Sunday, February 8, 2009

Steampunk Robot Arm

Hello everyone! Well, it's time for another post. There comes a time in everyone's life where they realize that something's missing...and that something is usually, but not always, a giant robotic steampunk arm. I don't usually delve into the more mechanical realm of art, but I think I might start getting more into it. I'm definitely making a steampunk ipod case, so look out for that in the future. But for now, if I ever need to become a Bond villian or just reach something that's a few feet away without moving, I've got this:


The armory shell bit and the ratchet system are wood, which is bolted to the frame (chickenwire). There are brass hinges on the elbow and tiny ones on each joint in the fingers so they can move. Each finger is attached to a leathery cord that runs on the inside of the arm and connects to your real hand, so you can move the fingers and make them grab (although they aren't really done yet; I need to add a spring to every joint like I did with the knuckle part.) Here are some closeups of the hand part:




And here's the racheting system (it makes delightful clicking noises as you bend the elbow up, and it makes it so your wrist doesn't have to support the whole weight of the arm):



And (sigh) the obligatory picture to prove that I can indeed use it:


I guess the caption for this photo would be "Holy balls! How will I ever type out lame blog captions now?"

So, as soon as I obtain a) a very small ipod speaker and b) an old miniature (maybe dollhouse?) gramophone, I'll get to work on my steampunk ipod! Until then, the only wood-related project I'll be doing is the wood-cut print that I'll start designing tomorrow.

In other news, I seem to be getting a lot of visitors from a site called ponyhaven.proboards.com... I had never heard of it, and the site has no description or anything, but I assumed it was My Little Pony-related, so I tried to make an account on the board, but was rejected by a moderator! Oh, the shame! Oh, the heightened mystery! Who are you guys? I must know!

4 comments:

  1. Okay where do I sign up to get one of these cyborg attachments? Seeing this and I'm not lying, this is the cat's meow! You fight octopus, have a mechanical arm, and your soon to be working on a Steampunk Ipod? Hell is there anything you can't do?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the pony people are the insane ones, who spend hundreds on my little ponies and never leave their houses, concocting stories about the desperate, entangled sex lives and careers of her plastic horses.

    Or maybe they're not the crazy ones.
    But they probably are.

    (This is Ana, by the way)

    ReplyDelete
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