Shortly after the completion and display of ‘The Optimus’ desk lamp, I was given some redundant computer cooling fans by Mark Brown of Applestorm IT systems.
“Thought you might be able to use them for something?” he said…
Despite their functional usage these fans turn out to be real works of art, clearly very cleverly designed/constructed and using a nice lot of copper at the core. Below is a picture of one of them that instantly set mind mind racing for possible applications (I’ve put a penny in the foreground for scale). . .
The first concept evolved into a steampunk-style desk fan, conceived as a companion to ‘The Optimus’. This new creation came together amazingly quickly, with many of the pieces seeming to fit/look ‘right’ together almost naturally. Here’s the front view, taken for scale alongside the same telephone prop as used for The Optimus shot:
Construction centered around lots of copper pipe, some of the beautiful newly designed UK one penny coins as end caps/general decorations, and lots of random brass/copper bits and pieces here and there. Mix all these with a judicious smattering of clock parts, an old lamp base, plumbing elements, brass candle stick bits, a spring and some simple wiring to a 12 volt supply, and, voilà!
Here’s a back view – did I mention it swivels from side to side, as well as forwards and backwars to direct the air where required?
As always, any comments/suggestions would be gratefully received…
Beautiful work! I wonder though whether the heat sink actually hinders the air flow of the fan, since the original design of the heat sink is to use the fan to cool the copper base…
Wow!
That is excellent work there Clive. I wonder if there is a fan you could make that would plug in to a USB port!