Physics Sticks

I just worked out a path that I'm happy with for the design of one of my long-time favorite toys, juggling sticks. These are FAST, and feel almost mathematical when you use them. If you catch them just right, they will be found to be singing on the control stick. They would suck for a beginner perhaps, but wow! Earlier this month I ordered some materials for them and I've been playing with different ways of putting them together. This is carbon, silicone, webbing, and merino. I'm keen! And these are by way far, the absolute fastest sticks I have ever used. Previous designs of mine were fiberglass, latex, and tennis balls. The webbing is hot because the weight is totally adjustable.

How to make Dust Goggles.

I made these goggles for the dust in the desert at Burning Man. I am posting these images as instructions for those of you who might want to try making some of their own.

Good goggles for the desert are hard to find and they are very expensive if you do.

These are made from an old leather jacket, and from two pieces of tempered and UV resistant glass that I got from the halogen 'puck style' lights. I popped the glass out of the plastic ring. They also sell tinted circles that can be used for torch brazing which would be great. I wanted these for night also, so I'm leaving them clear.

The whole process took about 3 hours. If you have any questions please email me. You can get the address from our website.




Here is the link to the main page on our site. How to make leather and glass goggles.

Foil design jig

I decided long ago that while computers are perfect for many jobs, they were not suited to accomplish the entire task of designing the foils that I wanted to fly and make for ourselves. While I do indeed use computers for much of the process, the core of the shape is done very like lofting a boat. These kites really are far too much work to be for sale, but this is how I sculpted them with a life-size model. This jig is used to to find the non-intuitive shapes of each cell. These were taken in 2001—hard to believe it's been so long.