Boiler Speakers

It’s getting Steamy in Here!

Here are the speakers I built to match the Steam Amp. I originally had planned to build the rear chambers out of clear glass domes, but all of the glass domes I could find were a bit on the thin side for me, and I was nervous of them breaking. I then decided on Acrylic tubes, but eventually landed on just building copper cans. All in all I’m pretty happy with the end result, but I can’t seem to shake the desire to see them built from some clear material with some inner-workings in there showing through.. maybe next time! I’m not nearly finished chasing the rabbit down the audio hole, so there will be many more amps as well as speakers to go with them in the future.

My only regret with these is that of driver choice. I used these drivers because they look like they’re made of copper. They look really cool, but are certainly not Hi-Fi drivers by any stretch. They can’t come close to doing justice to the quality of the sound coming from the tube amp they’re connected to. That being said… they sound pretty darned good considering they’re 4-inch, full-range drivers in a copper can, and they do get quite loud, which earns them points in the drunken party arena.

My next speaker project will be a true audiophile dream-build, if all goes according to plan. Of course they’ll cost an order of magnitude more to build, but you have to sacrifice for your art, right?

These pieces are on their way to Connecticut as I’m typing this to be shown in the Steampunk Bizarre 2011 show. I hope everyone likes them! I had a blast building ‘em.

Cheers!
Mike

Final Skull Fender Pix

 

Here’s a few final shots of that skull I made for my friend John’s Harley a while back.

The Steam Amp

A few final shots of my latest steampunk sculpture venture… the Steam Amp. Speakers coming soon!

 

The Model 42 Æther Reactor

A Standing Lamp For the Steampunk Fan

Here are the final shots of my new Steampunk sculpture, the Model 42 Æther Reactor. The images aren’t quite up to the quality level that my friend Jeff was able to give me on my previous pieces, but they will do in a pinch. Not bad though for being shot in my dining room with a couple cans from Home Depot with Halogen floods. I also shot these with my 12-24 DX zoom, which is far from an optimal portrait lens. I see a 35 or 50 mm lens in my future…

So glad to be completely done with this piece and on to new ideas!

Cheers

Ævil

The Crane Fountain

I built this Crane fountain over the course of a couple of weekends. I had built a small fountain in my back yard, consitising of a small pool filled with rocks, and a copper pot on a stand in the center of it. The pump was under the stand and the water pumped up into the pot and overflowed into the pool. It was pretty cool, but it splashed so much that the pool would empty itself in about a week. Enter evil mike! I decided to replace the pot with a steampunk Crane fountain.

For having totally winged this thing with very little planning I think it came out pretty well. As usual, I look at it now and think of all the ways it could be better, but I’m not letting that get me down. When I decide to build another one I can implement all of those ideas.

Once again, it’s just typical household copper pipe fittings with some sheet copper wings. There is a red glass globe attached in the ribcage to catch the light when the sun hits it. All in all a pretty simple design. I’m just glad it didn’t leak!

Sorry for the crap photos, these were snapped with my iPhone.