[Ani Niow] built this steam powered vibrator. It has a milled stainless steel shell with a brass motor structure. The motor is a Tesla turbine made from a stack of Dremel diamond cutoff wheels. This drives an off-center weight to create the vibration. She tested it using a pressure cooker as the steam source. It worked, but became so hot it had to be held using welding gloves. It works just as well with compressed air though. You can see the device at the Femina Potens Art Gallery in San Francisco or later this month at Maker Faire.
[via Laughing Squid]
UPDATE: [Ani] responds in the comments.
Wow………. Im sorry but WOWWW……lmao
Is there a video of her … um … testing it?
…..is there really anything to say about this?………
She should have just made a clockwork one, that’s what I’d have done.
“….it even vibrates like real”
my favorite part about this post is that its tagged under “home entertainment hacks”….
Awesome hack to appease our future robot overlords.
That is not steampunk.
Umm, Steely Dan IV?
Not the famous band, but where the name came from?
It runs on steam, so I’d call it steampunk.
Lame.. and inappropriate for this site.
Okay…hackaday, I have you set as my homepage. As hilarious as this is, maybe you might consider keeping it work safe?
The next steep would be the integration of a tesla coil.
Stop being stupid, how is this seriously “NSFW”? It’s not. You’re taking it upon yourselves to assume where this vibrator is placed, it’s not mentioned and there’s no pics of it being used that way.
I get so pissed off at all the “This is nsfw” when that is clearly wrong.
@ barry
By that logic, modern nuclear reactors are steampunk.
“She tested it using a pressure cooker as the steam source. It worked, but became so hot it had to be held using welding gloves.”
Good lord. Looks like a thermal insulator is needed between the motor and the working end. When running on compressed air I’d assume it gets pretty cold.
steam powered != steampunk
@ bigsticks: grow up
@ solenoidclock: so go ahead and do it, post if it works
@ sansan: i agree, it crosses a line here
@ wolvenmoon: make an igoogle page and get the hack-a-day app
@ (>’-‘)> ooww! no, wrong, bad minion!
kudos on the overall hack and ingenuity. i’d give it an 8 out of 10. the power issue, steam gets too hot for comfort (unless it’s used to perform a deep tissue back massage, that might be nice as long as there are no burns) and an air compressor gets too noisy. thinking things through, i’d say about a 4. artistic value and making people respond, well that’s a 10. look how many have responded to this. definitely an eye catcher.
I understand the fun in using a Tesla turbine, but why not a simpler air motor? It could even allow the removal of the eccentric weight.
Just wow now make one for the Men.
It takes something practical and makes it gaudy and useless; that sounds pretty steampunk to me.
awesome, i love it.
So, lemme get this straight, visiting a site called hack a day is work safe, but a picture of a mostly nondescript stainless steel rod isn’t?
there’s nothing practical about a steam powered vibrator. this is clearly a form of artistic expression. it reinforces the fact that women can be both sexually independent, and geeky. i think it’s awesome.
I don’t see what the big fuss is about, just tell your boss it’s for getting the bubbles out of concrete…
Hihi, woke up this morning and noticed my Flickr was getting a lot of hits from Hack-a-Day and Laughing Squid and was wondering where they were coming from, haha.
To address some of the questions/concerns about it…
I decided on the Tesla turbine because I could build one in the shop and it was more of a universal engine, could potentially run it off of anything that’s pressurised enough. The engine isn’t optimised and currently it takes far too much pressure to run it then it really should and I’ll be doing some experimenting with other designs soon.
This is more of a proof-of-concept/prototype/art piece than truly practical, anything that would work as a a power source is going to be too big and too loud to be sexy, I knew this when going into it.
As for heat, maybe version 2.0 will have one though I’ve not run it off of steam long enough to see how much the heat transfers. When I was machining it I discovered that if I was machining the engine section, it would become really hot but the shaft would only be warm and the head was cool to the touch, and vice-versa. Once I have a more optimised engine I’ll experiment with steam more.
Again, thanks for the comments and feel free to ask if you have any more questions. :)
-Ani
Even the description of the machining process is hot… ;)
@coreyfro: Your comment wins!
well now it seems it’s been pulled from the front page. lame.
to thefekete: you know what they call that right?
intercepting aztraph: a concrete vibrator?
man all these idiots complaining. A) it’s neat, b) she fucking made it, and deserves to be on hack-a-day c) get over it
Yea thats pretty neat, but to see what real Victorian vibrators looked like, check this link out…
http://www.vibratormuseum.com/
Oh god! A vibrator! My delicate sensibilities!
ami, this is awesome. Pure win.
To everyone who’s offended, seriously, the word vibrator is too much? Please.
@amk: Best comment. Agree fully.
It’s steam powered? Like a mod of Half-life? Cool, Does it replace my Crowbar?
damn
“She tested it using a pressure cooker as the steam source.”
At least she is staying in the kitchen :-D
what do you think the chances are of Make: picking this story up from hack-a-day?
lol
How come it’s not riveted (for her pleasure)?
hahaha very nice!
Turn it on high and leave it in!!
You guys are fucking priceless. Without irony this has devolved into an XKCD comic. Nicely done.
“That’s not steampunk.”
Oh, my aching sides.
This is a nice example of what people with different pictures in mind like to see here….
as from a gardener side of view
this is just a perfect nice tool to get rid of these damn moles and voles in your garden ;)
Ok now we need steam punk fleshlight and it better be compatible with this vibrator !
what the fuck
I would have to agree that this is NSFW. I have hackaday saved to load in my browser and working at a school I have to say this was very unwelcomed on my computer screen.
Hmmm.. I guess it really comes down to personal attitudes as to where you draw the line, but I would in no way consider this entry NSFW, inappropriate or unwelcome. The entry doesn’t contain anything overtly sexual, other than the word vibrator, which is also contained in the haptic compass and bristlebot stories to describe a similar mechanical motion.
Just my $0.02 – obviously there’s a few people who disagree. Personally I think it’s a pretty cool build story.
I want to rape a clock
@jay
If it’s (junior) high school, then maybe. But even so, it’s an art piece. If you had an art website showing an old nude, it wouldn’t be NSFW either.
to Solenoidclock: slang for a concrete vibrator is donkeydick