This Typewriter Types Toast

As a writer it’s a pleasure to see one’s work appear from time to time on a physical medium. While newspapers may be shuffling slowly off this mortal coil, there are still a few opportunities to write for printed media. It’s safe to say that no Hackaday scribe has ever managed to have their work published on the medium in this hack though, because it’s a typewriter designed to type on toast.

The toaster-typewriter is the work of [Ritika Kedia], and it forms part of her thesis in product design at the Parsons School of Design, New York. It’s written up very much from an artistic rather than a tech perspective, but it’s no less ingenious for that in the way it uses letters formed from hot wire on a clay substrate, mounted on the end of the typewriter arms in front of a toaster.

We’re slightly sad to see that it only has three operable letters at the moment as it’s an artwork rather than a document machine, but we love the idea and wish she had time to develop it further with a full alphabet. You can see a short demo in the video below the break.

28 thoughts on “This Typewriter Types Toast

    1. >very much from an artistic rather than a tech perspective
      >it’s an artwork rather than a document machine

      Did you intentionally miss the point or did you just not read the article?

  1. I wonder if a CNC laser cutter would give you more flexibility in terms of fonts and images.

    I’d give it a whirl, but it sounds like a sure way to get ejected from my local Maker Space.

    1. They’re no fun anymore…One relatively small explosion.

      It’s obviously doable. Permission/forgiveness?
      Laser cutter overkill. Would need to run at low power and move to blur.

      IIRC during the first .com boom/bomb, someone was building a connected toaster that printed a weather map on your toast. Got funded. IIRC Was using a moving modulated hot wire. Regular toaster coils on back.

      VCs dumb, time to rinse/repeat?

      On the other hand. Exploits, toaster virus and goat.se on everybody’s toast.

      On the gripping hand, profit (same as always). Just how dumb are the VCs?

    1. As a dad, I appreciate your pun.
      I’m still waiting for a Battlestar Galactica “toaster” reference to appear in the comments (Sigh!)

      1. I sorta chickened out with throwing in mention of a “555-grain loaf” though.
        If the mods ever quit letting the punsters leave their works, I’ll be heartbroken.

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