Testing new facebook blog importing tool

It is called Network Blog, and should automatically import posts to this blog right into the STEAMBUG's facebook status updates. Along with posting status update, you can view basic over view of STEAMBUG's blogger blog posts on the Network Blog application page in facebook (without having to add the app yourself - that is key in my opinion). If you do want to add the application, you can follow STEAMBUG, though I am not what extra features that will get you, but I guess it sounds good to have followers.

Just testing a new apps out,
PyroCelt

Thank you all so much.... not quite yet done

I will have a better update soon, but we have not purchased an engine yet ...and there are always lots of additional incidentals. If you would still like to contribute, (as the Chipn campaign ended), please do so at with the PayPal donations page or with the "DONATE! ...thank you" button in the upper left corner of this page!

Keeping it lit,
PyroCelt

So far so good!

So far STEAMBUG would like to thank 8 generous doners who have raised $560!

Let see what kind of mischief we can stir up with this...

Thank you all so much,
PyroCelt

Fund Raising for STEAMBUG's new engine

Dear Lovers of STEAMBUG,

If we want it so see another year of STEAMBUG goodness at local burns, I need your help. Our best bet for a new engine is now, as the Winter Volksfest, the biggest VW show and swap in the South East, is happening this weekend in Greensboro. I would love to go there. I would love to walk off with a new engine. I just need the cash to do it.

Last year I had the pleasure of creating my first Art Car, the STEAMBUG ( www.STEAMBUG.com ). I brought together a dedicated team of misfits, zealots and the generally underemployed, and we made some magic happen. It had wings! They sometimes even flapped! It had a strippers pole sturdily mounted on an airship deck! Not to mention purpleheart wood bumpers, a hand made wooden gear system to drive the wings and a trailer hitch for the not quite completed DJ-on-a-trailer. And all of this was built on the very first car I ever owned, a purple 1969 Volkswagen Beetle.

The STEAMBUG made a debut appearance at Transformus where it was a big hit. Then we took it to Alchemy, where, even with a few technical difficulties, it delighted many. Leaving Alchemy, the breaks went out right before a stoplight. Luckily for STEAMBUG (and myself), the oncoming traffic honked... and let me pass. After renting a tow dolly to drag it home behind my friend's Range Rover, we put a box of books from our free library in the front seat. The books knocked the gearshift into gear. After getting on the highway, the Range Rover tore STEAMBUG's engine to shreds. A new engine runs $1000 - $1200, with $200 - $300 of installation fees. Used engines, in various degrees of working can be found for less, especially if we can get lucky. At a place like the Winter Volksfest we might be able to get lucky with as little as $200.

If you want STEAMBUG to see another year of burns, it will need a new engine. And with the missus getting laid off last fall, I have no extra cash to spare. The creation of this project cost $1200 in Art Car conversion expenses and $800 in vehicle maintenance. With only $700 in Art Grants I footed the rest of the bill. But that cannot happen again. So, dear lovers of the STEAMBUG, if we want it so see another year I need your help. If can, please donate via link below!

Keeping it Lit,
PyroCelt

Maiden Voyage

The STEAMBUG went on its maiden voyage to Transformus, and ahh what an adventure. Most things went well, a few did not work as planned, and there many little things to improve upon. One of the gears pulleys refused to grip the motor drive pin, and slipped, so the wings only intermittently flapped. Add to this that the inverter was too weak, and the battery might not have been able to power a more powerful inverter, and you have flapping wings only happening off of the mains or a generator. And we did not manage to pull the trailer behind the Beetle... but what that give us is a sturdy dance platform that can drive around and wings that can clip on for stage effects or be left off. It also gave us a stage for both Shibari rope suspension (which went fantastically well) and contact fire to set the laddies (and boys) chests, breasts and titties on fire. Ah - what fun. Not to mention all the dancers we had, both in motion and standing still.

STEAMBUG now has a facebook profile, check out all the tagged pictures (you can get there from the "badge" on the left). Also, and seprately, don't forget to become a fan on Paden's amazing fan site ( http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Burning-Town-USA/Steambug/93812799196?ref=search ) - that is the unofficial fan site, but somehow it makes me so happy that it came into being without any help from me!

To Do (from easiest to hardest - maybe):

• Drill holes around edge of the platform for the rope lighting - I had thought of doing this before finding the rope lighting clips, but this would work much better and be stronger
• Get a deep cycle batter - that can fit in the cars "other" battery compartment (under the rear seat), to power the lighting and hopefully run a powerful inverter off of that could power the wings as well. This being a separate power system would also mean we could kill it and still be able to start the car
  
• Make the attachments of wings to flapping rod stronger and better - current one broke once and looked risky much of the time
  
• Get a telescoping ladder - although the ladder we had was perfect, it had to be carried, especially if someone was dancing ( http://www.target.com/Xtend-Climb-Telescoping-Ladder-Type/dp/B000JIJLT4/sr=1-18/qid=1248384946/ref=sr_1_18/178-4663411-7594729?ie=UTF8&search-alias=tgt-index&frombrowse=0&index=target&rh=k%3Aladder&page=1 )
• Change the axle of the gears to metal with a ball bearing that is glued into the wood of the gears - this should get rid of a lot of the shimmy in the gears and make everything run smoother and more reliable
  
• Change the motor and belt system to something with a worm drive - although more powerful trampoline springs made the wings close to balanced, the little motors on there were still shaky when they did work. I think a more powerful motor with a worm drive that was definitely powerful enough to drive the wings would made everything run more confidently
• Put in Spot lights - cut holes in the deck, and put in Plexiglas's inserts. Below them but in LED spotlights to light up the dancer(s).
  
• Cut a hole in the roof of the car and put in a sun/moon roof. Then cut a hole in the deck and put in more Plexiglas just above it so the driver and passenger can get a show too. They might actually get the best show of all...
• Trailer - either drive around with the current trailer enough to feel confident that it can pull it in rough terrain, or get a smaller trailer for the DJ system to be on
• Install a better sound system in the car, make it all switchable to the deep cycle battery as well so it would not drain the starting battery.

Tips for next event:

• It takes at least two people to operate this little puppy, especially if going under trees. Plan on multiple teams, so one team can be not sober but the other team can take STEAMBUG can be out and about
• If we used a 6 foot pole, there would be almost no problems around Deer Fields. An eight foot pole pushed some of the branches back (and knocked the low and dead ones off), but it would just be a whole lot less to think about with a 6 foot one
  

Completion

Exhausted, but it is done. Bumpers - check. Trailer hitch - check. Wings; sewn; constructed; geared; operating - check. Lighting around base of deck (so dancers can see the edge) - check.. T-bar at top of strippers pole for Shibari suspension - check. Trailer reconstructed and coming in at twice allocated budget - check. Trailer awning for rain - check. DJ stand - check. Reuben's Tube to be mounted to DJ stand constructed; tested; installed in nice mounting brackets - check. Uninterrupted Power Supply (to keep the beats pumping while generator is refueled) - check. Approval from the natural Powers That Be in the form of a visitation from a Praying Mantis - check. Actually, it was really outgoing, I put my hand down nice and close to her to for a close up of her checking out a gear, but while I futzed with my camera looking for the macro setting I discovered that before I could find it, she was climbing my camera, heading for my hand. "Are you looking at your camera, or me?" Basically, the STEAMBUG is done... now just to pack my clothes and food. But in the worst case scenario if I arrive at Transformus with my STEAMBUG but no food or clothes, I may be naked, but I don't think I will go hungry...


-PyrocCelt

PS check out the new video in the side bar, it is wingy gearific

Can you say "Purpleheart Wood Bumpers?"

While I was out in Seattle visiting the family, I made a pair of purpleheart wood bumpers with my pa in our friend, Steve Habersetzer's, shop. Steve could probably be called a master craftsmen (though he certainly would not use the title), and along with being one of the old guard of Luddite back-to-the-earth hippies who settled Eastern Washington State in the seventies (where I was born in a tepee) he also makes amazing cabinets and gorgeously usable Gypsy Wagons (which sell for forty to sixty grand). While staying with pops, I got to sleep in Steve's original Caravan, the one Steve lived in for decades. It was tantalizingly delicious, every timber and corner carefully constructed... and it was beautifully parked in Steve's lush organic garden, where he makes enough off the food he grows to feed himself year round. It was a retreat in and of itself, but on to the bumpers.

It all started when my dad asked if I could believe the price woodworkers get on purpleheart wood, and did I have any use for any? I thought about it, and have never really like the crappy tinny bumpers on my VW Beetle, kinda makes me think of the addage "bumpers take about as many bumps as glove boxes have gloves in them." So, thinking back to my parents '71 Volkswagen van that we lived in while traveling the country for the first few years of my life, and the wooden 4 & 4 oak rear bumper on there we used to keep the propane tank on, well, I thought wooden purpleheart wood bumpers would be nice, and awfully Steampunky to boot!

Luckily for me, I flew Southwest, who reduced their baggage from three seventy-five pound bags to two fifty pound bags. So going out there I hoped I would have enough weight allowance to check the buggers on the way back. Getting out there, we went to Eden Saw (who has these amazing wood cards) and found some wood we liked, an eleven foot two by six. Back at Steve's shop, well, it is not everyday you get to cut into eleven feet of purpleheart wood, ah what an experience.

But I get ahead of myself. When I first arrived, Steve was rather busy with a delivery he needed to make the next day, and suggested he could help me out on my project if I could help him deliver his cabinets in the '54 truck he completely restored himself. So I agreed, and got the adventure of riding around is his old truck. It turned out to be well worth the trade, as he had excellent ideas regarding how to make the bumpers wrap around my Beetle like the originals. When I asked him if he thought they would be strong enough as bumpers, he said my Beetle would break before the purpleheart wood bumpers would break.

It was really good to get into a wood shop again, before taking up IT (and gaining a few pounds) I used to be a finished carpenter with my pa. I still knew how to use all the tools, and even still felt right at home in my pa's tool bag, being able to tell a story about most of the tools in it.

After two days, we got all of the pieces cut - Steve doing the trickiest and most dangerous cuts - and fitted with holes drilled for the bolts. The nice thing about our construction was that it was all collapsible, so I really could check it coming back, and both bumper even weighed in just under 50 pounds.

Over the forth of July weekend we got the bumpers sanded, the holes notched for the carriage bolts, the top corner routed, and they look, well, fantastic! Now I just have to glue them (this is mainly to keep unwanted debris or water that can freeze, out), and finish them. Purpleheart wood is, like the name implies, purple, but it fades with time. There is some discussion about if this is oxidation or UV rays, but in either case a good finish, well although it won't stop the gradual fade to gray / brown, it will prolong it. I went to our local Woodcraft to pick of some Arm-o-Seal, something recommended online for purpleheart wood, but it does not mention UV rays. When I walked in, the nice wood worker there asked if he could help me, and I asked what he would put on purple heart wood that was going outsidee to keep it purple. He said "Armor All," and I said "Arm-o-Seal?" and he said no, "Armor All." I asked where to get that and he said auto stores, and I said, "like Armor All? The stuff you put on... your cars interior.... to... protect... it... from the sun. Gatcha!"

It has been a lovely walk down memory lane, and the bumpers really must be seen to be believed...
Keeping it lit,
PyroCelt

PS, I am looking for an old, preferable antique-though-in-great-usable-condition, croze tool which is used for coopering. This is how they cut the groove inside a barrel that the bottom rests in. When I mentioned to my dad that I see a lot of old not too expensive tools in antique shops, he said "oh, that is in the South, they would have lots of great tools there, you should get them." Then I asked Steve if there was anything unusual he was looking for, and we said a croze tool.