Thus, the juggling becomes a method of switching things on and off... like so:

...ish.

And this is what it actually looks like... somewhat less elegant, perhaps. At the top left, we have the left glove with a conductive ball bridging its contacts; below that, a taped-up 12V battery pack (the brown/blue block); then, the box itself. Most of the apparatus is externally mounted. Magnets glued near the four central motors anchor metal bolts, which are struck by the spinning zip ties to create a variety of buzzing sounds (sample mp3!). From the bottom left emerge wires from a shocker, which discharges a decent amount of voltage (I forget how much) across the blue and white wires' stripped ends. It will arc up to about 1cm through the air, which looks pretty sweet, and also give you a pretty hefty shock. (Me holding one contact + Amanda holding the other + proximity -> lightning hands!)

Not pictured: burned-out LED bank... I am not yet wise in the science of adding resistors. But a new, more awesome version is on the way.

The box belts to my waist, and...

suede straps anchor the wires to my arms.

Prototype glove... wire contacts wrapped around a scrap anchor on the inside. Jabby.

Suede glove #1 in production!

Maille rings and thread hold the wires in place. Juggling gloves: now with 50% less pain!


Balls: socks + washers (for heft) + duct tape (for cushioning and adhesive) + tinfoil.

So, there is currently a glove for each hand, plus these:
Finger-contacts! These copper rings are a pain, both figuratively (the donning/doffing process is tedious) and literally (they have a tendency to channel voltage straight through my fingers, resulting in anguish and blisters). But they look... kinda awesome.

I brought this machine to exhibit (with AHA!) at TEDxUofM, which was pretty stupendous. My favorite presenters were John Holland, Udae Sandhu (who voiced basically my current philosophy of happiness), Jacob Mendel's "Zlatá Rybka" video, Mason Proper (!!), Matt Shlian, and Alex Wand (with his awesome marimba-bowing musics). Yesssssss.

AHA! and the Apparatus will also be making an appearance at several future DIY/tech/Maker events, including the Hands-On Museum's Tech Event (May 22), the Ann Arbor Mini Maker Faire (June 5), and hopefully the Detroit Maker Faire (July 31 - August 1). Actually, this post is part of my application for Detroit... I anticipate all three being fantastic.

Notebook: Part II (outside).

For notebook covers, I use suede that has been rescued from thrift stores in the form of torn, grimy, stained, and otherwise worn clothing. This piece of sage-green suede came from a jacket.

I am a bit of a romantic -- just a bit -- and so when I've made notebooks in the past, I drew things on the inside of the cover. It's a place that wouldn't show when the journal was finished, so there was a hidden element that made the process extra interesting. If anyone bought one, I planned to send them a picture of what was inside. This time, however, I was especially pleased with the drawing, and decided to make it the outside instead. So: ZEPPELIN! (Drawn with a lovely Staedtler Lumocolor permanent pen; I forget the size.)

The corners are cut off so that, when folded over, they will fit together and not have to be folded or overlapped (a problem with suede, since it's thick, as cover materials go).

The next item of business is gluing the cover together. I used plain chipboard for this one, though I go for heavier (but NOT corrugated) cardboard when I can get it. The pieces should be a bit larger than the pages, such that the cover will stick out further and protect the paper. I don't put any glue on the other side of the boards, mainly as a holdover from not wanting to wreck the drawing behind, but it's also not necessary and gives you more leeway.


Letting the glue dry a bit, until it gets tacky, is a good thing to do before you fold the edges over. You don't have to hold it in place as long, and it's easier to position things how you want them, though there's still flexibility.


Next, one must glue one side of the endpapers (two pieces of fabric, cut the same size as the pages) to the outside of the block of paper. Try and get the glue as even as possible, not using too much, and press well and long before the next step: gluing the other side to the inside of the cover.

I use piece of contrasting suede as a bookmark. Cut it about 1 1/2 times as long as the book, and glue it to the back cover before attaching the endpapers. Having it on the back cover, rather than the spine, makes it lay flat with the pages -- instead of forcing the paper apart.

Again, let the glue dry slightly before pressing things together. Do your best to leave the book alone while pressing it under a weight... I'm planning to make an actual press soon, with rigid boards and wingnuts, but until then I must trust myself not to lift the books off and admire the journal too much while it's drying.

Final step: Photographs!!!




There you have it: a lovely journal that you are not afraid to "waste", because you can make another in a few hours.