Miscellaneous Machines and Crew Geekery

This is the Sparkshooter which I seem to be running the last few shows. It is a great machine to run: stationary so you can still check out the rest of the show and makes very obvious special fx when you set it off. See this photo of me operating it taken by Scott Beale at the Dangerous Curve show in LA last year (2005):


The Large Flameblower uses a Corvette engine for some serious firepower.

It also has pretty obvious special fx. It was last run in Austin 9 years ago!



Crew:

Doug Sutton and V1 Horns (with partial deer skull cap. It was an entire head though the rest of it is missing)	Karen Marcelo and SRL logo buddy Liisa Pine and Sabrina Merlo
Nina Alter gets on the table to work	Peter Luka and Mark Pauline go over Big Walker schematics. Peter is making 100 roach bots

Dual Mules and Injuries

This is the new machine we are building for the show dubbed the "Dual Mules". They have a strange gait and will be expanding and contracting to make corners and such. They require 2 boards but will only use 1 Futaba.



Minor injuries for the day:

Oops. Amy Critchett backs into Nina Alter's jeep.	Sabrina Merlo's neck hurts. Babalou looks sympathetic?
Courtney Sexton grinds his elbow by mistake	Jake bit Mark Pauline's finger!

WE HAVE OUR PERMITS!

All the t's are crossed, the i's dotted, 6 flags raised as of yesterday July 14. Get your tickets here:

http://www.artsopolis.com/zeroone/02.htm


Photo of Hovercraft and Running Machine by Karen Marcelo from 2002's Art of Extreme Robotics in San Jose

The Return of the Large Flame Blower and Mark's Other Art

Not many people know that Mark Pauline actually did this kind of art before inventing Large Scale Machine Performance. This if I remember correctly was his first or one of the first things he made!:


The Large Flameblower was dragged out finally after not being run since Austin in 1997! It got it's first test run tonight after 9 years of hibernation:


Kevin Binkert wafts lathe steam for some SRL aromatherapy.


Macki shows off some Batman inspired disaster art

New Lathe

Mark's new CNC Lathe arrived today!

Joanne Bloomfield has to deal with a giant tarp to cover it. She is amazingly good at taking giant tarps like this and folding them up into a tiny square. No wonder, she used to make elephant blankets!

Crew:
New dad Eric Paulos makes a shop-comeback working on the Big Walker

Chris Bohren through a pipe	Wendy Flybutter
Morgan works on the Bombloader	Sandra Lee
Brian Normanly the wise one. Knows where everything is in the shop. Can drive forklifts with a large sketchy load at an angle and have nothing go wrong.	Karen interrupts the electrical meeting that Kent Cates, Babalou, Brian Normanly are trying to have

SRL Machine Bible: An Interesting Assortment of Wonderful and Unusual Machine Schematics

Yesterday, Karen started digitizing the famous SRL binders of schematics and electronics notes for all the machines, appropriately named in the style of the usual SRL show title:


Just in time too as some of the pages were on FAX paper and were starting to fade! These 2 binders are the *only* copies and the closest thing to machine designs at the shop, all machines are built organically from Mark's head and evolve over the years.
This is a portion of an ancient Running Machine schematic from 1990:

And an old igniter (really the V1) schematic complete with skull:

A Book for every machine. From the Book of Sparkshooter 1:6 - "Thou shalt not die from 20,000 volt electric shock if thou shalt not stick thy hand unto the unlabeled area of death."


More Crew Shots:

Kimric Smythe demonstrates the meaning of the word heliofranticulate which is the feeling you get when you are leaning back too far on your chair and it starts to fall backwards but you save yourself at the last minute by flailing wildly.

Kimric explains the meaning of the word heliomasophile which is someone that constantly gazes at their navel. We ask him to give us an example of usage in a sentence and he says, "Those f*&ng heliomasophiles, stinking up the yard with their patchouli again." Violet Blue defends the shop against the heliomasophiles

Babalou entices the crew to keep working with a pound plus of chocolate.

Michael Wehner feigns surprise at the absence of heliomasophiles at the shop.

Photos from Karen Marcelo

SRL Cuisine

Amy Miller, and Wendy Flybutter make some delicious quiches for the crew:






Bob Taylor serves up some manicooti with instructions: NO VEGGIES ALL MEAT. HEAT AND EAT.


Crew

Babalou production manager	What's Greg Jones about to do the the Large Flameblower...
Doug Sutton and Kevin Binkert. To them, all things are easy: A baby could do it.	Violet Blue steps out of her new car!