Just glue some gears on it and call it steampunk!

[daqq]

This amusing song sums up the steampunk trend these days:



Done properly, steampunk styled stuff is great to look at, otherwise it's facepalm worthy. Glueing on gears and spraying keyboards to brass colored does not make stuff steampunk!

[setq]

Upcycling is another one of those 'turd words' as I call them. I saw an old moving coil meter from the 1940s turned into a light the other day, on eBay, for £200 because upcycled!

[rollatorwieltje]

Upcycling is another one of those 'turd words' as I call them. I saw an old moving coil meter from the 1940s turned into a light the other day, on eBay, for £200 because upcycled!

Same shit happens with watch movements. They often end up in bulk on eBay for cheap, usually from old watchmakers that closed their business. Of course someone comes along, solders a pin on them and sells them on Etsy as "steampunk cufflinks". That's fine if you do it with a generic cheap movement that isn't worth fixing, but I regularly see high end movements abused for this.

[daqq]

At least now I know what steampunk is. Thanks for that.

As with all styles, steampunk done properly is quite different from steampunk wannabes. You can do steampunk with class, such as these:

http://www.datamancer.net/keyboards/keyboards.htm

or you can go full "glue generic item together and call it steampunk such as these:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/126417388/cyber-amulet-pc-board-steampunk-nerd?ref=market

[rdl]

Wow - those Datamancer keyboards are fantastic.

[Zero999]

Upcycling is another one of those 'turd words' as I call them. I saw an old moving coil meter from the 1940s turned into a light the other day, on eBay, for £200 because upcycled!

Same shit happens with watch movements. They often end up in bulk on eBay for cheap, usually from old watchmakers that closed their business. Of course someone comes along, solders a pin on them and sells them on Etsy as "steampunk cufflinks". That's fine if you do it with a generic cheap movement that isn't worth fixing, but I regularly see high end movements abused for this.

If you see a high end watch movement on ebay abused like that, message the seller, telling them what you would have paid it hadn't been messed up.

[Ampera]

Doesn't matter if it's stupid, it just needs to sell well.

[rrinker]

 OH wow, I happen to have an ancient manual typewriter with keys like that. I'd kind of like to restore the typewriter, but to use those keys on a PC keyboard... It's not a particularly rare or valuable typewriter, if it were, I wouldn't even consider cutting it up to make a computer keyboard.

 Now what might be weirdly retro yet modern - flexible e-ink 'paper' rolled into the thing as the pc's display and the keyboard for input.

[daqq]

OH wow, I happen to have an ancient manual typewriter with keys like that. I'd kind of like to restore the typewriter, but to use those keys on a PC keyboard... It's not a particularly rare or valuable typewriter, if it were, I wouldn't even consider cutting it up to make a computer keyboard.

It's much trickier than it looks! Getting the key plates is the least of your worries, trust me.

If you see a high end watch movement on ebay abused like that, message the seller, telling them what you would have paid it hadn't been messed up.

Junk sellers and recyclers rarely know what they have. I once talked to a guy who recycled a whole large box of new Radiall BNC connectors from surplus, seeing the gold pin in the middle. I sent him a link to the farnell page of the closest product and he had kittens.

[rrinker]

 Oh, I wouldn't expect it to be an easy job by any means. I probably would have at least gotten partway done had I thought it would be an easy job. But anything worth doing...  I'm thinking retain the whole shell of the actual machine, rather than transplant the operating bits onto a more typical looking PC keyboard chassis. Yes, totally impractical, and still a ton of mechanical work to keep the key action but correctly operate sensors to drive a keyboard input. And there are just a FEW keys missing - this typewriter for example does not have a 0 key. Hmm, do an actually carriage return for the Enter key? Yes, highly impractical. Probably been done already, too. In my vast lists of things I would like to build, this one isn't even buried under the junk at the bottom of the heap.

[daqq]

Try looking here:

http://www.usbtypewriter.com/products/easy-conversion-kit#gs.f_AODow

[Farley]

There's quite a few nice looking audio amplifier builds here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=steampunk+amplifiers&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjP3qK0-ZHPAhVlxoMKHSKKCgAQ_AUICSgC&biw=1387&bih=1019

[setq]

They're not really steampunk though according to that which I agree with. These guys are:



(1897)

[Cyberdragon]

In my book, Anything old you attach to something that is capable of functioning must function. Only when it is already broken can it be used for decoration. Fake stuff that is not used for cosplay is not allowed in my book.

I really want an arc streetlight to hang over my bench as a worklight.

[lapm]

Nice video... And no, i dont know squat about steampunk...