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[Be Overprepared!]

Be Overprepared!

(I'm not selling water bottles. That would be insulting to the hard-working reg staff.)

[The parts]

Here's a quick project I just completed for Clockwork Alchemy - a simple sign post. This was just a quick job. Fanime rules - nothing can be attached to the walls. So any sign needs a signpost.


The parts

Two pieces of scrap lumber, and a wooden dowel from Home Despot.


Assembled, but  unfinished.   At TechShop Menlo Park

Simple job. Cut, sand, screw base parts together for gluing.

Only unusual thing here is that the hole for the pole was drilled in a drill press with a Forstner bit, which scrapes out a flat-bottomed hole. Then a little glue, bang the pole into place with a rubber mallet, and the pole is straight. About 3 hours of work.

Still looks like cheap wood. That's the next step.


Project complete!

The Clockwork Alchemy sign artwork is from Dave Horner, who does the official CA graphics. The sign itself was printed on an inkjet printer, and framed in a cheap frame from Target.

The wood of the sign post was steampunked. Minwax wood stain (Red Oak color here) makes cheap pine look like old hardwood.  Lots of steps. Paint on pre-stain, wait 15 minutes. Paint on first coat of stain, wait 15 minutes. Wipe off excess stain. Wait 3-4 hours for drying. Paint on second coat of stain, wait 15 minutes. Wipe off excess stain. Wait 24 hours for hard dry. Finish with furniture polish.

This isn't quite like painting. The stain sinks into the wood. So after painting it on, it takes lots of dry brush strokes, following the grain of the wood, to put the stain in the right places. This takes a little practice, but isn't hard.

Disposable gloves for this, or you will get stain on your hands. Cheap disposable brushes. This is a messy operation, best done outside or on a dropcloth in a garage.

Staining is a nice project for a hot day, because the stain dries fast. I did a project like this once during a damp winter, and it took a month before the stain dried hard.

This was a quick job. You'll see much fancier signposts at CA this year. Gene Forrer and his crew have been busy.  CA adds new props each year and saves the old ones, so, each year, the hotel looks more and more like a steampunk world. There are a lot of volunteers behind CA, who have been working for months.

Oh, you just want an engraving job. That's easy to do with a laser cutter. Find somebody with a TechShop or Hacker Dojo membership to do it for you. Both places have laser cutters. I'm too busy between now and Clockwork Alchemy to do it.

There are lots of things you can engrave with laser cutters which change color when hit with the laser. See "laserbits.com" for materials. Or you can just paint over something and laser away the paint layer to reveal the color underneath. Green paint over sheet brass would match the colors in the picture. You can get brass sheet at Alan Steel and Supply in Redwood City. Brass is currently about $10/pound there, but thin sheet isn't too expensive.

[You want to make that?]

You want to make that?

That's a nice jewellery project. Lots of layers and parts there. You could make all the individual parts from acrylic with a laser cutter, paint them with lacquers to get the colors, and glue them together. Lots of thin parts; it would be fragile. It's not a good design for a laser cutter job. Laser cutters are strictly 2D devices.

You could make the whole thing on a 3D printer. This is a good 3D printer project - thin, not too much volume. 

Actually that's what I got e-mailed to me when I did the "resend confirmation" at r.fanime.com yesterday.  It says it's the e-postcard, has my (now combined) two person group listed on it, as well as a QR code.  Makes me think that the mass e-mailing of e-postcards is just around the corner.

Thanks. I also just asked for a resend, and got the new version with the QR code.

Registration is supposed to work by scanning that QR code. Less manual typing. Faster reg lines. That's the plan, I heard months ago when the system was being set up. Glad to see it happening.

Registration FAQ, things to bring: "E-postcard that will be sent to you after you pay for your membership and e-mailed to you in early May, before FanimeCon."

Haven't received mine yet. Have they gone out?

[Learn to run this machine!]

Learn to run this machine!  Acquire a totally obsolete job skill for your resume!

We could use another operator or two. It takes about half an hour of training. If interested, PM me here, or email to "[email protected]".

The messages come in from con members' cell phones and are printed automatically. You don't have to retype them. There was a misunderstanding about this - some people thought they had to retype incoming texts from cell phones, using an old typewriter. No, it's all done automatically. The machine types by itself! 

Dickens and Ren Faire people encouraged. If you can do this job in character, you're welcome to do so. We don't insist on that, but if you want to, go for it.

[Preparing the Telegraph Office for Clockwork Alchemy.]

Come on over to Clockwork Alchemy. Lots of things to do. Airship races. Martial arts demos. Steampunk fashion shows. LARPs. Movies. Game room. Steampunk ambience. More stuff than last year.

We have tea and cookies!

I'm hyped up. Our prep started months ago. Gears greased, pocket watches checked, costumes cleaned, props readied, minions recruited...


Preparing the Telegraph Office for Clockwork Alchemy. Real steampunk requires maintenance.
(Still looking for a few more minions.)

For the Telegraph Office at Clockwork Alchemy, we want volunteers in steampunk outfits.  Our messengers get a blue telegraph messenger cap and an "Aetheric Messenger" badge. Operators get a green eyeshade. We do a real steampunk telegraph office.

Yes, we're still looking for both operators and messengers. The more people we have, the easier it is. Send to "[email protected]".

Testing the big machine today and tomorrow. Text to 650-209-7783, with a text of the form
INFO@TELEGRAPH : your message
Send some fun steampunk messages. I'll post pictures here of the best messages, as printed on the machine. We posted some on the Clockwork Alchemy Facebook page yesterday. We'll keep the machine turned on through Tuesday night.

It was just cleaned, greased, and oiled. This is real steam-era machinery, so after servicing, we test it for a day or two. It's open for messages right now through tomorrow, so go for it! Thanks.

We're testing the machines today.  If you text to 650-209-7783, with a text of the form

    INFO@TELEGRAPH : your message

it will print here.  I'll post pictures of any interesting messages, as printed on the machine. (We'll blur out your cell number before posting.) Send some good steampunk messages. Thanks.

(We still need more volunteer messengers for Clockwork Alchemy.)

[Operator:]

The Aetheric Message Machine Company will have a steampunk Telegraph Office at Clockwork Alchemy again in 2014. We're looking for two to four reliable people per shift to work in the Telegraph Office at the event. Steampunk cosplayers especially!



Anyone at the convention can send a telegram for free by texting from a cell phone. The messages are printed on antique printing telegraph equipment, stamped, sorted, put in envelopes, and delivered around the con by messengers.  We did this at the last three Nova Albion events, Clockwork Alchemy 2012 and 2013, and once at Maker Faire.

We have two jobs:

Operator: Works in the Telegraph Office and handles incoming messages from our brass and glass Aetheric Message Machine. Requires some typing and office skills.  You'll be in a highly visible location, a glass-fronted office facing the main corridor to the ballrooms at the Doubletree. Expect to be photographed and interviewed. About half an hour of training is required.

Messenger: Runs around the con delivering messages. Requires energy and a good voice. "Telegram for ..." You'll be on your feet a lot.

This is a fun job to do in steampunk costume.  You're handling real messages, using real antique machines, and do it in character. It gets busy, with the machines typing out messages and messengers running in and out.  We'll be operating for the same hours that the vendor room is open, Friday through Sunday.


The Telegraph Office at Clockwork Alchemy 2012
(Do come in and visit. We make our office look like a real telegraph office. It looked so official at the first Clockwork Alchemy that some people thought they weren't supposed to come in. We made it more inviting last year. Come in and take a close look at the machines.)

See our web site: http://www.aetherltd.com
Here's a video of the Telegraph Office in full operation at Nova Albion.
Our training manual for operators.
Contact us at [email protected] or leave a message here.
Each job comes with a hat - choice of the cap shown above or a green eyeshade. And a brass badge.
The volunteer refund deal is the same as for other Fanime volunteers, and will be coordinated through the volunteer office.

The Aetheric Message Machine Company, Ltd. - bringing text messaging to the 19th century.

The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu) is in theaters today. Hayao Miyazaki's final film.

Here's a different way to botch reg:
Break into the attendees social networking accounts to send spam.

Comic-Con tried that. They got very bad press.
That's a potential mistake to avoid.

[Cosplay prop for Girls und Panzer, currently at Anime Expo in Los Angeles]

Cosplay prop for Girls und Panzer, currently at Anime Expo in Los Angeles

What's the peace-bonding policy on this?

That it doesn't come onto convention property.

I can understand that.

The Girls und Panzer tank at Anime Expo. Crewed by the LT3 cosplay team.

[Cosplay prop for Girls und Panzer, currently at Anime Expo in Los Angeles]

Cosplay prop for Girls und Panzer, currently at Anime Expo in Los Angeles

What's the peace-bonding policy on this?

 
Available from Cafe Press

If someone designs a good LineCon logo, upload the design to Cafe Press. Then anyone can order it, and the designer gets some money back. They make lots of merch, from T-shirts to bags to water bottles, and you can order any item with any logo. A LineCon water bottle would even be useful.

That's covered. There's already a Fanime app for both iPhone and Android.

Registration needs to be automated.  This is Silicon Valley.

Fanime already has iPhone and Android apps. Those could be used to help with registration.

Ideal arrangement: pre-registration involves sending in a selfie and paying on line. A bar code comes back, which can be printed or displayed in the Fanime app. At registration, you show your bar code to a camera or scanner, and your badge is printed with your picture on it.  The person at the badge printer compares your face with the picture and gives you your badge. There is no manual data entry at registration for pre-registered members. That's the Silicon Valley way to do it.

Rent enough badge printers. They can be rented by the day.

Reg staff then deals mostly with problems and with cash customers.

If you need tech volunteers to build the system, get in touch with Hacker Dojo.

Come over and visit Clockwork Alchemy, the steampunk side of Fanime. Almost everyone is in costume there. All the vendors are crafters, not commercial sellers. There are workshops for everything from martial arts to costume to brass engraving. You can meet big-name authors and talk to them, not just look at them from a distance.  There are LARPs and a game room.

Fanime and Clockwork Alchemy badges are valid in both places. The lines at Clockwork Alchemy registration are short.  You can pick up a Fanime badge at Clockwork Alchemy even if you pre-registered for Fanime.

The tea room has free tea and cookies.