The iPhone 8 was just released last week, and that means some people were standing in line in front of an Apple store for hours waiting to get their hands on the latest and greatest glowing rectangle. [Patrick Adair] had a better idea: he would stand in front of an Apple store for four hours, then do something productive with his new smartphone. With the help of a waterjet, some resin, a lathe, and some very fine grades of sandpaper, he created the Apple Ring.
Setting aside the whole process of actually acquiring an iPhone 8 on launch day, the process of turning an iPhone into a ring is more or less what you would expect. First, the iPhone was cut into ring-shaped pieces on a waterjet cutter. Special care was taken to avoid the battery, and in the end [Patrick] was able to get a nice chunk ‘o phone that included the camera lens.
This ring piece was then embedded in clear resin. For this, [Patrick] used Alumilite epoxy, a pressure pot, and a toaster oven to cure the resin. Once the phone parts were firmly encased for the rest of eternity, the ring blank moved over to the lathe. The center of the ring was bored out, and the process of sanding, polishing and gluing in all the tiny parts that fell out during the process commenced. The end result actually looks pretty great, and even though it’s probably a little too bulky, it is a remarkable demonstration of the craft of turning.
You can check out [Patrick]’s video below, along with a video from the Waterjet Channel showing the deconstruction of a glowing rectangle.
Thanks [Morris] for the tip!
Does it still work?
Yep. It’s still a status symbol and evidence of conspicuous consumerism.
In addition, it also continually gives the wearer a transdermal dose of Bisphenol A whenever it is worn. A theoretical upgrade would be to at least use dental grade epoxy but let’s be honest. This isn’t really a well engineered build so much as a “look at me and click here so we can get some advertising revenue because we did something WILD AND TOTALLY CRAZY with the LATEST APPLE BRANDED PHONE*. Although that’s also sort of the point of this post to begin with.
At any rate, here is a great resource on resin casting, if you are so inclined to repeat this build.
http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/gcnc/ch4/
But you buried the lead, an iPhone 8 was destroyed.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/bury-the-lede-versus-lead
But RoHS, so it’s more like “bury the antimony”
RoHS just means that levels are below the threshold for that category of that certain material. Bear in mind that RoHS only covers the use of just six hazardous materials in the manufacture of various types of electronic and electrical equipment. Don’t get me wrong. It’s good thing for the world as a whole but it’s not something as magical or transformative as the RoHS certification is often touted as being.
Plus, the Alumilite epoxy is hardly RoHS certified. Hopefully the creator at least opted for a Isocyanate/Polyether polyurethane blend Alumilite material instead of an epoxy based material as that would be a much better choice for this application though likely slightly more expensive. Similar processing, similar end result. Just better for the wearer.
Also, you should keep in mind that items such as PVC, brominated flame retardants, phthalates, bisphenol-A (BPA) and many other materials that have a long track record of being really not good for living organisms even at very low doses are not currently prohibited or even regulated under RoHS. In fact, some of them are in the lining of pretty much every canned food product on the market today because it saves a few fractions of a cent per can. The food packaging industry has “struggled” with trying to come up with a better (meaning just as cheap) solution for over a decade or two now but has yet to do so in mass production. To be fair, coming up with something that meets all of the mechanical, chemical, processability, environmental, costs and other criteria as epoxy linings offer but differs in that one key area of health concerns is extraordinarily difficult.
Don’t even get me started on the whole somewhat recent BPA free movement, which just replaces BPA with BPF or BPS, which is almost identical to but isn’t actually BPA. I guess that’s one way to go about avoiding the public not wanting to consume products that are stored in BPA containing materials.
I always assume the RoHS is printed on products for advertising with most of the time the people making the product not even knowing what it means, let alone actually complying.
If you have to explain to everyone what it is, is it still a status symbol ?
Surely it’d be easier to just get a T-shirt printed up with “I’m an attention whoring twat”
I very cynically suspect that they did not actually is an iPhone eight. It would be very easy to substitute the phone that actually got processed with an iPhone one or suchlike and keep the iPhone eight for something more useful.
More useful? Like what?
Like a “real” status symbol?
The iPhone 8 has a glass back. You can clearly see it through the resin.
Even moreso than before…
Zing!
This Marxist vocabulary is one of the many odd thinks about hackerism.
Honestly I’m not the biggest fan of Apple,but waiting in line to get the “latest and greatest” just to do something like this is even more . . . I’m not sure what to call it. You could do exactly the same with an older iphone that had already died in some way and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in the end product.
[Patrick Adair] just wanted attention, and he succeed in getting it.
And this is different from the people who waited in the line because …. ?
I once waited in line outside a store on Black Friday for about 15 minutes before it opened, only to have missed out on the item I was hoping to get. Now I start my Black Friday shopping around noon on Friday. If the store still has it and at the price they advertised, I’m good.
I will admit, not a fan of Apple and them “inventing the future” few years after everyone else, but cutting a ring of working hardware, I find it offensive.
Will wait and see, apparently some iPhone 8’s have been swelling and popping the screen because of the battery. Will Apple be the new Samsung?
Exactly right. I’m a big iPhone fan but wouldn’t buy the latest release until user tested. Recently upgraded to iPhone 7 with major rx/tx improvement compared to iPhone 5, which did actually pop its screen due to slow battery ‘explosion’. Easy enough to diy repair though. Looking forward to the iPhone 9 as odd numbers are my ‘thing’.
We will likely never see a 9 in the series, considering they already brought out 10 (“X”). Apple is not a company known for moving backwards in marketing.
Also, it keeps up a trend with Microsoft skipping 9; I’m curious to see if Samsung does the same and we get the S10 next year.
Is there a phone between 8 and 10? NEIN!
I saw what it was and thought “Well, aren’t you special”. It is one of those things that signal the disdain and contempt for those who actually create.
“some people were standing in line in front of an Apple store for hours waiting to get their hands on the latest and greatest glowing rectangle”
I hope it comes with a free punch in the face.
Or therapy; lots of it.
“Enresoning”…? Pardon me for playing the part of the annoying ***hole who comments on blogs about spelling and grammar and punctuation and whatnot — but I really don’t think that’s a word.
I’ll go away now.
‘enrage’ is a word though ;)
“I’ll go away now.”
Be sure to come back tomorrow, as there their they’re will wheel be more moor opportunities to bear bare Bayer you’re your yore sole soul to two too us!
B^)
Enresining.
Neologism/portmanteau tip: keep the root word(s) intact or people will wonder what “soning” might be, and why one would do it over.
This is what I thought as well. I did pause for a while thinking wondering whether the purposefully broken hardware had been put in resin and something else.
More entertaining than watching someone just queue for for a thousand dollar phone. I guess haters gotta hate, but the project is interesting regardless of the raw material.
And looks like he sold the holey jesus phone for USD 420. Lol.
I wouod like this as a way of recycling old iPhones but buying a new one just to throw most of it in the trash is dumb. All those strip mined rare earth metals going straight in the garbage… Smh.
Brian, go tell Jenny List that you used the phrase “ring piece” in an article then post her response.
So… what’s with the ring piece component part ?
clickbaaaaiiiitttt.
turning a working device into a ring made of resin and now garbage electronics isn’t a hack, its just stupid.
He spent how much money and time to end up with a ridiculous trinket that, despite being seemingly impossible, is actually MORE stupid and MORE useless than the idiotPhone itself?
Needs to dip the ring in clear clear resin and polish it.
all the comment here tell me only one thing … this guy reached his goal…
turning a 1k$ piece of technology into a piece of art/junk/protest/… (insert whatever you think it is here) to arouse anger/attention is precisely the goal of the entire project. pretty sure it will piss of all the apple fanboys out there so for me that sounds like mission acomplished…
> pretty sure it will piss of all the apple fanboys out there so for me that sounds like mission acomplished…
So do you think you need to be a fan Apple to recognize the stupidity of the initiative . He would have done it with a perfect working 50eur Nokia 3310 or a 150eur One Note it would have been the same.
He can piss off any guys he wants on YouTube but I do expect that Hackaday would have been more critical.
It is not a matter of being elitist or less open, just try to not take part to the idiocracy.
I had the same reaction. But then I think of the thousands of dollars an engineer will be paying our department to have me make a poorly-designed version of something he could get for $100. (a not uncommon occurrence)
Patrick Adair? You go, boy.
I’m sorry this is a horrible hack.. worse than the piece of hardware waited in line for.
And the finished product is an ugly piece of crap too.
Destroy overpriced hardware:check
Enrage apple fanboy:check
Troll Hackaday readers:check
make youtube revenue: check
Mission accomplished boys, lets hit the pub
I would have taken the $1000 and bought a new tool rather than be a tool and destroy something that others would have valued.
I remember when doing something neat was commented on here as being neat. Wasteful, okay. Pointless, sure. The thing is, I think that finding out about what kind of shenanigans people get up to is interesting. Not everything has to be about making something better, or more useful, or differently useful, up your alley, or even remotely something you would do.
Stop moaning about someone being a whore, or wasteful, or ridiculous, or destructive, or any of a myriad of adjectives to pretty much add a variety to, “Stop doing things I wouldn’t do, or don’t like.”
My goodness, if they took the $1000 out of your wallet, then you can moan all you want. I bet that every single one of you fits in one category of two: 1) you did stupid stuff like this, likely with a sh*t-eating grin on your face, or 2) should find another site to be on, since this clearly is NOT a site you are enjoying.
“That’s dumb,” is not the same as, “Huh, that’s weird. I did not expect that.”
Don’t like it? Move on.
Nice comment Leslie – I’m definitely with you on this!
i would have taken $10000.
How long this click bait will still work?
Hardware is not sacred but reducing a perfect* working phone assembled by abused labors to make a ridiculous ring to get some views, is insanely insulting. This guy thinks he’s smarter, respectable because he knows how to f### mix expoxy without bubbles but he is simply a moron.
Hackaday should not support such douche because of “crafting” quality which is actually pretty low. I did f**** click on this video because of Hackaday! I wouldn’t if it was during a random browsing on YouTube.
Even though the craft would have been great, purpose of hacking is to reuse, fix, extend product life, transforming stuff into something useful and with the shitty state of earth ecosystem, limitate our impact or try also to fix it.
And just between us, having no news during 2 days on frontpage is fine, pal.
Cheers
* I said “perfect” for the condition of being a functional and working phone/mini computer not because it is an iPhone
** english is not my native language.
So he had all these fancy machinery and what does he do with it… tadaaa a stupid piece of plastic ring out of a fully functional overprices smartphone…
I get that all he wants is attention, but please people… when you’re so lucky to have that kind of crazy machinery and money, do something usefull
This is just obscenely wasteful. This guy should be ashamed of himself. Hackaday should be ashamed of themselves for posting this garbage. Electronics are thrown away all of the time. Use something that was destined for a landfill. Don’t use a fully functioning device.
So I hear a lot of whining about the one percent of iPhone buyers that wait in line to get the latest hardware. Come on, every group has some number of people willing to stand in line to be first. Whether its a new phone (Apple or Samsung), Car, Book, Roller Coaster etc etc. It is just that the Apple haters seem to think that ALL iPhone buyers wait in line to get one. I never have, and I skip a generation or two to get the most for my money. These same haters probably think that CNN and Fox don’t spin the news. Grow up haters. As for making a ring, how about a Star Gate ring that turns from a built in motor. Even I might wait in a line to get one of those.
But, but, but, your finger would fall off every time the last chevron locked….
why is this crap on hackaday?
But, will it blend?
No but seriously! The content has gone downhill, what happened to this site?