How To Topic

[JingleJoe]

Note; upon the creation of this "how to" childboard I will be editing this thread less, perhaps only adding really really good tutorials/instructions/how to's, if you have a how to, make a new topic for it, if you have creation conundrums do the same!

I hope to collect in this thread lots of steampunk how-to's
If you have links or tutorials or insctructions on how to do or make steampunk things lets see them here!
Links to other topics on how to make things will be greatly appreciated too

How-to's:

Mods:

~Thermionic valve LED mod:

Spoiler: ShowHide

~How to make the gears of a clock or watch spin freely as the mainspring is wound:

Spoiler: ShowHide

 

1: inspect a watch for the balance wheel (circle with a small coiled wire spring [hairspring])

or the clock for the pendulum mount
2: Watch: look below the balance and see the escapement, it'll be a small Y or T shaped thingy which moves back and forth when the balance is rotating.

Clock: find where the pendulum mount enters the movement, and notice the escapement mounted on it's shaft.
3: Watch: remove balance wheel, a small screwdriver should do the trick, be very careful if you'd like to replace the balance afterwards.
Clock: plot removal of the escapement
4: Remove the escapement.
5: replace balance.
6: wind and delight in whirring and spinning gears.

I've found that most of the watched I've done this to will spin for several seconds as you wind the spring. If the hands are still on, they will cycle through several hours in a number of seconds.

How to make things:

~How to make a steam engine:
Link
Link 2!
~How to make "costume brass goggles"! :
Link
~How to produce embossed metal effect on flat surfaces without big machines.

Spoiler: ShowHide

A quick way to make a complex embossed finish on an object is to use a pre-woven lace edging of the sort sold in trimmings shops for dressmaking/ upholstery.

Glue it down to the surface and metallic paint the hell out of it.

The paint soaks into the fabric and makes it look and feel like a punched/ etched bas relief.

All sorts of designs are available from simple geometric patterns to complex curly swirly stuff.

I've just done the stem of a ceremonial mace like this and it looks dammned fine.

~How to make flourescent liquid (liquid that glows in U.V. light!)

Spoiler: ShowHide

1) Buy a set of flourescent Highlighters  (Yellow, orange, pink, and sometimes green will actually flourece, blue and other colors normally don't.)
2) use pliers to yank both the bottom and the tip off the marker. 
3) That should free a foam-ish contrivance from the body of the marker, yank it out. This is what actually holds the ink inside the highlighter
4) Take a 1 Litre bottle, rinse it out, and fill it with water.
5) Toss the foam thingy into the bottle, and shake. The flourescent ink should diffuse out into the water and once it does, the entire bottle should flouresce under a blacklight.
5) Pour it into some neat looking bottles, or do whatever with it.

~How to make Steampunk Airship Goggles:
Link
~How To make an old-timey LED torch/lamp:
Link
~How to make Mr. Corwin L. Linkletter's Ætheric Essence Breath Filtration Apparatus! (a steampunk gas mask!)
Link
~How to make flex, a.k.a. cloth covered wire!

Spoiler: ShowHide

1. Buy round shoelaces, sturdy variant. Should be the round woven kind.
2. Cut off the ends.
3. Normally there's a single thread in there. That one needs to go. Pull it out with a suitable tool. (pliers advised )
4. Put some kind of pen or pencil through the opening, the mesh needs to be widened.
5. Tie the wire to a small nail or the like, needs to fit through the widened shoelace.
6. Put it in directly behind the pencil. You could also pin it directly to the end.
7. Pull everything through.

If everything goes well, you've just put your wiring into a makeshift fabric sleeve.

~How to make the greatest leather goggles ever!
Link
~Making and using gear stencils!

Spoiler: ShowHide

~How to make Gear stencils for wall/home decorations:

Step 1. Firstly go find a picture of a gear, or if you have photoshop or similar, download some gear brushes and put them the size you want onto a white background (making sure the gear is in a colour you can see for cutting out)
Now I used these brushes for my gears: http://ewark.deviantart.com/art/Gearing-Brushes-89417697 & http://redheadstock.deviantart.com/art/Gears-Vectors-Brushes-92472909
And here is a gear generator!

Step 2. So after creating a stamp like image of the gears I wanted, I then printed them off, and stuck them on some cereal box cardboard, (yes, the middle will fall out, so cut it out AS a circle because you will need it when you are spraying the stencil on the surface) like so:


Step 3. Next, you will need to get either a paint in desired colour, or spray paint (which I find easier). I bought plasti kote spray in the colour 'Brass', I purchased this from B&Q (but I'm sure you can get it from any DIY store/online) and it cost me £2.98, but you can buy bigger cans, I bought the smaller version as I do not need loads of it for my wall.

This is what the spray looks like:

& also the actual website with colour charts here: http://www.plasti-kote.co.uk/Product/pcode---4427/pccode---6751#colour_chart

Step 4. Now I practised using the spray and my stencils on paper first, I did this in a room with all windows open as the stuff stinks, make sure to shake the tin for a minute before first use, and keep shaking it every 10 seconds afterwards.

Here are my finished results on paper:



Finished! Please note, these ARE on paper, and I have not yet actually done it on my wall, but when I have done I will upload pictures, the paper was a bit wobbly so use blue tac to stick stencil down, as you can see my first attempts were a little wonky!! But I will upload some photos after I have done this in my room!
Enjoy

~How to make bellows (the kind in a concertina or accordion)
Link


How to do things (techniques and methods):

~How to etch metal with electricity:

Spoiler: ShowHide

~Learn how to weld:
Link
~How to make wood look old topic:
Link
~Much info on stamping or otherwise imprinting a design into leather:
Link
~A Simple way to make a "preserved thing in a jar"
link
~How to age Brass:

Spoiler: ShowHide

~How to Glue this to that (advice on the best glue for sticking something to anything else)
Link
~How to go about filing things (with a metal abbrasive kind of file not the paper kind)

Link - PDF


Not Very Steampunk

~How to make a large prop sausage for a stage play.

Spoiler: ShowHide

• Buy two 3l. plastic bottles of industrial strength brain cell killer cider.
• Drink the cider.
• Wake up next day and take some paracetamol.
• Cut the bottom off both empty bottles and stick them together end to end.
• Take the top off one end and fill with expanding foam.
• Leave to cure.
• Cut the neck off each end and clean up to give a suitable dome shape.
• Cover bottles with tissue paper and pva  glue and leave to dry.
• Give resulting object a suitably convincing sausage paint job.
• Mount sausage onto a black painted stick and give to props master for use in amusing dream scene.

      (optional)

• Make solemn oath never to drink cider again.
• At least, not till next time.

Some photos!

~How to Make Foam Armor
link
~How to make a "File File" - an inegnious tool holder!
Link


Improvements

~How to make duct tape stick better: 

Spoiler: ShowHide

1) leave the roll of duct tape out in the rain.
2) Let it dry
3) use it.

[Dr cornelius quack]

And about time too!!

How to make a large prop sausage for a stage play.

• Buy two 3l. plastic bottles of industrial strength brain cell killer cider.
• Drink the cider.

• Wake up next day and take some paracetamol.
• Cut the bottom off both empty bottles and stick them together end to end.

• Take the top off one end and fill with expanding foam.
• Leave to cure.

• Cut the neck off each end and clean up to give a suitable dome shape.
• Cover bottles with tissue paper and pva  glue and leave to dry.

• Give resulting object a suitably convincing sausage paint job.
• Mount sausage onto a black painted stick and give to props master for use in amusing dream scene.

• Make solemn oath never to drink cider again.
• At least, not till next time.

Hope this helps,

Dr. Q.

p.s. More serious ones to follow.

[Dr cornelius quack]

Quack tip no. 2

How to produce embossed/repuce metallic effect on flat surfaces.

A quick way to make a complex embossed finish on an object is to use a pre-woven lace edging of the sort sold in trimmings shops for dressmaking/ upholstery.

Glue it down to the surface and metallic paint the hell out of it.

The paint soaks into the fabric and makes it look and feel like a punched/ etched bas relief.

All sorts of designs are available from simple geometric patterns to complex curly swirly stuff.

I've just done the stem of a ceremonial mace like this and it looks dammned fine.

Kind regards,

Dr. Q.

[Derranged-Gadgeteer]

how to make duct tape stick better: 

!) leave the roll of duct tape out in a rainstorm.
2) Let it dry
3) use it.

how to make flourescent liquid for props or whatever:

1) Buy a set of flourescent Highlighters  (Yellow, orange, pink, and sometimes green will actually flourece, blue and other colors normally don't.)
2) use pliers to yank both the bottom and the tip off the marker. 
3) That should free a foam-ish contrivance from the body of the marker,  yank it out.  This is what actually holds the ink inside the highlighter
4) take a 1l bottle, rinse it out, and fill it with water.
5) toss the foam thinger into the bottle, and shake.  the flourescent ink should diffuse out into the water.  and once it does, the entire bottle should flouresce under a blacklight.
5) pour it into some neat looking bottles, or do whatever with it.

[JingleJoe]

umm that sausage thing isnt very steampunk hahaha but I'll make a new section for it - "not very steampunk"
the rest are great thanks and I hope there many more from everyone!

[Dr cornelius quack]

umm that sausage thing isnt very steampunk hahaha but I'll make a new section for it - "not very steampunk"
the rest are great thanks and I hope there many more from everyone!

You impune the steamyness of my sausage?

You do not realise your peril.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25319679@N05/?saved=1

[Lord Orville Pott]

Steampunk Airship Goggles

Steampunk style LED lantern

[Prof. Friedrich VonHart, PhD]

How to make the gears of a clock or watch spin freely as the mainspring is wound:

1: inspect a watch for the balance wheel (circle with a small coiled wire spring [hairspring])

or the clock for the pendulum mount
2: Watch: look below the balance and see the escapement, it'll be a small Y or T shaped thingy which moves back and forth when the balance is rotating.

Clock: find where the pendulum mount enters the movement, and notice the escapement mounted on it's shaft.
3: Watch: remove balance wheel, a small screwdriver should do the trick, be very careful if you'd like to replace the balance afterwards.
Clock: plot removal of the escapement
4: Remove the escapement.
5: replace balance.
6: wind and delight in whirring and spinning gears.

I've found that most of the watched I've done this to will spin for several seconds as you wind the spring. If the hands are still on, they will cycle through several hours in a number of seconds.

[Alexander Edmund Clough]

Mods - can we make this a sticky? Damned useful thread. Many thanks to all who have contributed thus far!

[JingleJoe]

Mods - can we make this a sticky? Damned useful thread. Many thanks to all who have contributed thus far!

Many thanks I hope this thread will grow exponentially


Also Prof. Friedrich VonHart, under which section do you think your watch/clock tute' should go? I thought Mods because it is after all modifying a watch/clock to do another thing but I thought I'd consult you aswell because I was not sure

You impune the steamyness of my sausage?

I do! Get over it its a sausage; its not brass, lacks gears, goggles, leather, wood, lacks a top hat, the list goes on; Its just not very steampunk.
However! It may be useful to some people because a giant sausage would be fun to have ... also to hit people with So thats how it got it's own section

[Captain_Minty_Gearhertz]

If you re-animate it through the power of SCIENCE!!!! It would be steampunk...

[JingleJoe]

If you re-animate it through the power of SCIENCE!!!! It would be steampunk...

Why not make a tutorial for how to do that?

[JingleJoe]

Just bumping to remind people this thread is still here, and still awaiting more tutorials!

Come on, that can't be all you got ?

[Correus]

~How To make an old-timey LED torch/lamp:
Link

Thanks for posting this!!  I have an old torch I'd like to convert!

[TinkererInTraining]

how to thread...

Am I the only one who read this and thought

Well you pick up the end of your thread, and hold up the needle. Then you try to put the thread through the eye of the needle, usually poking yourself a few times and freying the end of the thread, which you slick back to a point with saliva. Then go back to trying to threat the needle.

(continue ad-nauseam)

Till you get fed up, throw the spindle across the room, stab the nearest thing with the needle an go find something to drink.

[JingleJoe]

~How To make an old-timey LED torch/lamp:
Link

Thanks for posting this!!  I have an old torch I'd like to convert!

Ah glad to hear from soneone who found use here keep up the good work old chap

[JingleJoe]

how to thread...

Am I the only one who read this and thought

Well you pick up the end of your thread, and hold up the needle. Then you try to put the thread through the eye of the needle, usually poking yourself a few times and freying the end of the thread, which you slick back to a point with saliva. Then go back to trying to threat the needle.

(continue ad-nauseam)

Till you get fed up, throw the spindle across the room, stab the nearest thing with the needle an go find something to drink.

*sigh* I'll change it to "how to topic" then
I thought this might happen!

[Rowan of Rin]

Yeah, I thought of the needle of doom as well. But, this is a fantastic idea, I always got confuzzled about the saltwater etching, and who knows, without your guidance Mr. Jingle, I think my house would have been burnt to the ground

[JingleJoe]

Yeah, I thought of the needle of doom as well. But, this is a fantastic idea, I always got confuzzled about the saltwater etching, and who knows, without your guidance Mr. Jingle, I think my house would have been burnt to the ground

Hahahaha! Glad I helped someone else agian ^_^ etching is fun! The bubbles and colour changing water makes you feel like a scientist! Not that I'm not a mad scientist anyway

[Toolmaker]

Here are some how to links on welding..

http://www.brassgoggles.co.uk/bg-forum/index.php?topic=6732.0

[CinnamonAndSpite]

Huzzah! The How To thread lives!! ^_^

[ArdenMaxwell]

[snip]
I do! Get over it its a sausage; its not brass, lacks gears, goggles, leather, wood, lacks a top hat, the list goes on; Its just not very steampunk.
However! It may be useful to some people because a giant sausage would be fun to have ... also to hit people with So thats how it got it's own section

...I know I need more sleep when that statement puts me in mind of a giant sausage... in a top hat... with goggles. Now THAT is a steamy sausage. (Which, in turn, sounds like a rejected name for an ubuntu distribution... Breezy Badger, Steamy Sausage... )

[JingleJoe]

[snip]
I do! Get over it its a sausage; its not brass, lacks gears, goggles, leather, wood, lacks a top hat, the list goes on; Its just not very steampunk.
However! It may be useful to some people because a giant sausage would be fun to have ... also to hit people with So thats how it got it's own section

...I know I need more sleep when that statement puts me in mind of a giant sausage... in a top hat... with goggles. Now THAT is a steamy sausage. (Which, in turn, sounds like a rejected name for an ubuntu distribution... Breezy Badger, Steamy Sausage... )

I was thinking of steaming it in said manner too

[Arcturon the hobo]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Steamed Sausage.

[markf]

~How To make an old-timey LED torch/lamp:
Link

Thanks for posting this!!  I have an old torch I'd like to convert!

Yup, I've got one too that I want to convert.  Perfect timing on this post.  markf