Well, seeing that whaleback ship is another reason to go back home to Wisconsin.

The one I saw was the John Ericsson *EDIT* Corrected the name - she was the John Ericsson, not the Ericson.* I don't want to find out what happened to her - if I discovered that she had been sent to the breaker's yard as scrap, it would near break my heart.

She did not have the heavy superstructure of the one you have pictured, just a railed gangway along her length. She also had a much smaller tower - one that looked like it might have belonged on a much smaller vessel. At the time she looked like she had not been all that well maintained, a bad thing for a salt water ship.

*EDIT* Dammit, I accidentally found out what happened to her. She was scrapped in Ontario in 1969, the year after I saw her. She was on a tour to drum up funds to make her into a museum. Politics scuttled the attempt.



The Auld Grump

IIRC from my tour, the larger superstructure was a late addition to the Comet. I would've really loved to see the sleeker, unremodeled Ericsson in the water. Too bad it was scrapped just before I was born. Anyway, thanks for the info/digression!

Here is my dream, we'll see if I can pull it off.

Some sort of flickering lightning system, and a speaker system for the psudo electic sounds like from the old Frankenstein movies.

Also a working trigger to turn it on and off.

So far the only thing I figured out is the trigger.

I will run 2 wires between the inner and outer center housing. I will sodder the ends to brass plates I will attach to the top of the housing. On the top of the cartdridge I will add two brass plates to meet the ones on the housing, so the cartdridge will remain removable. The trigger itself I am going to build out of greenstuff arround a simple spring based connection switch.

--Chris

That sounds promising

I see your project, and raise you one:

I am also working on (conceptually, since I have not purchased the set yet), a version with the following:

- a working trigger
- a lit and rotating drum
- a laser

Ideally, there would be a hidden switch to turn the entire unit on, which would set the drum to random flickering. When The trigger is pulled, the drum would rotate one segment (determined by its transparent sections), light up more intensely (or rapidly, or both), and produce a laser projection out of the barrel. It's not going to blow anyone away, but should be able to melt plastic, light matches, and such...the trick is to get it portable, as I can do it plugged into a wall.

Perhaps we should have a gun build/mod contest!

Sounds like fun until someone ends up blinded.

Ok I got the trigger mechinism working after about $11 at Lowes.

Here is the parts:
White and Black wire (stupid electrical engineering classes)
Grounding Clips
An allagator clip.

My major problem was gtting some sort of spring mounting system to draw the trigger back, the electrical alagator clips will work wonderfully for this. I they have a wire connector on the bottom that provides a good base for the green stuff trigger. The grounding clips can be clipped around the foamcore and get a good tight clip and have an attachment point for the wires. So the trigger will be an allagator clip that when opened will touch the grounding clip on the other side to complete the circuit.

Now I have the proof of concept I will take some pictures when I start building.

Now to find the components for the inside.

--Chris

Edit: for formatting

Hope it doesn't heat too much...paper + heat I belive is not a great combination !

But I'm waiting to see what you're able to do... I hope to be able to build it in normal way... and ... I don't know if you have seen it but one of the writters that made me begin to read fantasy and play rpg as passed by and say hello to us all !



P.S.: it sounds right "passed by" ?...to say that came and say hello ! I don't know why it seems a bit of an odd way to say it

I was up at Biglots today looking for some toy I could pull apart to customize my generator. The one gun they had had dead batteries so I couldn't try it and see if it would do.

I bought a mini string of led lights to at least light my generator. But once again they are too bright and the light bleed through the cardstock sides too. THats the 4rth light I've tried with the same problem. I think I might need to line the inside of the generator with a cereal box cardboard or something.

But while I was there I found a magisterium carriage toy from the golden compass toy. It should make a real nice vehicle if WW ever does a steampunk set.

Try aluminum foil: It's opaque and will bounce some of the light, typically giving a better lighting effect.

Steve

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye!

Seriously, though, they can become blind in so many other ways (staring at the sun, an arc welder, or a laser pointer, for example), that I am not really concerned about my project.

People have control over idiotic things like staring at the sun, looking directly at arc welders, and stuff like that. They DON'T have control over people who carelessly wave laser pointers around, especially the kind that pop balloons and light matches. It seems like practically every time I see somebody with a laser pointer, it's like having the thing in hand suddenly reduces their IQ by 60 points.

If I sound like I'm overreacting, it's because I'm deaf and my eyes are pretty much all I got. I don't have ears to fall back on. What am I gonna do, develop super smell-o-vision? Yeah, that's gonna be super useful in my line of work.

If I lose my eyesight, I lose my ability to do anything productive, and I'd become a serious burden on my family. The thought of that happening because somebody doesn't see the potential consequences of being irresponsible with those things is, to say the least, grating.

The project does sound cool, it's just the overly cavalier attitude you seem to be conveying with that statement that got my goat. As with anything that can put out eyes, whether it's a BB gun, a paintball marker, a titanium spork, or a laser pointer, an assumption of responsibility on the part of the user is part of the package deal.

-Mel

I used to fix laser printers. The lasers you could pull out of those things were amazing - real "ray-beam to infinity and beyond" effects.

Trouble is, they aren't kidding when they say they can blind people. The reason why they look so great is they pack an enormous amount of power into a tiny beam - easily enough to fry a permanent track across someone's retina.

People always want to point toy guns at each other. Fitting a Lightning Gun with a blinding laser would be like leaving a pistol loaded with rubber bullets lying around - sooner or later someone is going to get hurt, possibly badly. And laser blindness is forever (we are 20+ years away from a technology that can repair that sort of damage). It just isn't worth gambling with other people's eyesight.

There are eyeball safe lasers. If you are going to fit a laser into a Lightning Gun, make sure you use one of those.

Yeah lasers are a concern for me too. I never underestimate other peoples ability to do something stupid that would effect me.

Now how much concern should I give to those laser pointers they have at dollar stores? They would be the only ones cheap enough for me to ever use for anything. And they are the ones that most kids usually get.

This project screams out for LED's. I mean they're damn bright and cheaper than dirt.

Can't wait to see what everyone has cookin though!

I am surprised no one else said hi too

Too busy drooling over the gun or something I guess

It' like...
"Look over the window a boy/girl naked in the street..."
"Dont' bother me and pass me the cutter please"...

Well I supose is due what you say the fascination for the new toy... but I didn't want to be the one to give the wellcome as I'm not the most coherent person writtin in english..but will say:

Thanks to pass by here and hope to see more of your work with Denny soon !

Hey, a smile and a wave is universal. Unless you're dealing with apes -- showing your teeth to a gorilla can get you killed.

Wait...

You could get a tattoo of the WWG logo on your face! Then if you see anyone like that again, you can just point to your face and give him/her a thumbs-up!

Ok ! I'll then smile an wave the next time he appears in the forum -my colleages at work won't get upset by that behaviour and as they are not gorilas - small and cute monkeys some of them - I've no peril of being killed, only to be trown a banana )

Wow - I totally missed that post..... Tracy I have to have a fan-boy moment here - Loved DeathGate Cycle, DarkSword Trilogy (plus one & the rpg) and the Rose of the Prophet. Your other works are great too but those three really stand out for me.


Nice to see you have teamed up with Denny - a great choice indeed. I really look forward to the next round of projects in this line.

Lord Abaddon of Wormwood


P.S. - Kick Denny into gear about a Dice tower in this settling, the whole steampunk/Victorian Sci-Fi vibe is so ripe for it.

I appreciate your thinking the project sounds cool; I consider it a personal challenge as I have limited electronics experience but I have always been a tinkerer.

Perhaps my attitudes seem this way because I put a lot into personal responsibility, and the initial comment I responded to seemed out of place to me. If I create it for myself, I know that I would never point it at a person, especially at their eyes. If I tell people not to touch it, I expect them to listen to me. I would treat it the same way I treat a firearm: never point it at anyone, keep it facing the ground with the safety on when not using it; store it unloaded/locked in a safe, and so on.

Also, just like with a firearm, I would explain the safety issues to those who wish to try it out, and if they even hinted that they would not treat it with respect, since it is only paper, I would go as far as to destroy it taking it from them rather then have them cause harm with it.

So, I don't mean to cause havoc, I just expect that since we are discussing project builds, we stick to that discussion. What we do with our completed project in the real world is ultimately at each of our own discretion.

That's great joydyhee - thanks for posting that and making it clear how responsible you are about this.

Please excuse the strength of reaction you got. I guess the whole idea just got us a little nervous, both for people and to maintain WWG's good reputation.

Looking forward to hearing how it all works out (with the appropriate "Don't try this at home!" disclaimers )

For those of you in the states, I found this little Gem.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2102855



I do not know the exposure of Radio Shack in the rest of the world, heck I am not sure I know it for the rest of the country.

I have found a 555 sink/source led circuit I am going to try to build that will run at 9 volts too, so I now have lights and sounds.

All I need is a guitar and drums and we have ROCK!

It's increible the level of detail in it and the new levels of torture that we can get... no more cuts from the cutter...now you have your fingers stab by the needles... I don't know how many times I've punctured myself trying to mount the back inner parts

He wrote Death Gate Cycle? I loved that series. Tracy... Thanks.

Can you get David Brin to come by the forums too?

I would just rip apart one of those recordable message cards from like hallmark. I don't know if they're any cheaper. But they use a smaller battery.

Heres one I got in a car from my car dealership. I don't think its rerecordable though.










Push the tack or whatever through the already mounted side then remove. Then push them through the unmounted cardstock and leave them there while mounting. You will be able to feel them go into the holes without jabbing yourself.




Yeah those are my favorite of his books too, so far.

So simple... If I made another I'll have it into acount...my fingers would apreciate it !

Thanks

I thought about the greeting card, they actually make recordable ones. Here is the issue, I need a circuit that runs between 5 & 15 volts for the 555 chip I am using for my flickering light. Most of those smaller battery systems run at 3.3 Volts, need more power. With both systems I can run it off a standard 9 volt battery.

Yeah for you it might not work. But I think for most people the cards will be easier to use.