We covered Flickr user yamamo2’s (and his father’s) first high-performance double pendulum build back in 2009. The first version would swing for about 10 minutes, without added energy, after being started. The latest version swings for fully twice that, as the embedded video—all twenty-two minutes of it—thoroughly demonstrates. I haven’t seen any info about the design changes required to achieve this level of performance, unfortunately.
Add a layer of physical security to your USB drive data with this beautifully designed and machined thumb drive inside a cryptex-style combination lock cylinder, from Russian Steampunk enthusiast Tarator.
Rob over at MachinistBlog.com has been in contact with Dutchman Jeroen Jonkman, who has generously agreed to make the plans for his Stirling ’60’ gamma-configuration Stirling-cycle engine freely available for download there.
A Spanish craftsman named Patelo skillfully designed and fabricated this tiny working V-12 motor from stock stainless steel, aluminum, and bronze for his grandchildren Sara, Carmen, Jose and Pablo. It took more than 1200 hours of work. Not counting the 222 screws, he machined all 261 pieces himself. The engine operates via compressed-air injection, has 12cm3 total displacement, 11.3mm cylinder heads, and a 10mm stroke on each piston.
Others have remarked about the serene beauty of a complex mechanism precisely engineered to perform a single task, that would be simple for a person, just for the purpose of delighting its operator and/or audience. Witness Air Sculpture, by Japanese automatist Kazu Harada, case in point.
British company BCB has developed what is essentially a potato cannon on steroids. Called the Wall Breaker, this pneumatically charged cannon launches water cooler bottles at 984 feet per second.
Need to break through concrete in a hostage situation? No problem. Want to rip a giant hole through a cargo van. They have you covered.
This was developed for the British military, so I’m not sure we’ll be seeing a consumer version available anytime soon. Impressive all the same.
Sculptor, kinetic artist, and longtime MAKE pal Alan Rorie is back with this beautiful “pressure door” built for a “Nautilus” art car project commissioned from San Francisco art collective Five Ton Crane. The door locks and unlocks via RFID, and the huge, four-foot diameter mechanical iris in its center is motorized. Rorie, who is a specialist in iris apertures, also built four smaller irising windows for the car’s body.
