Madness? This! Is! Steampunk!
One of the things I like most about Steampunk is the clothes. But I haven't got much to wear, and what I do have doesn't have a very high mad science quotient. Well now I've done something about that.
While trackballs are very comfortable, I do find my hand gets a little sweaty using them. Your hand doesn't move around much and it gets a bit warm, and generally isn't nice after a few hours surfing, photomanipulation or gaming.
Therefore a solution needs to be created.
About a year ago I lost a glove on the tube, and so I have a rather lonely glove. I also have some copper olives, so I cut the fingers off, and glued the olives on, and rigged together a 60mm fan, fan guard, battery holder and a switch. Paint it gold, screw the fan to the glove, connect everything together and thread it through some heatshrink tubing and the electronics are set.
Now all I have to do is attach the parts. The battery holder is sewn to a plain black cuff, and the switch to the glove next to the fan. Lots of insulating tape makes sure everything stays in position and the wires don't break. I've added a bit more decoration, some sections of brass tubing on the fingers, joined together with black insulating tape.
A test to make sure it works...
Using it is actually surprisingly comfortable, though typing is a little awkward. I'm not sure one could touch-type in it. I've also modified the trackball to go with it, though I haven't done too much to it.
It started out as a Logitech Cordless Trackman Wheel. A rather nice radio controlled optical trackball. Ages ago I decided to give it a bit of a clean as it was looking rather grimy. Unfortunately this started to take off the paint, so I sprayed it black, and its looked OK, but no longer matches the rest of the computer kit.
I resprayed the whole thing gold and stuck on some brown leatherette, and just wasn't satisfied. So I replaced most of the brown leatherette with the green, which I think is much nicer, and wash over the gold paint with some metallic black enamel, which as long as I don't mix it too well gives a really nice dark wash and an "antique brass" effect. Leaving the buttons plain gold looks nice.
I'd like to do something with the ball (maybe some sort of black crystal?) But I don't know what it can be replaced with- being an optical unit I don't think any old ball will do. Those dots are probably there for a reason. The dull grey scroll wheel looks a little out of place, but anything I do to that will have to be really hard wearing- paint would look good, but rub off in no time.
While trackballs are very comfortable, I do find my hand gets a little sweaty using them. Your hand doesn't move around much and it gets a bit warm, and generally isn't nice after a few hours surfing, photomanipulation or gaming.
Therefore a solution needs to be created.
About a year ago I lost a glove on the tube, and so I have a rather lonely glove. I also have some copper olives, so I cut the fingers off, and glued the olives on, and rigged together a 60mm fan, fan guard, battery holder and a switch. Paint it gold, screw the fan to the glove, connect everything together and thread it through some heatshrink tubing and the electronics are set.
Now all I have to do is attach the parts. The battery holder is sewn to a plain black cuff, and the switch to the glove next to the fan. Lots of insulating tape makes sure everything stays in position and the wires don't break. I've added a bit more decoration, some sections of brass tubing on the fingers, joined together with black insulating tape.
A test to make sure it works...
Click to viewUsing it is actually surprisingly comfortable, though typing is a little awkward. I'm not sure one could touch-type in it. I've also modified the trackball to go with it, though I haven't done too much to it.
It started out as a Logitech Cordless Trackman Wheel. A rather nice radio controlled optical trackball. Ages ago I decided to give it a bit of a clean as it was looking rather grimy. Unfortunately this started to take off the paint, so I sprayed it black, and its looked OK, but no longer matches the rest of the computer kit.
I resprayed the whole thing gold and stuck on some brown leatherette, and just wasn't satisfied. So I replaced most of the brown leatherette with the green, which I think is much nicer, and wash over the gold paint with some metallic black enamel, which as long as I don't mix it too well gives a really nice dark wash and an "antique brass" effect. Leaving the buttons plain gold looks nice.
I'd like to do something with the ball (maybe some sort of black crystal?) But I don't know what it can be replaced with- being an optical unit I don't think any old ball will do. Those dots are probably there for a reason. The dull grey scroll wheel looks a little out of place, but anything I do to that will have to be really hard wearing- paint would look good, but rub off in no time.