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Steampunk Flat-Panel LCD Mod

Jake von Slatt — Thu, 07/19/2007 - 23:00

The Steampunk Keyboard looked terribly anachronistic sitting in front of my Dell 1907FP flat panel monitor and while I hesitated to tear open a $300 monitor that was still under warantee, art must be served.

Dell 1907FP Front  Dell 1907FP Back

Inside I found that the whole thing was encased in steel sheet.  I rejected the idea of re-making all of the pieces in brass and went looking for some paint that would give a nice effect.  I settled on a nice gold metalic from Rustoleum with a thin coat of brown Krylon Crystal Color to give it an aged look.

Dell 1907FP metal shielding  krylon and rustoleum paint

Not too bad! The finish is a good match for the 19th Century gas lamp arms that I bought from Sequential Glass.  It was, in fact, these arms that inspired this project.  As soon as I opened the box they came in I knew instantly what I was going to do with them.

faux brass finish and gas lamp arms

I couldn't find any brass angle for the frame so I bought some brass colored aluminum angle from True Value.  I fabricated "L" shaped pieces of brass for the corners and used self-tapping screws to secure everything.  After all of the pieces were screwed into place I cut the screws flush on the inside with my Dremel.

aluminum frame  frame with brass trim pieces

The frame looked a bit bare so I made some brass curly bracket trim pieces

making the brass trim pieces

I cut the brass on the bandsaw and sanded the edges to make them smooth.  Then I bent the trim pieces with this sheet metal brake a friend rescued from the dumpster at his workplace.

sheet metal brake  sanding brass

I was going to make a little brass box for the buttons but I went through the box of parts from a grand father clock escapement that I pulled out of the metal recycling dumpster at the town's transfer station and I thought the chime levers would make great controls.

grandfather clock chime levers

I wanted the base to look like marble so I did a Google image serach for large images with the keyword marble and  found this great image which I printed on a color laser and Modge-Podged onto a wooden base.  I made the base with four block feet and I added trim from Michael's that I had painted in the same manner as the monitor's sheet metal.

modge podge marble  making the feet

A couple of more pieces of trim made the feet.  I screwed the gas lamp arms onto stubs of 1/2" brass gas pipe and press fit them into 11/16" holes in the base.

steampunk monitor base

Here's a close up of the controls, I really like how these turned out.

steampunk monitor controls

Another gold painted piece of trim from Michael's finished off the base.  The knobs that connect the screen to the gas lamp arms are kitchen cabinet knobs from True Value Hardware.

the steampunk monitor

I need to do something about the controls from the back, perhaps a brass cover.

back of the steampunk monitor

A side view.

side view of the steampunk monitor

The Steampunk Desktop - wait, where's the mouse?  Must get to work on that.

the steampunk desktop

By kerosene lamp light . . .

steampunk desktop and kerosene lamp

And finally on black velvet . . .

steampunk monitor and keyboard on black velvet

Related Stories:

Victorian All-in-One PC
Spine Earrings from Improbablecog
Etching Brass - Mailbag
Sew-through Soft Circuits
How to Build a Wimshurst Influence Machine - Part 4
Kerosene Acorn Burner Sconce Lamp
Electrolytic Etching of Brass
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All the wonders of the 'olde' fair

dvdfilmbuff — Tue, 06/29/2010 - 09:02

I have known about steampunk for a while, but never ventured passed the door of the circus tent.

What wonders I beheld when I stepped through the cloth gateway into your world today.

I want them all! :)

An excellent site, with some superb ideas - I can imagine a post apocalypse world where scavenged tech is re-purposed into steam driven wonders!

Wonder if I can punk something into the steam world?

M.

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Now I got a clear picture

preethi — Sat, 06/05/2010 - 11:10

Now I got a clear picture about the broken parts of my computer. Very informative and interesting.

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drool.....

mmmmna — Tue, 03/16/2010 - 06:53

drool.....

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SteamPunkIncredible !!

Vegagirl — Sun, 02/21/2010 - 22:47

Hi Jake , your work is Incendiary , just awesome ! I'd love to send you my MacBook Pro so you can do your Magic on it ! :D and speaking of laptops.....have you considered doing encasings for any ? I believe that would just take the art of Steampunk to an entirely new level :) Oh, I def know that you would create something totally rad if you did ! Am def giving you a linkback in my next post & will be tuning in to see what else you will be re-creating & giving that Steampunk Edge to ! :D

Wishing you much continued success in life & career endeavors .

Mia @ www.dezigndiva.com

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Insperation

bullsballs — Fri, 11/27/2009 - 19:27

I have a laptop with broken hinges, now I know what to do with it!

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Yeah, me too :)

bella — Sun, 12/13/2009 - 10:54

Yeah, me too :)

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Beautiful

uncels — Sun, 11/22/2009 - 08:10

Hi, i just found out about your page today.

Man i love the way your work looks, you're really know how to let old materials look fantastic.

I'm gonna look over all of you're site.

Greetings from the Netherlands (Holland)

Can't believe any of this vintage style is for sale in europe & i'm not that handy that i make it myself.

Already send this url to all of my friends.

Greetings from uncels.

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A work of art

jbgypsy76 — Thu, 10/15/2009 - 11:32

This is absolutely amazing. Have you thought about selling them? I would be interested in purchasing if you decide to do so.

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Beautiful indeed. making me

CQ — Fri, 09/04/2009 - 23:54

Beautiful indeed. making me want to do that with my screen . Needs a mount anyway. Might as well try to make it beautiful as well, right?

If you want to get back in touch with me I'll cut you a piece of granite. Have oodles, 1" thick top polished. have to check on colors, know I've several. one with garnets in it. anyway. just a though if you've not moved on to bigger an better things yet.

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Just started work on my own

Baron Nicodemus... — Mon, 12/22/2008 - 02:13

Originally was gonna do a full casing in wood - but im still going back and forth between that and something else - I may have to give the steel the proper sheen as you did. I assume you took the monitor apart to paint the sheet away from all the circuitry and the like (what with the holes in the sheet and all)

After thinking about this, I've decided that I pretty much stated the obvious but figure I'll go through with it just in case ;)

Baron Nicodemus Hazard

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Mouse

x2611 — Mon, 12/15/2008 - 10:03

How 'bout these for rodents:
http://www.geekologie.com/2008/02/steampunk_mouse_looks_hot_to_o.php
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/04/30/steampunk-mouse.html

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remarkable

adamuko — Sat, 11/22/2008 - 20:59

like something from steamboy

absolutely love it

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Amazing

Mick — Sun, 07/13/2008 - 10:32

Man you're amazing. Having these cool ideas not to talk about making it. Great! I am currently trying to understand your etching tutorial for I want to etch Zippos. :-)

Thanks for steampunkworkshop.com!

Regards

Mick

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Hi .... Really nice !! Veri

feliduca — Tue, 12/23/2008 - 14:26

Hi .... Really nice !! Veri Good .... Do you do another thing like this ? I´d like to see it if you have another one .... For this one , Congratulations !! Bye _______________________ Submited by : Libros Gratis

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Projects

Keyboard

LCD Monitor

Light Switch Plates

Wimshurst Machine

MAC Mini Mod

Altoids Tin Etching

Lightbox

Guitar Amp

Lyra's Lamp

Shop Respirator

Etching Brass

Flash Diffuser

Bus Conversion

All-in-One PC

Motorbike

Etch Machining

iPod Etch

Headphone Mod

Steampunk Strat

Telegraph Build

Steampunk Car

Trilobite Etch

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  • Email Jake: jake@vonslatt.com
  • Email Meredith: satiredun@gmail.com
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