Thursday, July 3, 2014

Steampunk Lamp

Hey Guys!

Long time no real completed projects, so I figured give you the low down. Last month I had some pretty major jaw surgery, and while I was healthy enough to do some casual bike repair, I didn't have the patience for a full project. However, I now have the wonderful opportunity to help out my school in a management role for the new Idea Forge.

The Idea Forge, which has taken on a "Steampunk" theme, is a new project design and construction laboratory in the Fleming Law building. A group of 20-25 students, myself included, are designing worktables, whiteboards, and other furniture to be used in the construction and design rooms of the Idea Forge.

Before I had arrived, the group of students had to design these pieces of furniture from scratch, model them in SolidWorks, and test their designs before putting them into production. Upon arrival, I started working with the design table work crew. The tables were already roughly constructed, but not fully completed.

Today, I had the pleasure of working with Jeff Carlson on a steampunky lamp project that would help illuminate the design tables. In the end, we designed a lamp that utilized an Edison bulb and galvanized steel. What was really novel though was the repurposed valve connected to a dimmer switch inside of a 2" diameter pipe. The end result was quite satisfying.

-John "This job isn't really a job" Dunn