Every once in a while (usually at the prompting of Radio Robot) we gather up our hot glue guns, cardboard tubes, Estes motors, wires, pie, our custom designed Launch [...]]]> The West Oakland Rocketry Club is an Art Rocketry club, based out of West Oakland CA, that Almost Scientific has been part of since the first launch.

Every once in a while (usually at the prompting of Radio Robot) we gather up our hot glue guns, cardboard tubes, Estes motors, wires, pie, our custom designed Launch Control Case and whatever we have lying around, and together we build art rockets.  Since this is art rocketry not rocket science we work with a philosophy that the rockets don’t need to go up, but they do need to go somewhere.

We’ve built rockets out of almost everything: frozen turkeys, snow men, pods, ice, Slinky, Chinese food containers, steel, Popsicle sticks, feathers, and pork rinds.  We’ve launched them in rain and snow.

While the rockets we make are awesome and amazing to launch the best part is gathering with friends to spontaneously make art.

Below is a slide show of some of my best photos of WORC since it’s first meeting.

Enjoy. Go build your own, and leave the instructions in the box.

(and wear safety goggles)

See the full gallery of photos by clicking your pointer right here.

We did win a lovely trophy for Best Engineering.

Number of “official” runs = 2

Number of injures = 1

Severity of injury = “minor”

The race was fantastic.  So much fun.  We were not the fastest there (shocking), in fact, I don’t even remember any of our times.

We did win a lovely trophy for Best Engineering.

Number of “official” runs = 2

Number of injures = 1

Severity of injury = “minor”

Below are some of the photos I took.  Click here to check out the full gallery.

(Not to pick noses, as the Internets would have you believe.)

Well, this Sunday, September 28th, 2008, is the great Handcar Regatta — a race of human-powered rail-track creations.

We have been hard [...]]]> Ummmmmm — why are we building a 10′ tall 10′ wide hamster wheel call the Lumbering Contraption?

(Not to pick noses, as the Internets would have you believe.)

Well, this Sunday, September 28th, 2008, is the great Handcar Regatta — a race of human-powered rail-track creations.

We have been hard at work in the Louise St. Lab these past few weeks and now I’m here to fill you all in.  These are some photos I’ve been taking as we went along and as we finish her up this week I’ll post some final updates.  You can see more photos taken by Contraption Crew member Nick Winterhalter here.  Be sure to check out the video he posted of the wheel in action.  Also, check out Tom Sepe’s photos here.

Enjoy these for now and check back this week for the final updates.

See you at the race!

UPDATES: Check out the front car!

Here is world famous Jo Slota with our original, technical drawing of the Contraption as drawn on the back of a napkin from the Tamale Lady and an inspiring image

The first some-what-to-scale model

Building the main rail-riders from rolled angle iron.

It was around this time that we started to realize how big it really was going to be

Yeah, it’s big.

And it moves.

The plan is to have three runners on the inside and one person in the front

Here it is in it’s almost final stage.  All we have left to add on is the front seat and the cow catcher!

Sweet!

I believe that photo came from the Coachella install set which can be found here.

I tried to document all the various stages that goes into setting it.

You can also see the spreader bar I designed and fabricated in action.

There were too many photos to [...]]]> I know it’s a bit late but I finally got around to going through my photos from our recent instillation of the Steampunk Treehouse at Coachella.

I tried to document all the various stages that goes into setting it.

You can also see the spreader bar I designed and fabricated in action.

There were too many photos to post here but bellow I’ve included some of my favorite.

You can see the complete gallery here.

Big Green Press

Brown Lines In Green

Our goal is to give the roof some really aged blue-green color by applying a fresh layer of paint on the rusted metal, and then systematically (and artfully) destroying that layer of paint.

Last weekend we laid down the first even layer [...]]]> The new patina on the roof of Steampuk Treehose is starting to take shape.

Our goal is to give the roof some really aged blue-green color by applying a fresh layer of paint on the rusted metal, and then systematically (and artfully) destroying that layer of paint.

Last weekend we laid down the first even layer of paint and then we added an additional, splotchy layer, which you can see in this first photo.

Then we started grinding away the paint to expose both the rust below the paint and the fresh metal below that rusty layer.

In the third photo you can see Joe and Jeremy with one of the roof panels after the grinding.

Next, we heat the metal with a week burner, and spray it with aqueous feric nitrite. The heat allows the water in ferric nitrite to rapidly evaporate and leave behind an even, coat of the chemical. Additionally, the heat also burns off some of the paint and discolors the rest.

In the third photo, you can see Bender (who uses this method on his own work) applying the heat and chemical.

Of course, there is lots of standing around talking about what parts of the damage we like and what parts we don’t.

In the final photo you can see a close of up of what the treatment does.

We’ve gotten a bulk of the basic upkeep and repair work done and can now take some time to do some cosmetic work.

One of the first things we want to do [...]]]> Well Coachella is coming up really soon and the Steampunk Treehouse crew has been hard at work getting our little treehouse ready.

We’ve gotten a bulk of the basic upkeep and repair work done and can now take some time to do some cosmetic work.

One of the first things we want to do is add a bit of color to the roof. In the end we want it to have a really aged, blue green look that matches the door.

So the first step will be to paint the now rusted metal in various shades of blue and green, oil based paint. Then we’ll sand it back down to the rust in some spots and then apply heat and a fresh layer of patina to further age it.

Here are some photos of last nights work night where we began the first step of applying the paint.

Below are a [...]]]> The West Oakland Rocketry Club meet this past weekend in Tahoe. While Ice Rockets and Rocket Sleds were the rockets de jour, in true WORC style we also saw the launch of a vinyl record, a xmass trees, two vibrators, and an ape plane.  Some of them even went straight up.

Below are a few of the photos I took.  The full gallery can be seen here.