SteamPunk projects

[Cuisto Mako]

So many ideas so little time!

Steampunk is such a fertile ground for fresh ideas, fun projects...but too often, I just procrastinate over and over again. But here's a couple example of stuff I would really like to make:

- a steampunk tin-can banjo. This one I hope I will do but I have already other intrusment waiting to be build/refirbish, a small hurdy-gurdy, a medieval gittern, a cigar box guitar...

- a steampunk melodica or small button accordeon. If I found a nice toy accordeon, I will probably buy it just in case one day I found the time for...

- a steampunk moped. You know the old european style ones with pedals. I would like to convert it to electric and make it super steampunky, but I can just imagine my wife saying: Nice, but to go where?....hum well....a...to ....a steampunk event?... (as far as I know, there is none in Quebec for now...)

Yep this one is going to be hard to sell!

How about you? Any nice projects you dream of having time to make?

[Cpt. Alva]

I'm currently working on my ray gun, I will follow that up with some modification to my goggles.

once completed, I've been inspired to try my hand at a moon helmet.

[Ransom]

I'll be looking for ideas from all the other airship pyrates that should be at Nor Cal next week.

I'd really like to have a ray gun....hmmmm, maybe I'll "borrow" Patrick's.

Seriously, I have an old silverware box with a really pretty pattern on the lid. I need to take out the utensil dividers and maybe turn it into a specimin box (lots of little glass vials full of strange plants, bugs, a field notebook, etc), or a traveling writing box. Haven't decided.

I also kinda like the whole idea of a mad scientist lab—test tubes, bunsun burners, arcane chemicals, one of those electricity globes—but haven't a clue where I could set one up.

[Red-Handed Jill]

I've been trying to find antique plumbing parts to make a ray gun - my search continues...

[Cpt. Alva]

Jill, take a stroll through the plumbing dept. at your local hardware store...

[Guest]

Well...... there's the keyboard mod that I've been collecting parts for....

And I have this old lady's hard sided make-up case that I want to turn into a Steamy radio....

But the biggest project I want to work on is acquiring a motorcycle, and steaming the snot outta it...... I have a buncha ideas of kinda what I wanna do, now it's just getting the motorcycle.... (well and learning how to weld....) And then finding , and modifying everything.....

[Red-Handed Jill]

Jill, take a stroll through the plumbing dept. at your local hardware store...

Heh - I'm in one hardware store or another at least once or twice a week. But the parts I'm looking for aren't being made anymore. I've got a sketch of what I want and a pretty good idea of all the parts I'd need but I've got to find 'em or reasonable facsimiles.

Patt - I have a few things you may find useful for your motorcycle project. My memory isn't what it used to be but if you could remind me a day or so before NorCal...

[Cpt. Alva]

which parts are you referring?, I'm sure with just a little digging, you can find that most plumbing items actually ARE still being made.

[Red-Handed Jill]

One of the things that I like about antiques is that oftentimes they would make some of the most mundane things look like works of art, even plumbing implementia. That's essentially why I'm looking for the antiques - they might make similar things now but they wouldn't quite look the way I want.

[Cpt. Alva]

I'm sure someone, somewhere still makes it the way you'd want.

that's the point I'm trying to make.

the old saying "They don't make it like they used to" doesn't always ring true, sometimes they do, you just gotta know where to look.

[Guest]

Nah... I kinda know what Jill is saying..... there is or was a "certain" look to some older stuff....

When you're moding something... you want a part..... that is ...just so....

Sometime a modern part can be made to work.... but sometimes the older stuff has the right look and feel.....

Oh Oh Oh.... I may be getting a basket case motorcycle.... No front forks/front of the bike... an unknown Yamaha... also with no paper work.... but the price should be right....free.....

[Red-Handed Jill]

Exactly, Patt. Reproductions don't quite have the right look, patina or details, oftentimes.

And yay for your "new" bike! I've got some industrial-sized, old nuts and bolts I've been keeping for a project but I'll bet you can find a better use for them. The bolts have a domed rather than hexagonal top. They are about six inches long and an inch in diameter, with 1-1/2 inch or so tops and nuts.

[Red-Handed Jill]

Picked up a couple of parts this weekend - the stuff I knew I could get at a local hardware store. I found a copper toilet float which will be on the back part of the gun. Then I bought other stuff to use as a trigger and other parts. The middle and front sections, as well as a "steam gauge" with the look I want I don't think I'll find outside of antique stores but Jack's carving the handle for me and I can use two or three feet of slim copper tubing (also found at local hardware stores.) The gun should end up being about 15-18" long.

One of these days I'll do a larger plan of my ray gun - the current one is on a Post-It, crammed full of tiny notes.

[Red-Handed Jill]

Ooooh - now this is cool. A man converted a school bus into a Victorian summer cottage on wheels.

School bus conversion