Tag Archives: wooden

Handcrafted Uselessness

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Elwood98, a completely self-taught woodworker in Germany built this super-awesome case to house one of our Useless Parts Kits.

And I really liked this comment that was left at LumberJocks:

Useless? Are you kidding me? First of all, it turns itself off. Second, it turns itself off. Third, it turns itself off. Fourth, it turns itself off. I wouldn’t get bored with that for a while.

– Kayvon

More photos of his machine are here:  http://lumberjocks.com/projects/62810 & Elwood98 also posted a video of the Machine:

One person did mention the expensive $12 shipping.  Yes the shipping is a little pricey but that includes tracking and delivery confirmation (USA and Canada only).  I can send these out for around $9.00 but that would be slower and would have no tracking or confirmation.

We are offering 2 or more kits for no additional shipping, and you will also get a discount on 3 or more.

We’ll be sending Elwood98 a free Parts Kit as our way of saying thanks for the great post.

-Via Google Alerts

 

Useless Woody

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Maple and padauk Useless Machine

 

ChuckC put his woodworking skills to no good use when he scratch built his own Useless Machine.

As you can see in the photo, the case was made from a single solid piece of wood (maple I believe).

Note only did he craft a sweet case, he also built the electronics from scratch too, modding a servo and wiring it up like the original Useless Machine.

Even though we are selling kits and fully soldered machines, I still want to encourage people to scratch build the machine.  This was how the whole thing started out, a open-source, DIY project that is fun, educational, and entertaining.

If you have trouble sourcing the parts listed in the instructions, then consider purchasing an Electronics Parts Kit from us.  It has all the electronic parts you need to build the Useless Machine.

More photos and video click below…

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Sisyphus in Hiding by Dave Johnson

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Dave Johnson built this mysterious box, as shown in the YouTube video above.  From the video’s description:

Here’s our old pal Sisyphus again, this time trying to avoid his responsibilities by hiding in a box.
My core inspirations were these:
1) Claude Shannon’s Ultimate Machine.
2) The availability of a nice old microscope box.
3) The astonishing human capacity for denial.

This is an entirely mechanical machine, driven by gravity.  I really like the articulated head, it swivels to the side giving you a look that says:  “Close de door, it’s cold out there!”

Photos can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dogrocke…

From The Automata/Automaton Blog via Google Alerts