Dustin Wallace, whose Oriboto Robotagami I am always raving about, also makes this wicked-looking wearable bottle opener intended for beverage-slangin’ professionals. You can wear it on the top or bottom of your palm. It’s good-looking, provides plenty of leverage, and seems like it might come in handy when the guys in black cowboy hats start smashing bottles over people’s heads.
Metalworker Des Bromilow built a “life” size replica of Bender Bending Rodriguez from Futurama, complete with cigar and beard that he never wears. Better still, he documented the process in meticulous detail in a series of posts on his blog. [Thanks, Nicholas!]
If you follow CRAFT, as well, you may have seen Rachel’s post back in January about Oregon jeweler Shannon Conrad’s interlocking Lego rings. Shown above is the result of Shannon’s very first experiment with casting from Lego elements, a one-off solid silver Imperial Stormtrooper minifig she made for her 11-year-old son. It weighs 1.5 oz (44g). I know Lego fanboys who happily would trade their own teeth for one of those.
It’s not, unfortunately, actually made of wood. Details are scanty, but I suspect wrought iron. It’s the work of Florida metalsmiths Imagination in Metals. [via Design You Trust]
This discussion board is in French, but it’s still fascinating and rewarding enough to scroll through the postings to see the progress pics of this scratch-built SLR camera. Really inspiring. [Thanks, Jacek Tomasiak!] SLR From Scratch
University of Rochester Associate Processor Chunlei Guo has developed a technique that uses a femtosecond laser to blast nanoscale features into the surface of a piece of metal–pretty much any metal. These tiny features interact selectively with white light to reflect a particular color–pretty much any color. It’s also possible to achieve a near-perfect black finish and iridescence. If the process can be made economical (it’s very slow at present, requiring about half an hour to treat a dime-sized area), it could be a complete game-changer when it comes to finishing metals. Guo gives the example of a bicycle factory that could use only a single laser to make parts of any color or color scheme.
Our pal Datamancer has a new blog up. He’s hoping to keep a regular digital diary of his projects. Given all of the cool stuff he’s always working on, let’s hope he keeps it up. Above are two picks from a hobby furnace he’s building, built around the Lionel’s Lab HobbyMelter kit. (Jake von Slatt […]
