Yesterday, the Hazard Factory, an industrial arts studio, hosted the 3rd annual Seattle Power Tool Race & Derby. Participants construct a dragster powered by at most two “power tools” to race head to head down a 60 foot plywood channel. The rules are fairly loose and creativity is encouraged just as much as performance. For an example build, [spacematters] posted his machine using a circular saw and inline skate wheels. A Flickr photo pool of the day’s shenanigans is coming together and you can see some of the registered entries on the Hazard Factory’s site.
[photo: Æther]
Cedric over at our beloved culture blog has posted a video he shot yesterday of the power tool races.
http://blog.culturemob.com/seattle-power-tool-race-derby-2008
Music by our our Chadwick Dahlquist, programmer/music extraordinaire.
racer shown: Team Lady Safety’s “Blade of Mutilation”
racer basis: ryobi 10″ portable table saw (tool was deemed “too unsafe” for use in the lab and declared trash) with a hacked arbor to allow for a 12″ blade; inline skate wheels on pivots & a spring; base constructed saw housing parts.
(she was the fastest on the track on saturday, and we won the “hold my beer and watch this” trophy. :-)