At first glance, [Frank Howarth]’s turned bamboo Death Star seems like a straight woodworking project. No Arduino controlled lights, no Raspberry Pi for audio clips of an X-wing attack or escaping TIE fighter. In other words: where’s the hack?
It’s a freaking bamboo Death Star!
If that’s not enough for you, check out the pattern on the surface of the finished model. That’s not painted on – those are the layers of the laminated bamboo lumber used to create the rings [Frank] used to form the structure. After lots of turning, sanding and polishing, the characteristic vascular bundles of the bamboo create light and dark panels for a convincing effect of the Death Star’s surface detail. And although we like the natural finish, we can imagine a darker stain might have really made the details pop and made for an effect closer to the original.
Still not hackish enough? Then feast your eyes on [Frank]’s shop. It’s a cavernous space with high ceilings, tons of natural light, and seemingly every woodworking machine known to man. While the lathe and tablesaw do a lot of the work for this build, the drool-worthy CNC router sees important duty in the creation of the multiple jigs needed for the build, and for making the cutout for the superlaser, in what must have been a tense moment.
Bamboo is an incredible material, whether for fun builds like this or for more structural uses, like a bamboo bike. All this bamboo goodness puts us in the mood to call on [Gerrit Coetzee] for a new installment on his “Materials You Should Know” series.
Thanks to [jacques1956] for the tip!
He published the video on May the 4th :) Great channel, although not related to electronics much (read: not a hack!) :D but I don’t mind seeing him being featured here.
How a hack needs electronics to be a hack?
+100
Did you see the Super NES controller in his shop? There be hacks there.
Even if it did have an arduino/raspi, I’m sure that the majority of us would still be asking “where’s the hack?”…Well at least the few of us left.
Not trying to be a nervous nellie here, but Isn’t bamboo dust toxic?
Seriously wanting to know as Ive never worked with it myself.
Every wood dust is toxic to some degree, and some are downright nasty. Mahogany is a bad one, I hear, and MDF dust is horrible. Hadn’t heard anything specific about bamboo, but I wouldn’t doubt it. He seems like he’s pretty careful, though – he’s got a decent respirator on for some of the dustier operations. And not just a little paper N95 mask, either – a proper respirator.
There’s an MDF that goes by the name Trupan that uses friendlier glues so it’s not as toxic as regular MDF.
I’d be less concerned w/ bamboo dust and more concerned w/ the glues and fillers used in the plywood it’s turned into.
Whoa, Nellie!
Which was the bigger project, the Death Star or the video?
No kidding! The video was as awesome as the woodworking.
he makes some very impressive videos, https://youtu.be/qFFS9PsghCI
I’d be impressed if it were only 6mm in diameter with that level of detail.
does it have a 2 meter exhaust port? Or in this case 2mm or maybe 2micron?
Did any Bothans die in the making of this Death Star? Is there a 2 micron exhaust port?
At 2:54 in the video: “No one was hurt in bringing us this information.”
that was a great video and great construction.
Been a fan of Franks for a while. It’s worth following his Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/frank.howarth/
Arbitrary Star Wars fluff… Useless
Still not hackish enough?
http://screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/darth-vader-10-most-dangerous-star-wars-villains-570×285.jpeg
“‘Don’t outsource to China’ I said, ‘Don’t outsource to China!’ But did the Emperor listen? Nooooooo!”
“I have a bad feeling about this.” We bow to your video production as well as your bamboo production!
hack : “a clever solution to a tricky problem”
where’s the problem here?
There are no bamboo death star models on the market.
+1