(UPDATE: Thanks everyone for the great replies! Also, please digg this if you like it 
)
I love exploded diagrams of objects where you see every piece of the thing. I had the idea to try and make a real life version of one, and picked my iPod to be the victim. The catch was, I wanted it to work even in its exploded form.
I was a bit unhappy with the result because of the clarity of the resin. There were too many bubbles (and was an error on the last pour). At first I was just going to shelve it, but yesterday decided to at least put the photos online.
The most incredible thing about it is it still works perfectly. I encased the internals of the dock too, so it can be controlled, charged, and listened to, by a wire underneath (that sticks out a bit, hence the lego support legs).
Front view:
Side view:
Closeup side:
Bottom view:
Turned on:
Can I buy one of these?
Nice work. The bubbles in the resin give it that ‘trapped in a glacier look’. You say it still works, but is overheating a problem?
Nice work guys. Amazing that it still does work
I was just wondering what kind of resin you use? I’m also considering working on a giant kinder transparent egg filled with kinder toys.
Cheers
Is it standing on little lego blocks? Amazing!
It reminds me of Damien Hirst’s work with the dead animals… but way less gross!
Mind Blowing.
Love it. Looks like it’s encapsuled in a block of ice preserved for future study.
Nice work! what type of resin you used?
I’m assuming that click wheel navigation is out of the question?
Could you post a how to of the project for us aspiring modders?
From the time you could walk you took things apart. I had “body” parts
of objects all over the house. Go know that what made me crazy made you who you are today: a wonderful, creative and super smart person.
I’m sooo proud….by-the-way…from the beginning I thought your i-pod cool and not a failure…
Sweet! I think the \”flaws\” and bubbles give it character. You should put some LEDs underneath to make the bubbles light up and show it off in a dim or dark room. If I owned this it would be proudly displayed where EVERYONE would see it. Kudos on your exploded iPod!
Nice work!
in response to some of these questions: casting clear resin in this quantity takes practice and experimentation. The larger the volume, the more careful you need to be with the proportion of the chemicals used. Too much catalyst creates too much heat and will produce cracks or crazing. Too little catalyst leaves you with a gooey mess. It’s difficult because the proportion of catalyst depends on the air temperature and the volume being cast. It’s an imperfect science. I’m impressed not to see reflective air bubbles around the ipod for example. These often occur when the resin gets too hot then shrinks away from the object. Search for ‘transparent casting resin’ to find example materials. I think these are Polyester resins – but do check. A two part mix, with the catalyst (the other part) being a very small quantity. You really need a vacuum pump to properly remove air bubbles effectively. The resin needs mixing/combining and then placing in an airtight container with connected to a vaccuum pump before pouring. An improvised version might work with a powerful domestic vacuum cleaner. Another technique is to ‘shake’ the bubbles loose by placing the vat of pre-mixed resin on a vibrating surface before the resin goes off. A washing machine containing a pair of sneakers will do it. Just switch on the rinse cycle, with the vat of mixed resin taped or clamped down to the top of the machine. Pouring in stages is a lot less risky – less heat build up. Though it will always create slightly visible layers – as the diffraction value varies. Check out Makezine.com. They may have a better step-by-step explanation of this process. Good luck. Casting an ipod takes nerve!
I stumbled upon your site and showed some of the guys around here, adn we like what we see. If we were to get you another iPod at no charge, would you be interested in doing one for a do it yourself guide, and also for putting up in our store and site. Feel free to contact me at marnold@rapidrepair.com.
Nicely done !
wow just awesome! the lego block feet should have been cast into the resin as well a perfect match.
Just one question….
How do you use the click pad now?
how do you change the song genius.. =)
It may look good but..does it sound like it looks ?…
xD..
I assume songs are changed via the exposed dock on the bottom, as is power and audio out.
Should have just plugged in the USB connector, and any other connectors you want and run them out the backit certainly wouldn’t have hurt the art to have functional connections in the back.. all that aside, its a very cool work of art.
This looks like it works great now… what happens if you need to reset it? iPods are not the most stable devices, you know.
@axel,
unless you want to see in the tube with a giant cube, i really don’t think it’s relevant how you use the click wheel.
Very nice job!
Great work!
I was just wondering .. since most resins produce heat when setting .. how did you know that the internals wouldn’t get damaged from the heat ?
Bricked!
Best. Anything. Ever.
Best. iPod. Ever.
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When the battery dies you should send it back to Apple and see if they will replace it. You might have voided the warrantee somehow…
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If you want better results with casting resin, see smoothon.com Smooth On has been in business since the 1800′s when they made a cement for repairing cast iron pipes.
Their Crystal Clear 200 series urethanes would be perfect for encapsulating an iPod like this. You’d want to choose one with a long pot life so you could vacuum it to remove bubbles before pouring it over your iPod (or other device that’d be damaged by pressure or vacuum).
Another way to eliminate bubbles from plastic castings is to put the mold into a pressure tank and pump it up to at least 50 PSI. Pressure pots made for spraying paint are ideal for this. Several companies sell such post specifically for pressure casting plastic, but an old one (that’s not weakened by rust!) is easy to modify.
1. Either unscrew or cut off the dip tube from the bottom of the lid.
2. Install a pressure gauge into one of the ports on the lid if it doesn’t have one.
3. Make sure the pressure regulator works and has a working gauge on it.
4. You’ll want two air shutoff valves, one between the air hose connection and regulator and a second between the regulator and the lid.
However it would not be a good thing to pressure cast anything with a hard drive since most of them have a small vent hole, usually with a lable warning to not cover the hole. Pressure casting would force resin inside the drive. If the drive is a fully sealed type, the pressure would just crush it.
Likewise, vacuum casting is out. That would suck the air out of the drive, or burst the seals, then the resin would flow in to replace the air.
Nice, vvvvvvvvery nice.
´brazil’!
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Será que o autor tem o desenvolvimento da peça gravada em vÃdeo?
Visualmente interessante, tenho uns livros antigos em casa, isso me deu uma idéia…
Brasil!
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Next time, add yellow dye, keep the bubbles, go for the “Amber” look.
Very cool work. I’ve done a bit of resin myself. I believe that the best type to use is a ‘momomer’ resin as it resists yellowing better than other types. I love all the suggestions of vacuum/shaking/pressure to get rid of air bubbles. I usuallly don’t mind them but have had some troubles with overcatalyzing and lost a big (and expensive) casting with some old shoes in it to heat cracking. I’m still trying to find a way to look at this $300 block of junk in a way that I like… The only suggestion on technique that I can make which I havn’t heard before is about the finished surface. I never much bother about making a really good mold preferring instead to sand the final product flat with a belt sander loaded up with 50 grit paper. I then move through the grits; 100-120-150, and then to the orbital sander; 180, 220, 320. After this it’s the palm sander as fine as I can get and then some steel wool, 3-O and 4-O grades. Finally a buffing wheel with automotive rubbing compound and, finally, automotive polishing compound. You get a really good finish this way with maximum transparency and lots of white dust everywhere… Thanks everyone for all the suggestions!
Woa!!! Really cool!
very awesome — but possibly the best part of this post is the loving comment signed “Mommy”.
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Realy nice
Thanks for this post!
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If you don’t have a vacuum pump or a vibrating surface, there’s another method for minimizing the bubbles. Pour the resin very slowly, and from some height above the mold (2-5 feet), so that the stream of resin becomes very, very thin. The height you need to be at depends on how thick the resin is. You want a the resin stream to become thin enough to eliminate bubbles, but not so thin that it blows around and gets all over the place. Whoever suggested SmoothOn was right; they have great products and good technical support for them. They even have transparent castable rubber!
So how do you take that thing to work and such right now? I’m from Texas…
Very cool. If you could do this with an ipod, why not with an entire pc? You would have to water cool it and put the radiator and stuff on the outside. It would be kind of like the old vegetable oil filled clear case that was on toms hardware a few years back.
If this had a second click wheel (you’d need 2 ipods) that was mounted in a remote that ran out the bottom, this would be the greatest stereo ever.
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