Soltice/summer plans

To make it official: I'm not going to try to build the hexapod this year. I'm not giving up on the project -- in fact, I just got the new hydraulic test system running yesterday. But it's too complicated (not to mention expensive!) of a build to pull off in a single year. I think next year is still a reasonable goal, at least. I'm going to continue with the prototyping work for the next month or so, hopefully getting close to an entire working leg by the end of May.

Instead, when summer comes I'm going retro. I'll switch back to working on the C/S Kalamazoo, my railroad-style handcar. For those of you just tuning in, I spent last summer making it for Burning Man. It was only barely working in time, slow and very difficult to control. While I'm disappointed that the hexapod won't happen this year, I'm happy to have the chance to make the Kalmazoo work. It's such a gorgeous thing, it really pained me to leave it half functional.

While I have upgrades planned that will take most of the summer to implement, I'm hoping I can get things working well enough to use it in the Fremont Solstice Parade. That's the weekend of Faerie Worlds this year, so I know a lot of you will be gone. Of those of you staying in town, though, would there be interest in joining? I'd love a group of people all steampunked up, walking along with it and taking turns at the pump. I need to go walk the entire route, but I don't think there is much uphill... If I can just get the steering and flywheel action improved somewhat, I'll be more than happy to give up the driver's station!

I'd really like to do this, but it would be neither fun nor practical doing it alone. Let me know if you're interested.