Steampunk Shotgun Part 3

Made some good progress on the shotgun over the weekend.  For the most part finished the "bottom" of the gun.  Now just need to add the barrels and some of the other "top" parts to get this one completed. 

Here is an overall pick of the shotgun so far.  Added a lot of brass bits to it.

Here is a close-up of the front part of the stock.  Yes, that is a mini-wooden barrel attached to the stock.  Rob wanted some sort of clip that would attach a line to a "grappling dart" in the gun's 3rd barrel.  I really liked the idea that the gun would have a grappling dart for getting up to an airship from the ground or for boarding actions, but I just couldn't get behind the "clip".  I ran across this little barrel at the Goodwill near my house and thought that it would be perfect to hold the line for the grappler.  The two brass pieces in front of the barrel will be the "line guides". 

Here is a close-up of the back of the stock.  I added a brass trigger guard and a leather strap with a brass clasp.  The clasp is for connecting to a belt or harness when you "use" the grappling dart.  I know in reality that the gun doesn't work (I'm not that far gone yet...), but I think it's the little details of "how would this really work" that make a project fun, and give it a level of realism. 

In the random musings category.  I saw this commercial the other day where a man proposes to his lady during a hot-air-balloon ride.  Since it's a 30 second commercial she with tears in her eyes nods "YES" (very touching, no idea what they were selling in the commercial...), so any way my mind jumps to "Well it's a good think she said yes, or that could be a very awkward 45 to 60 min trip depending on wind speed".  So that is my advice for anyone out there looking to propose, if there is even the slightest chance that he/she will say "NO" don't propose on a hot-air-balloon ride.  I have now potentially prevented an awkward social situation that may have required you to attend some sort of counseling, you can thank me latter. 

Stay tuned.  More posts on the gun to come. 

M-T-T

Steampunk Shotgun Part 2

Still plugging away at the shotgun.  Had a bit of a set back with the staining.  If there was truth in advertising the following product:

Would actually be called:

It really does not stain as well as actual wood and any wood it touches won't take stain well either, but after some grumbling and sanding I was able to get a good stain on the stock.

The next part was a bit fiddly but I wanted to fill in the open section on the bottom gun, so I cut out a piece of heavy brass to fill it in.

Here is another picture of the brass cutout and the trigger:

Here is a pic of the trigger "mechanism"  from the top.  I'm going to reinforce this to make it a bit more robust.

Well that's all for now.  Hopefully this weekend I have a few hours to work on this.  Pretty soon I'll be adding the "fun stuff" to this piece.  

 

M-T-T

 

Steampunk Shotgun Part 1

So I've been posting a lot of projects that I have completed, but I thought I would try something different and post updates of a current project as I work on it.

So this next project is a Steampunk Shotgun that my friend Rob started, but just didn't have time to finish.  So he asked me to step in and and see what I could do (did I mention that Rob makes really good beer and cider?).  So it appears that my maker skills can result in adult beverages, not too shabby...

So here is the stock for the gun.  Rob had some pieces attached to it, but I stripped it down to get a better idea of what I had to work with:

It's an old rifle stock, but it will work for this application.  There were several screw holes in the wood and a crack in the stock.  I debated how I wanted to deal with that, but finally took the plunge and sanded down the majority of the stock and filled in the excess holes and the crack with wood filler. 

I plan to use a dark walnut stain on the exposed wood.  I think it will give a nice two tone look with the grip sections that I didn't sand down. 

One of the things that has plagued me with building steampunk guns in the lack of good trigger to add to them.  My previous options have been:
        *Machine a trigger from scratch(a bit time consuming)
        * Purchase an old trigger casing from somewhere (usually have to fiddle with fit, and they can be a bit expensive, especially for something that is art piece/toy).

But in this case I found something that I think will work really well:
Behold the Brass Hinge Pin Door Stop:






What's that you say?  It doesn't look like a gun trigger? 





How about if we flip it around and take off all the plastic bits?

Starting to look more like a trigger.

Now just hand me that Dremel tool...

Here it is with the back part cut off and a notch cut in.

Here it is with a spring added.  The spring will mount against a plate I will add to the gun so that there will be tension/feedback on the trigger.  No one likes a floppy trigger.  Just sayin. 

Well that's where the project is for now.  I'll post more pics etc. as this one moves along. 

M-T-T





Steampunk Walking Stick/ Steampunk Cane

Here is one of the props I will have this year for my Steampunk Hephaestus Costume.  The head of the cane is a brass hammer head.  The bottom portion is a brass piece from an old candle holder ala Goodwill.  The body of the cane was a hardwood wooden dowel that I found in my garage.  I have no idea what the dowel was originally purchased for, but it worked pretty well in this application.  I then added some brass upholstery tacks. 

Well I can now post pics of one of my latest projects since it was a gift and has been delivered.  I've started to refer to this style as a Tesla Cane. 



The main housing began life as a sword cane that I found online.  It took quite a while to find one that was a Bear's head.

Here are some pics of the finished cane:

The EL wire was from ELLumiglow.  The plastic tube was from ePlastics. 

 

Here is a closer picture of the leather case that covers the battery pack to power the EL wire.  You do get some pretty impressive glow from just a AAA battery.  

 



 

Well that's all for now.  Gotta go work on some stuff:) 

More Goggles and Such

Super busy weekend, but I did manage to get one project finished last Friday. 
Can't post pics yet since it's a surprise.  Also making good progress on our TV room to give it a "vintage industrial" look.  I'm pretty sure vintage industrial is just decorator code for steampunk, but I totally get that it allows you to discuss the aesthetic without a 15min explanation of the genre.   

So on to some older goggles:

Here was a pair I built for me to go with my steampunk tinkers costume:

There is a small working light (total score from Harbor Freight) mounted to left ocular.  The brown derby is from Gentleman's Emporium.

Here's a pic of the costume this derby usually gets worn with:

Here's another pair that are for my wife's airship pilot costume:

She adores fleurs-de-lis.  The fleurs-de-lis on this pair were actually some silvery necklace ones from Wal-Mart.  I hand painted them bronze and added a threaded screw shaft to the back with some superglue so that they could be attached to the leather. 

I have recently changed office locations (to a new building at my work) and had a very Sheldon-esque moment last week. This Sheldon for Reference :)

So I was heating up my lunch when I noticed this sign by the microwave:

So looking to my left and right I realized
1) I was alone
2) I was using the microwave
3) I was not complying with the posted notice

This revelation was then followed by the thoughts listed below exactly in this order:
1) That signage is silly.
2) I think it should actually say DO NOT LEAVE MICROWAVE UNATTENDED WHILE IN USE.
3) On whose authority was such a notice posted?
4) Should I point out to the above authority that that the stated requirement on the sign is most likely incorrect?
5) What if it isn't incorrect and I really do need to bring a friend whenever I want to use the microwave?
6) This sign smacks of reactive instead of proactive requirements what was the inciting cause?
      6a) I'm betting popcorn. 
7) Wow I just went full-on-Sheldon there for a second.

I then snapped out of it and scurried off with my now heated lunch before anyone could accuse me of being a scoff-law.

more later...

Some Goggles

So onwards and upwards.  As we began to discuss this whole Teslacon thing I started to come up with some ideas for goggles.

Here were a couple of the first ones that I put together:

So my friend Sara likes Owls. So with this pair I was trying to to a stylized version of a great horned owl. I really need to get a better pic of these on her hat...

Geof wanted a steampunk monocle. So this is what took shape:

the round ring is part of a wall protector so your door doesn't damage the wall when you throw it open with too much panache

Here is the finished version:

Switched out the veggie tanned leather for some black leather.  Added some brass rivets and some 8 gauge brass wire for the connection to the head strap.

Here's a pic of the dashing couple with their custom eye wear.








Origin Story

So whats this all about you ask?

• Steampunk
• Gadget Making
• Random Musings

How I got started in this whole steampunk thing.  So the year was 2010 and the conversation with some good friends of mine went something like this:

Them: "We're going to Teslacon, you should come, it will be fun." 

Not knowing anything about conventions in general (which is a bit surprising considering how big of a sci-fi geek I am) or this convention specifically.

Me: "OK...what is Teslacon?"

Them: "It's a steampunk convention."

Me: "Gonna need a bit more."

Them: "It's Victorian Era dress up with science fiction...there are goggles..."

Me: "Goggles you say, well let me take a look at some on the interwebs"

Looks online, splutters at the price of brass goggles (did I mention I'm cheap), looks closer.

Me in full on incredulousness: "Why why, those are just some leather bits and plumbing parts I could make those"

Them: "Oh really you could?"  {Internal monologue: Excellent our plan is working to perfection bwahh hahh hahh".}

So that was pretty much it.  They laid the perfect trap for me it combined my abhorance for paying good money for stuff I can make myself with my basic leather working skills.  The rest as they say is history.