I Made Steampunk Goggles (Just like everyone else!)

For some time now I've been meaning to get or make a set of steampunk goggles. While they are a staple of the steampunk scene and one can't be expected to properly pilot an aerodrome or keep a boiler properly tuned without a set. I didn't want to make some that were overly simple or shell out the money for a set of brazing goggles. I also wanted to make them from fairly common materials so that others could build on mine if they like. Instructables.org has several 'ibles on how to make various sets of goggles, but when I saw this one I knew I could make it work for what I wanted.

Instead of using a baseball I went with a softball. I didn't really want to spray paint Gatorade lids for eye pieces so I walked around the hardware section of [Big-Blue-Box-Store] and found some brass-plated door bumpers that looked just right for the task. I also decided that elastic would make for an easier headband than rings and painted denim.

The whole process is pretty simple. You cut the stitching off of your softball until you've got one of the peanut shaped leather pieces, then cut that in the middle. These will be your left and right sides. Color them black or dark brown (I used a big black permanent marker, paint works too). You cut a reticle-like shape just smaller in diameter than your eye cups (door bumpers) and super-glue the tabs to the inside of the eye cups. After that you can super glue or hot glue round clear plastic (plexiglass or that impenetrable packaging plastic works well) into place as the lenses. Sew the middle together slightly above center, then sew the elastic band on the ends.

You're now one step closer to a becoming a proper ornithopter test pilot. Just remember that goggles alone do not steampunk make. One must come up with other creative re-imaginings of the contrivances of the contemporary with the contraptioning of days long gone.

These goggles were actually the second set I've had a hand in, with the first being for a friend, I just made these from the leftovers and extra bumpers. His look almost exactly like mine, except I hot glued my lenses in place.

I Made a Laptop Bag

For a long time now, I've had the luck of having a laptop, but the misfortune of having the battery shot to heck and I had to replace the screen on my Compaq laptop with an HP screen when it broke some time ago. It's also had a bad habit of dying for sometimes weeks at a time for some time now, and I finally decided to replace it with something I can get more reliability from since I had a little money saved up. I pinched my nose and went to the Apple store for a MacBook. Though I like being able to edit videos and audio with much more ease than on my Windows or Ubuntu machines, there's one physical problem with the MacBook. It's shiny. Too shiny. I'm not particularly gentle with my technology as my cell phone and old laptop would be quick to tell you if they could. I've been known to toss, drop, bite, and bury such things (sometimes deliberately).

I just spent 0ver 1000 dollars on the laptop I'm currently typing this on though, and I'd like to keep it in good shape as much as I can. One of the biggest hazard zones my old laptop faced on a regular basis was the inside of my backpack. With books, pens, clip boards, cables, tools, and who knows what else to bounce around with, I can see my shiny mac getting skinned up like a kid with new roller blades and a steep hill. I wanted a case for it, but didn't want anyting bulky or expensive, it also needed to be soft on the laptop. I've been wrapping it with a $3 towel from Big Lots for a few days, but it wasn't really ideal to wrap it like that into the foreseeable future.

Since the towel was already soft and large enough for holding the laptop though, I decided to take it from a loose toga to a custom tailored suit. Luckily, the towel was twice as wide as the laptop, which meant I could just fold it in half and it would hold the laptop without cutting the edges on the main edges. I folded it over and started to sew up the seam. I made sure to stitch the seams around the edge twice so I don't have to worry about it breaking, this also just made the whole thing look better since with one seam the edge of the towel was visible.

I sewed and I sewed and I cut the towel to shape and I sewed for about an hour and a half, and I had a nice fitting bag, but no way to close it. I didn't want to use buttons since the terrycloth would probably stretch over time so I cut some clips loose from an old worn out messenger bag I don't use and added some straps to them from a tie down strap I found on the side of the road. I melted the ends of the straps together so they won't fray and sewed those onto the bag. That was about all there was to it.

The finished bag should hold up well and when I showed it off to some friends they were pretty impressed. I might make another some time if the need arises out of a more sturdy towel, and If I do I'll be sure to use the sewing machine I didn't know was in the house until I was almost done.