The Final Layer When I first decided to build the facade from foam, I expected to finish it with fiberglass. I could already imagine the experience: trouncing around the basement in a Tyvek suit, sweating my guts out, applying fiberglass resin over an enormous doorway and then spending countless hours sanding it into the correct […]
Category: Project
It Has to Make the “Pssshhh” Sound (Part 8)
There was one question everyone asked when they learned I was building a science-fiction airlock: “Will it make the pssshhh sound?” Everyone asked. It did not matter that the door had unusual geometry, custom graphics, glowing arc reactors, a control panel or an actual mechanism capable of moving two heavy pocket doors. Apparently, none of […]
Call Me “Stickers” (Part 7)
In the Pixar movie Cars, Lightning McQueen earns the nickname “Stickers” because his headlights are not real. They are just stickers. We can call them decals, vinyl graphics, identification markings or visual communication elements. Those terms all sound much more sophisticated. But, in the end, they are just stickers. That does not mean they are […]
A Bump in the Build (Part 6)
Seven Years in the Making There is a dangerous moment in every project when it begins to look finished. It isn’t finished, of course. It may not even be close. But it looks enough like the thing in your imagination that cutting it apart suddenly feels wrong. This project had several of those moments. The […]
Making Time Magical, Part 4: Wood, Brass, Acrylic, and One Very Bad Planer Pass
By the time the mechanism worked, the project had crossed an important line. It was no longer just an idea. It was no longer just a pile of Christmas parts. It was no longer just a CAD model, a 3D print, or a mechanism on the bench. It could tell time. But it still needed […]
Making Time Magical, Part 3: The Mechanism Behind the Magic
By this point in the project, the outside of the clock made sense. It would look like an old elevator indicator. The face would be a semicircle. The numbers would run from 1 to 12. The hands would sweep across the arc. The lighting would glow from behind the face. But the part that made […]
Making Time Magical, Part 2: A Clock That Doesn’t Go in Circles
The original idea sounded simple: Take an old elevator-style indicator and make it into a clock. That was the promise. That was also the problem. Old elevator indicators are beautiful because they are simple. A semicircular face. A row of numbers. A single pointer sweeping from one side to the other. At a glance, you […]
Making Time Magical, Part 1: The Promise
Several years ago, I took a daddy-daughter trip with Annabelle to Universal Studios. At the time, she was deep into Harry Potter. So naturally, we spent a lot of our trip wandering through that part of the park, taking in the details, the storefronts, the props, the atmosphere, and all the little bits of design […]
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