I need something clever (and short) to write on the spacebar...
So, I have a project.
Yes, another one.
I have finally completely embraced the side of me that began with the first glimpse of the Goggle Girl at a Nocture night about, oh, 4 years ago. The side that built on my apparent destiny to be a mechanic. The side of me that loves to play with tools. The side that loves to paint and design and stretch the limits of my creativity.
Now that I've built this up far too much, I'm basically just modding my keyboard.
Inspired by the massive influx of steampunk into my recent life, I've taken apart my old Dell keyboard and spent the better part of the night with a hot-knife tool (essentially a heated x-acto knife; made for foamcore but works wonders on low-quality plastic such as what Dell uses) cutting out the bases of the keys and cutting the caps off the posts. I'm still not done with the cutting, but after a while my hands were starting to resemble a chimney-sweep's, and I hadn't even broken out the paint yet.
Tools/supplies used so far:
-One ancient Dell keyboard from my college freshman year;
-Philip-head screwdriver for disassembling the keyboard bits from the plastic casing;
-flat-head screwdriver for popping the keycaps off;
-hot-knife for melting plastic into submission;
-one 11"x17" (or thereabouts) sheet of 3mm-thick plywood onto which the keyboard layout & design concept were sketched;
-one slightly busted mechanical pencil to actually draw with;
-set of pliers (for twisiting stubborn bits of plastic, re-tightening the knife blade, and scraping melted plastic off the knife blade);
-one hour-hand from a clock to, well, mark where it's going to go; and
-the entire discography of Blackmore's Night.
Tools/supplies projected for use:
-small battery-powered clock, to set in the new casing;
-another piece of the aforementioned plywood, because a keyboard doesn't just have one side;
-wood stain/finish;
-100+ small wooden "buttons";
-black paint;
-gold paint;
-white paint (I think... for the clock face. Still not sure of the final design for that);
-paintbrushes of varying uses and widths;
-lots of glue;
-some kind of saw thing because x-acto knives, even hot ones, don't so much cut wood as they cut Cassies and burn carpets;
-sandpaper;
-cardstock (because I have a rounded part in the design that I cannot bend wood to, so I'm going to fake it as it won't likely be seen);
-something to beat sense into myself with when this is over, because silly me is going to try NaNoWriMo again this year, and I'd better have a working keyboard, dammit!
I'm taking pics as I go along. I'll post them all when I'm done.
Yes, another one.
I have finally completely embraced the side of me that began with the first glimpse of the Goggle Girl at a Nocture night about, oh, 4 years ago. The side that built on my apparent destiny to be a mechanic. The side of me that loves to play with tools. The side that loves to paint and design and stretch the limits of my creativity.
Now that I've built this up far too much, I'm basically just modding my keyboard.
Inspired by the massive influx of steampunk into my recent life, I've taken apart my old Dell keyboard and spent the better part of the night with a hot-knife tool (essentially a heated x-acto knife; made for foamcore but works wonders on low-quality plastic such as what Dell uses) cutting out the bases of the keys and cutting the caps off the posts. I'm still not done with the cutting, but after a while my hands were starting to resemble a chimney-sweep's, and I hadn't even broken out the paint yet.
Tools/supplies used so far:
-One ancient Dell keyboard from my college freshman year;
-Philip-head screwdriver for disassembling the keyboard bits from the plastic casing;
-flat-head screwdriver for popping the keycaps off;
-hot-knife for melting plastic into submission;
-one 11"x17" (or thereabouts) sheet of 3mm-thick plywood onto which the keyboard layout & design concept were sketched;
-one slightly busted mechanical pencil to actually draw with;
-set of pliers (for twisiting stubborn bits of plastic, re-tightening the knife blade, and scraping melted plastic off the knife blade);
-one hour-hand from a clock to, well, mark where it's going to go; and
-the entire discography of Blackmore's Night.
Tools/supplies projected for use:
-small battery-powered clock, to set in the new casing;
-another piece of the aforementioned plywood, because a keyboard doesn't just have one side;
-wood stain/finish;
-100+ small wooden "buttons";
-black paint;
-gold paint;
-white paint (I think... for the clock face. Still not sure of the final design for that);
-paintbrushes of varying uses and widths;
-lots of glue;
-some kind of saw thing because x-acto knives, even hot ones, don't so much cut wood as they cut Cassies and burn carpets;
-sandpaper;
-cardstock (because I have a rounded part in the design that I cannot bend wood to, so I'm going to fake it as it won't likely be seen);
-something to beat sense into myself with when this is over, because silly me is going to try NaNoWriMo again this year, and I'd better have a working keyboard, dammit!
I'm taking pics as I go along. I'll post them all when I'm done.