Hearts for Parts! - Camp Grrr's burning man art car fund raiser #1

Heart for Parts ~ Pre Burningman 2011 ~ Sale!!!*

Help Camp Grrr raise funds for our mutant vehicle trailer and modifications (more bling!) and get a cool piece of jewelry at the same time!

Here is the deal ... after Burning Man, these sell for $88 minimum and the profits are not donated to the mutant vehicle. We need extra funds to bring our moving art so 50,000+ people can experience our madness, so we are having a buy now, get AFTER bman sale!

Our need was such short notice that we will be unable to deliver them before burning man itself, but we have sold and delivered dozens of them, so rest assured, we will send you the piece as soon after burning man as we can with post haste!!!

Gear Heart - $60 + $3 U.S. S&H

• Cast in sterling silver (gold and white gold available on request)
• Hard to see in the picture, but the necklace ring is also a gear!!!
• Chain not included (see below) - A nice, soft black cord included
  
• "Grrr" and burning man figure etched into the back
  

Heart Stitches - $65 + $3 U.S. S&H

• Cast in sterling silver (gold and white gold available on request)
• Copper stitching woven through the cracked silver heart
• Chain not included (see below) - A nice, soft black cord is included
  
• "Grrr" and burning man figure etched into the back
  

Want to help, but don't like either design? We will have at least one more design (a more masculine version ... as people have requested) coming in the near future, so stay tuned (email me and I will keep a list of folks who want to be updated).

Chain not included - We can order them for you! Check out our chain page - click here!

Please note, these chain prices are from last year, so ask us what current prices are before sending money.

Shipping & Handling

• $3 within U.S., $5 for two
• Outside of the U.S. will be determined on a per case basis.
  

Payment (+ S&H)
PayPal to lunatechfalls(at)yahoo.com
or
email roboyeti(at)yahoo.com for
Snail Mail address

Send questions to roboyeti(at)yahoo.com

After materials cost, every dollar goes towards the art car!

Help us spread the word!!! Even if you are not interested, please considering sharing this with people who might be. Thanks!

What the heck is this all about????

Camp Grrr is the burning man camp that I started two years ago. I am pushing the envelope again and making Camp Grrr a camp that contributes something new to the event every year! After much deliberating in my own brain, I decided last year that an art car was the best of all options for our first creative contribution to this incredible event. And we did it! Those of you who contributed to it with the first hearts for parts drive will be happy to know we got a monster to the playa. It wasn't exactly what we set out to do, but it was well received.

The economy has really nailed our group over 2011, and we are coming up short on trailer rentals, changes required by the BM DMV, as well as money to fine tune the machine with more decor and more lights. We really want to up our game again, but could use the extra funds, and don't you really really want one of these awesome hearts!?!?! Yes you do! :-)

Here is the vehicle (night): http://youtu.be/zWlTBG_VJhk?hd=1
And daytime: http://youtu.be/q_2Qw0gIJ14?hd=1

Grrrsect : A partial first glimpse

From Grrrsect : Camp Grrr mutant vehicle sketch up

Well, it has been really slow getting the ball rolling on this project and in my mind, I had already re-allocated the project as my personal year long hobby to be ready for 2011.

Thanks to the enthusiasm and labor of a few members of the camp (and one BM virgin as of yet), I think there is at least some chance we can pull it off ... and as people get excited, the chance goes up!

After some soul searching, some pocket book frowning, and fussing about, I have decided to go ahead with the excitement flow and try to get it back on the 2010 BM track. App submitted (last minute), final materials getting purchased (ouch! - HELP!), and all spare time being allocated.

We are still somewhat under funded (click for our fund raising) , and could really use more labor help, but all in all, we are starting to make real progress and the speed of accomplishment is increasing now that we have a decent work zone, the core crew has been trained in working metal and welding, and as we learn what works the best for each process.

We have the vehicle, it is a BEAST (will grab a pic of it soon)! We have been welding and bending metal like crazy the last couple weeks. Everybody is learning fast and I can happily say that I finally feel like we are on track at last.

Last weekend, I finally got the spare bandwidth as the crew has become more self reliant, to get started on the structural underpinnings of it all: the base steel frames, the new insect robotic legs, and the support steel & pivot mechanics for the wings.

It is my hope, now that the crew has the skillz, the concept, and design templates to work with, that I can spend July finishing the fabrication of these core components, so that August is final assembly, safety device install, lighting, and finishing the wiring.

I will try to update this with more pictures soon, but here is the first salvo: the crew at work (day 1 of teaching the natives to weld, cut, grind, heat bend, cold bend etc) and some of the works in progress (at least example photos of bits that might make some sense to the viewer). We have many more components in the works already and should easily have the entire carapace and wings fully formed by the end of July.

Some example components and parts

Teaching day - Metal 101 !

From Grrrsect : Camp Grrr mutant vehicle sketch up

Blue moon ...

A fun and silly New Year's project for Catamara's Blue Moon New Years Party ... behold, the 36" in diameter glowing blue moon prop.

Behold ... the monster blue ball ... err ... I mean moon ... if only I had made two of them ;-)


Started with a 36" diameter balloon from Display & Costume, and gooped tissue paper and paper towel on it with "Sculpt or Coat" (about 4-5 layers of the paper/coating).

The lighting is 3 DMX RGB LED fixtures (not in DMX mode for deployment this time around), but allows the colors to be changed etc.

I could have used less had I done this project the way I intended, which was to put the light inside the moon, but it hasn't had time enough to dry and/or enough coatings to make it stiff enough to survive well without the balloon still in it and inflated. That is the ultimate plan if I decide to keep it ... which I need to do soon ... before the balloon deflates much more (or try to inflate a new one inside the shell).

This is the same technique I used for my glowing giant spider eggs (smaller balloons), and maybe this blue moon will return as an uber giant spider egg.

It might also make a great BM fishing lure on a death machine art car, kind of like the deep sea fish with the glowing bulbs on the end of the strange protrusion .... yes ... lure those little X sucking ravers into deadly jaws with a huge glowing treat!

Anyways ... I have said more on this subject than it really demands. Happy New Years!

Electro plated cranium anyone?

So I convinced Amy (of Bee Girl Metal and my heart) that she should dig out her electroplating machine to plate her own work, instead of paying the rather steep price to have someone else do it.

To be honest, I think I had her get it out as much for me as for her ... I had purchased a bunch of mink skulls that I wanted to try plating as an experiment for a burning man idea.

So, after the dust settled from Pumpkin Prowl, she took over the kitchen for her evil experiments and I watched, learned, and starting sneaking in my own plating experiments (not really, but it sounds more mysterious that way ... ).

First, I was slightly surprised that the machine was just a big AC-DC adjustable linear power supply (0-30 volts, 20 amp max output).

I mean ... I wasn't actually THAT surprised, since I already understood the fundamentals and I had done electroplating in some grade school science class with a couple batteries, but I really did presume that a commercial grade machine (even an archaic one) would be more than a DC bench power supply. So, probably half of the people that will ever read this already have a commercial grade plating machine in their workshop or garage ... including myself.

Electroplating is just strange enough that it balances between science and art. The instructions on the bottle of solution are just simply vague, and a little thought and experimentation will improve the results.

The setup is relatively simple:

* Electroplating machine (AC-DC bench supply, 2-4 volts is working range of all solutions below, 5amp minimum, 10amp would be more ideal to prevent fuse melting).

* Pyrex glass containers (lab or more common oven cookware). You will need one per solution, and if you are plating metal, you will need one for the cleaner (if you choose to use it). These all need to be big enough to immerse your object into. If you use oven cookware Pyrex, you might want to make sure that it can be placed directly on a heat source ... it often says what it is safe for use with on the bottom of the Pyrex container itself.

• DO NOT USE GLASS! Amy did not heed my warnings on this, and she did actually explode a jar of cleaning solution (caustic!!!!) all over the oven. I love that girl ... such a mad scientist!!!
• After that fun and excitement, I added another pyrex container to the mix, one large enough to hold all of the others while they heated (see next step).
  

* Heat source (some solutions so not require heating, bright copper, for example, does not). 180F was maximum needed temp for our purposes. We used the stove top and a thermometer. After the jar explosion, I added a larger pyrex cookware container to the mix, one that all of the others could fit in while they were on the stove. To this container (a shallow baking dish) I added water, presuming that it would govern temperature change better on the glassware ... and it worked great!

* Solution ... this is the expensive part ... or can be depending on the metal of choice. This is the dissolved metal concoction that the object will be plated in.

* Anodes that match your solution needs. Sometimes this is the same material as the plating metal, sometimes it isn't. The anode required should be listed on the bottle of solution. Between what both of us were working on, we needed:

• Stainless steel anode for the gold solution
• Nickel for the nickel solution
• Pure copper for the copper solution

* Copper wire to connect plating machine to solution anode and cathode to object

* Optionally, if what you are plating is not metal, then you will need conductive paint (brush or spray on are available). You will coat the object in this so the metal has a conductive surface to form on.


The variables to consider are the following:

* Voltage - increasing the voltage speeds up the process, however, it can also lead to "chunky" results (a sometimes desirable thing ... referred to as electroforming). In the case of copper, I was actually trying to electroform large growths (at 20+ vdc), and after a certain point, the copper that was forming was not actually adhering well to the object ... giving the object copper "hair" that could be washed off.

* Time - The longer the bath, the thicker the plating

* Temperature - Some solutions need to be heated before use (both nickel and gold do). It has been hard to get a bead on the effect of dropping temperature is, but it is on the suspect list of blackening that was happening to both nickel and gold in longer bath output.

* Proximity to anode - While this would be an electrical variable, this is listed more in relation to the object's three dimensional space versus anode proximity. The part of the object facing and closest to the immersed anode will simply plate faster. It is also possible that some of the blackening that occurred (on at least the nickel) was related to this variable.

I wouldn't say I have the processes down just yet, but it has been a fun journey so far!

Spider details and videos posted to youtube

Photo shamelessly stolen from Scott Axworthy (my partner in crime): Pumpkin Prowl 2009 Album

Videos: One with the ugly lights on (and my lovely assistant for size reference) and one with it in its natural habitat:

Video 1
Video 2

The giant spider finally made a real debut this year, albeit missing some components (the mandible/fang rig just didn't get finished to add movement on those bits ... for example).

10 linear actuators (firgelli mostly), 20 auto relays, 10 IO controlled relays from a serial controller, lots of wires. About 12' in leg span, weighs a ton (not really, but about 100 pounds is a good guess ... and that is not including the base ... another 20 lbs there).

Each of the front four legs has two automated joints, however I did kill one on Saturday night, as it jammed and burned itself out. I was thinking an inline fuse to each actuator might prevent this, and the fine folks at Firgelli (whom I am trying to get to sell me just the motor for the $120 actuator so I can save some cash) also suggested the same thing, so next version will have fuses inline with every actuator.

What also did not make it this year was the "interactive" aspect. Instead of just running random all of the time, I have a special spider egg (you can see the eggs in the video and photos) that really stands out which randomly "shakes" as if the spider inside is about to hatch. A motion sensor then connects to the IO board and triggers when someone reaches for the special egg.

I could have gotten that one done in time for Sat or Sun night pumpkin prowl, but after watching how most people were already so scared of the spider to actually approach it, I thought it might be hopeful at best that people would then reach for a shaking spider egg (which has multicolor, fading LEDs that provide a visual silhouette around the spider inside).

More thought will have to go into this concept I think ... and more time ... need to finish things like the animatronic fangs ... will it ever be done?!?!?!?!

To blog or not to blog

Well, here we are. A blog. It has taken me years to accept things like this. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, blogging ...

I think what has pushed me over the edge of finally making a blog is that I personally want to record and track progress on my creative projects, and while I do so, might as well use an internet available app and share it with others in the off chance that someone finds something useful in it.

So ... cheers ... a blogging we go!