In case you’re not up to speed with the most recent happenings at Hackaday, we’re partying in LA tomorrow. This means visiting all the local hackerspaces and begging for a tour. First up is Crash Space, an awesome hackerspace that uses Starsong, the soldering iron alicorn shown above as a mascot.
Inside Crash Space are the usual Hackerspace compliment of tables, projectors, whiteboards, and more recycled computers than you can shake several IDE cables at. When we rolled up to Crash Space, they were just finishing up their weekly 3D printing workshop, replete with a Mendel Max, The Printer Which Shall Not Be Named, and a pair of printers from Deezmaker, a company started by one of Crash Space’s members.
For anyone wanting to roll their sleeves up and get dirty, all the action starts in the back of the building. There, they have a laser cutter, an ancient lathe and mill, drill press, and even a project that will become a vacuum former.
The folks at Crash Space were kind enough to show off their workshop for a video, viewable below along with a few pics of the space buzzing with activity.
That’s one hot unicorn ;) Someone loves My Little Pony
What? Who doesn’t love My Little Pony? And as a smoking soldering iron I think we have a series reboot on our hands.
Q: “Who doesn’t love My Little Pony?”
A: Well-adjusted adults.
The pony soldering iron…Da Fuq guys?! haha
I love the “printer which shall not be named”
Dumb question: what is the printer which shall not be named? MakerBot?
I haven’t watched the video, but I figure I’m not the only one with this question.
I’m pretty sure it’s little jab to Brian’s article on MBI’s new printers. Everyone tore him up on doing an article on MBI. I’ve been to crashspace and I know the printer which shall not be named. I took my printer which shall not be named in there once to show them all the hacks and add on’s I did to mine. But for a fun time go and read all the comments. http://hackaday.com/2014/01/10/the-2014-line-of-makerbots/
BEST… SOLDERING… IRON… EVER!!!!
I’m a local member, we’ve got a great mailing list for any random questions about building, making, or anything really. I should come by tomorrow and see you guys!
Sparkles the Soldering Unicorn teardown and build notes are here: https://blog.crashspace.org/2011/11/happy-birthday-sparkles/
Sparkles the Soldering Unicorn writeup and build photos: https://blog.crashspace.org/2011/11/happy-birthday-sparkles/
One aspect of Sparkles is actually pretty innovative. I’ve never seen a soldering iron that can be put down by itself without risking burning anything. Someone should invent a soldering iron with like a retractable bipod stand or something. Yeah sure everyone into soldering has a stand, but I could see the flexibility of a soldering iron with a built in stand being handy.
I have seen soldering irons with a metal clip and a flattened bottom so that it could effectively just be put down and the clip would unfold and make an A shape (though less steep). I tried googling for an image (because i know my explanation is rather vague) but didnt find any, so they are indeed of the rare type (but the hack shouldnt really be that hard to do, and the ones i have seen might even have been homebuilds)
This image shows what i mean (though i remember the clip being much longer) http://www.heatgunstore.com/Images/Products/iroda-solderpro-50-soldering-iron1.jpg.
There is ofcourse the issue that your cord usually extends straight out from the “bottom” making it hard(er) to steady the corded types.
Glad I was able to make if to Crash Space while Brian, Matt, and the other Hack a Day guys were there.
I just watched a documentary on Bronies.
Is anyone else SERIOUSLY afraid to ask where the cord comes out of that soldering iron?
Was going to ask myself lol, then I saw I think the foot! Foot…yes…foot.
Feet are however also a very common fetish… (now that we have moved into this area of discussion :)
Oh gawd…NO! :p
I was pretty happy to notice it was correctly called an alicorn rather than a unicorn.
Someone likes My Little Pony a lot. :)
Thank god we do not get more of theese MLP hacks then.. imagine the “this is not a hack^Wunicorn” posts… (i was unaware of this and i am also taking your comment as authroative on the subject)
Mh.. I think you just presented a new challenge th HAD..
Everyone must now start working on MLP hacks…
Of all my whining and complaining here on HAD lately. THIS is the one taken to challenge? I have to up my insults it seems. :)
Perhaps the MooLtiPass should be MLP themed…
I cant decide if that is a “silly mh” or a “im into bondage – come get me mh”-look.
Though having a MLP themed case for the mooltipass could help adoption of security among young girls and older men i suppose. could be a new market-changing product. Those people dont want a boring box sitting next to the computer, but MLP themed would probably be acceptable. (and then word-of-mouth takes care of the rest) :)