technabob » copper

are you looking at my flaming headgear, stan?

technabob — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:57:33 +0000

I’m pretty sure if you strapped one of these insane looking flaming helmets to you head, you’d draw just the slightest bit of attention – from the fire marshall, at least.

The crazy Flaming Thor helmet was created by Joey Andolina (aka “Andomation” aka “megaplow”), and he’s apparently been known to show up at Burning Man donning one of these himself. In addition to the Thor Helmet, Andolina has created other variants, such as this Kevlar police riot helmet.

Each helmet is adorned with a pair for copper flame tubes and attached to a control valve you can hook up to a propane tank. While you can start out with a small flame, you can crank up the valve to put out a flame up to 3 feet into the air. Now that doesn’t sound too dangerous, does it?

According to the description “(the flaming helmet) …is an amazing way to get noticed, light your surroundings and catch yourself of fire. I can not suggest you wear it, I recommend you never wear it, as it’s dangerous!”

Well, sign me up. If you too are ready to set your cranium on fire, head on over to the Andomation Etsy shop now and light up!

catena wall clock tells time with bike chain

technabob — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:03:49 +0000

Here’s an unusual concept for a wall clock. Instead of telling the time with hands or a digital display, the Catena clock tells time along the perimeter of a bicycle chain.

Designed by Andreas Dober for Germany’s Anthologie Quartett, the Catena (Latin for “chain”) has a certain retro-steampunk look about it. Time is told using copper digits mounted on the outside of a bike chain that rotates around a single motorized gear. Now don’t bother trying to tell the exact time with this. The only numbers on the chain are the hours, so any attempt to figure out minutes is a crap-shoot.

While I dig the grungy minimalism of the clock, I don’t dig the $2300+ (USD) price tag. But I suppose if you’ve got really deep pockets, you can order one over at Unica Home.

On the other hand, I won’t tell anyone if you decide to make your own out of $20 worth of junk you find at a flea market.

[via Incredible Things]

statue of liberty usb drive welcomes immigrant memories

technabob — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:25:35 +0000

America – land of the free, home of the brave, and a place where memories are made – and stored in digital files with names like DSCN00043.JPG. Whether you think this Statue of Liberty USB flash drive is a tacky souvenir or not, it definitely is one of the more unusual USB drives I’ve seen in a while.

Other than the color of the base stone, I’d say these 4.3-inch tall Lady Liberty drives from Super Talent are pretty accurate 1:421 scale replicas of the real thing – other than the fact that they get their bluish-green hue from dyed rubber instead of weathered copper verdigris. I suppose it would have been pretty hard to make a copper USB drive with a little tiny staircase and people inside. But I bet it could be done. Then you’d have to leave it out in the elements for 200 years to get that perfect patina.

The drives are available in 4GB ($14 USD), 8GB ($19.50) and 16GB ($34.45) versions over at Amazon. As an added bonus, you’ don’t have to take a boat ride and then wait in line for 3 hours to see what’s inside this version.

steampunk usb memory: flash, ah ah.

technabob — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:40:28 +0000

This intricate retro sci-fi USB memory drive comes to us courtesy of an enterprising modder over in Russia.

Meticulously crafted from hand-polished brass and copper, the USB drive reminds me of something out of the art deco neo-future of Buck Rogers – or perhaps more apropos – Flash Gordon.

This thing is just plain gorgeous. How could you possibly go back to one of those cheap plastic flash drive after looking at this masterwork?

If you don’t mind reading a little Russian, you can see how it was done by checking out the full work log over on the Modding.ru forums.

[via TopMods]