Jaw-dropping steampunk mouse integrating real mouse skeleton
This handmade "Neo Victorian" mouse is pure steamporn -- from the old keyboard keys (emblazoned with cryptic symbols) that serve as the buttons to the gears intermingled with the tarnished bones of a real mouse to the functional, gleaming brass gearing. The maker did a fantastic job explaining his process and materials -- plenty of leads for anyone who wants to try their own hand and making one of these.
The Paradox Mouse!! Custom Computer Mouse (via Make)
After completing my custom keyboard, I was constantly annoyed with seeing my ugly plastic mouse sitting next to it, so I knew a new project was inevitable. I decided to make a custom matching mouse! At first I felt this project was beyond my abilities, since I had to make actual moving and working parts, but after hours of staring at a dissembled mouse and my boxes and jars of random found objects, I developed a plan of attack. The mouse I started with was a generic 5 button mouse with scroll wheel. The two main left/right buttons were the largest obstacles for I couldn’t find anything that would both look and function well. My first though was to use the two sides of a bottom jawbone of some rodent I had lying around, but they ended up being too small and fragile for constant use. I then decided I will just carve some pieces out of wood. After this, I made a mount using brass tubing and brass I-beam shaped pieces. To match the keyboard, I decided to add vintage typewriter keys to each of the finger points on the main 4 buttons of this mouse. I used Alchemy symbols to replace the original letters in the keys. These symbols may or may not have been chosen for a specific significance in this project.
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This is the antithesis of "ergonomic".
It looks more like a torture device.
I like it a lot, except for the spine where the palm would rest.
It seems like your hand would inadvertently damage the little vertebrae through normal use.
Dear Santa...
Hey, that's actually not bad. You can see the works, at least some of the individual parts were hand-carved, and there for functionality. The hardware store nuts on the axle are a bit clunky, but it would be easy enough to replace them with threaded "onion" caps from - or patterned after - antique pocket watch crowns.
Man, I love this stuff, I really wish BoingBoing would post more stuff about steampunk, it's been dropping off a bit lately.
Now this is how to do steampunk right. Very lovely.
It looks lovely, but it also looks like it'd make my hand bleed after several hours of continual usage. Especially the scroll wheel-- yowza!
Has Cory pre-ordered his yet?
Cordwainer Smith described a laminated mouse brain computer in 1962 in Think Blue, Count Two.
http://www.purplehell.com/riddletools/alchemy.htm
A slightly earlier Stmpnk mouse is shewn here.
How does one go about 'tarnishing' bones?
Posted two days ago: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/12/09/the-paradox-mouse-is.html
hp Cry vntlly gts sck f ths stmpnk crp. Thn, hpflly, ppl wll gv t p.
Very nice. I never even thought to build a custom mouse. Is it an optical mouse?