Plasticshades
Future so bright...
The world must seem a funny place to a Maker. 1 Everywhere you look you see stuff, wonder how it works, and think about how you could make it yourself or make it better. Owning a 3D printer has definitely encouraged2 this tendency3 in me.
More and more I wonder about how the things around me are created. And, more and more I think about how I would re-design existing things using decidedly low-tech components like gears, rack and pinions, and cranks. 4 Just as some would want to make Victorian-themed steampunk variations on every day objects, I’m increasingly interested in just how many amazing things could be designed out pure plastic.
I think it’s just a matter of time before printed clocks and difference engines are a reality. With printed clocks and calculators, what else can we make?
- Years ago Bruce Sterling edited a fantastic cyberpunk anthology. It’s a really really good collection of short stories named “Mirrorshades.” Thus, was conceived the title of this post. [↩]
- Exacerbated? [↩]
- Symptom? [↩]
- Don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely a fine art to making gears work well. [↩]
| Tagged with | babbage, clock, cyberpunk, difference engine, differnece, mirrorshades, plasticpunk, plasticshades, steampunk, Thingiverse | One comment |
One Comment so far
paul
Dunno about difference engines. The machining tolerances were pretty near the edge of what victorians could do, and 3d printers are generally nowhere near that good. On the other hand, with parts effectively free, it’s interesting to think about how you would use lousy-tolerance pieces to put together a chain of interactions that is ultimately very accurate. What techniques would you want to borrow from digital circuit design (which gets results because all you have to do is distinguish 1 from 0, not, say, 0.9 from 1.1).