Thinktank construction

Interjector powered up

It had to be a backpack of some description; while I have a great love for large and bulky devices they do tend to make it tricky spending the day without both hands free.  So I headed to Bunnings and picked up a backpack sprayer that was of a decent size.  The backpack was nice and big, plus it had two screw-off tops that let me access the inside the device to install ‘bits’.  The backpack was painted copper as I pondered how to extend it.  And to determine exactly what the device was supposed to be, the last one was modular thanks to the window of replacable body parts, this one didn’t have a window.

It did have a built in pipe sticking out of the top with a screw-end; it fit some standard copper piping so a regulator valve was attached.  Bonus, one of the Girl Genius(tm) test tubes fit in the end – so that was filled with one of my UV reactive cable stores and a UV LED.  The other end had a tiny hole that a UV LED’s legs would stick through – Baron von Borg helped me attach a lamp bowl filled with more cabling and two tiny brains. So, obviously the device would think.  It was a tank.  Viva – the Professor von Explaino ‘Think tank’.  The two external brains are obviously for thinking outside the box.

A long time ago I impulse-bought a light from the Bunnings lighting section that required a 240V transformer; checking the box showed that it could be powered (for a short time) from a simple 9V battery.  That, plus a brass antique-style light switch, and I had the power indicator.

The sensor-array from the Clue-o-meter was detached, extended with more cabling, then attached to the top of the device for input acquisition – to make it hands free a hook was added to the side and a leather thong to the sensor array.  Voila, the Think tank was made.

On impulse, while digging through my parts box, I pulled out a hypno-disk style top that I got from a Horrible Science pack ages ago.  The Baron and I were both struck with the same idea at the same time; an emergency trip to Bunnings and the acquisition of a cheap cordless screwdriver and I had a hypno-ray.  Two devices for the con was perfect – Baron von Borg and Professor von Explaino got second place in the Group Cosplay contest on the Saturday.  A bit of a vote of approval there.

The interjector component

Brains outside the box

Bright ideas

Assembled hypno ray

The Think Tank and Hypno Ray, in repose

Think tank and hypno-ray employed

• Brass or copper back-pack.
• Build in some of the random odds and ends I have in my Parts cabinet to turn the backpack into the power-supply for the device.
• Remove the plunger-scope from the thing-o-meter and attach it to the device
• Incorporate a bandolier-like structure with a clip for the plunger-scope
• Put more lights into the plunger-attachment with a switch of some sort, somewhere
• I really want to have a centripetal regulator somewhere.  Just because they’re cool.

I’m not attaching a sketch because I’m frankly embarrassed by the quality of sketches I’ve put together; they’ll stay private for now.  Until then, does anyone else have any favoured aspects of steampunkular science that I should take care not to neglect in this construction?

One of the key aspects of the Professor persona is devices, von Explaino is always inventing and concocting so he must have  held or otherwise carried equipment of an aetheric and esoteric nature.  The first device I created, with the great assistance of Baron von Borg and Del von Gadgetus, initially for the “Brisbane Romp” charity event and then updated to be taken to a Valentine’s Day nightclub with a Steampunk theme.  This was the Thing-o-meter, so named because while the general device would remain the same, its specific purpose would change to become a detector of Something depending on contents..

Goal: A weird device.  A ‘detector’ scope of some description, so it needed a collector end and a reporting end.

Components:

• Glass fronted display box from Bunnings (hardware store)
• Dark mahogany wood stain from Bunnings
• Brass photo frame/ box corners from Bunnings
• Brown cloth covered electrical cabling, attached to brass-looking light fittings from Reverse Garbage (recycling shop)
• Carpet sample from friends
• Brass hinges from Bunnings
• Wooden chair leg from Bunnings
• Plunger cup from Bunnings
• Tuning fork from eBay
• Pin and miscellaneous bits from friends
• Metres of glow-in-the-dark cable from a birthday gift
• UV Fluorescent tube from JayCar (+battery)
• Electrical switch from JayCar
• Small brain for the Clue-o-meter from a novelty store
• Small heart for the Love-o-meter from a kids science magazine

First all the wood was stained, twice.  Gave the box a rich quality, unfortunately I used a walnut matte stain on the leg so it was less impressive.  The plunger was taken apart, it was a screw-ended model, leaving me with the plunger cup that would fit snug over the end of the chair leg.  The back of the box, which comes off to put things in, had the carpet sample glued onto it to provide a thematic backing for the visual display unit of the device.  Once the wood was dry, the light fitting was dissected and the small end attached to the leg with glue, and the large end was screwed onto the box back via hinges.  This meant we could hide all the circuitry and battery for the fluorescent tube in there, so the on-off switch is sticking out of a hole in the light fixture.  The UV tube was secured over the carpet end so that when it was shut it would be in the middle – giving the most light coverage. Baron kindly drilled a hole through the plunger cup and into the wooden leg so that the tuning fork could be jammed in there to keep the whole thing joined.

The ‘Thing’ in thing-o-meter is whatever’s front and centre in the view-port when the device is in use, thus determining its name – the Brain powers the Clue-o-meter, and a Heart powers the Love-o-meter.  The brain had a mounting block made for it by a pin and left over parts; the heart was just stuck loosely to the glass by its own sticky nature.  The rest of the box is then filled with the tangle of glow-in-the-dark cabling when the UV light is activated the box becomes filled with eerily glowing cables.

Professor and the Clue-o-meter (business end)

Love-o-meter in action