DCA: Fabracation 4
Last night I banged out another little widget for the hemispheres. I’m still unsure how I’m going to a affix these to the copper bowls. I’m also not sure if I’ll put both of these on the same bowl or one on each.
DCA: Fabracation 3
Here are some of the small parts that I machined with the very fine help of my pal Nathanial at Radiorobot. These square parts will be used to make the alignment brackets on the underside of the tray. The round parts will be used as stoppers for the […]
DCA: Fabrication 2
Here are some shots of another day of fabricating some of the major components. First is the main vertical component of the base which is a ~20″ tapering piece of 5/16″ plate, cut to a taper and then bent about 90° of a ~24″ radius. First the taper is laid […]
DCA: Fabrication 1
A bulk of day was spent making bands. Each hemisphere has a circular band around it and the body is two perpendicular bands, one horizontal and concentric with the bowls and another vertical one for the tray. To make these bands as accurate as possible I first rolled out the […]
Draft of the brass work
The plan is to cover the top of the tray with etched brass work. Below is a sketch of the brass peices that will be cut and then etched. The holes in the brass will accommodate some of the brass rod which will drop down the tray and fill in […]
Steam Power for the DCA
My buddy Dick Venerbeck of KSW is going to be hooking me up with a small, vintage steam engine to power the DCA. Here are two snapshots he just sent me of one of the two possible candidates he’s got.
Triaparator: Fabrication Photos
These photos were taken during the final fabrication push for the Triaparator. Here you can get a good view of the blade shape and can see them before and during the patina process, which darkened them and made them look older. You can also see the action plate, which is […]
Treehouse And Triaparator Photos
Burningcam has some fantastic photos of the Steampunk Treehouse at Burning Man this year, including these great ones of my Triaparator:
DCA First mock-up
Here is the first, primitive mock-up of the DCA hemisphere. This is the real copper bowl, however, the banding and brass spiral are scrap pieces. Before I committed to this design idea I wanted to make sure it would look as good in real life as it did in the […]
Triaparator Sketches
Here are my sketch book pages from the Triaparator. This is the first sketch I ever did of the piece. You can see that most of the final elements are in the original sketch: multiple apertures, extended blades and false scales. You can also see some of the first ideas […]
notes to self
Jankey hack additions: antenna, dish, loose wires, broken switches, cooper wire attaching brass spirals to outter collars. Pipe stand — run copper tubes out the back, between them and the main band, in the space bellow the tray, use them to compose the tray. Three pipes fanning out from back, […]
First draft of the base
Here’s my first crack at the base. I’ve had a lot of ideas about how to mount the main assembly and loved none of them — including this one. This base is successful because: It’s simple, elegant and strong It supports the assembly from the back and allows it to […]
The DCA: Now, with 100% more gears!
Well the gears haven’t gotten here yet but I’ve pulled their specs from the web and whipped some up. Shown here is the nearly finished core assembly. The three gears will be aligned and stabilized by the two concentic rings that also serve as the tray for the objects. I’m […]
Yet another drawing
I’m on a bit of a role here. I’ve reduced the size of the middle band to 1″ and added the 0.5″ diameter copper rod that will provide the drive to the hemispheres. Also added are the brass spirals which will also be connected to the copper rod and spin […]
Main Body
Here is a drawing of the two matching hemispheres and the main body band. I’ve forgotten to mention that these hemispheres are about 10″ in diameter. The body band in this drawing is 2″ wide and 1/8″ thick. I think 2″ might be too wide.
Hemisphere V1.1
Another, more precise drawing of the hemisphere. The main aesthetic difference from the last drawing are the curved hub flanges.
CAD of Hemisphere for the DCA
Step one in building this is getting the basic components into the computer allowing me to play around with a few different ideas and then pull out specific measurements and patterns for cutting and bending. I’m not 100% in love with this concept and I’ll likely try a few other […]