Exploded iPod (still works)
(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:
89 Comments, Comment or Ping
DShen
Can I buy one of these?
Nov 13th, 2007
Toby Tortoise
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?
Nov 13th, 2007
Toshiba
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
Nov 13th, 2007
Natalie
Is it standing on little lego blocks? Amazing!
It reminds me of Damien Hirst’s work with the dead animals… but way less gross!
Nov 13th, 2007
James
Mind Blowing.
Nov 13th, 2007
Jonas Juhler Hansen
Love it. Looks like it’s encapsuled in a block of ice preserved for future study.
Nov 13th, 2007
Joe
Nice work! what type of resin you used?
Nov 13th, 2007
Jason
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?
Nov 13th, 2007
Mommy
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…
Nov 14th, 2007
Some Digg visitor
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!
Nov 14th, 2007
graham
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!
Nov 15th, 2007
The iPod and iPhone Repair
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.
Nov 16th, 2007
jrom
Nicely done !
Nov 16th, 2007
califrag
wow just awesome! the lego block feet should have been cast into the resin as well a perfect match.
Nov 17th, 2007
rkattufts
Just one question….
How do you use the click pad now?
:)
Nov 17th, 2007
Axel
how do you change the song genius.. =)
It may look good but..does it sound like it looks ?…
xD..
Nov 18th, 2007
ManMan
I assume songs are changed via the exposed dock on the bottom, as is power and audio out.
Nov 18th, 2007
David
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.
Nov 19th, 2007
Amerist
This looks like it works great now… what happens if you need to reset it? iPods are not the most stable devices, you know.
Nov 20th, 2007
HappyPanda
@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!
Nov 23rd, 2007
NewLifeFromHeaven
Great work!
Nov 24th, 2007
Tomaž Z.
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 ?
Nov 27th, 2007
Doctor Popular
Bricked!
Nov 27th, 2007
Adam
Best. Anything. Ever.
Nov 27th, 2007
Adam
Best. iPod. Ever.
Nov 27th, 2007
Igor
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…
Nov 27th, 2007
bizzybody
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.
Nov 28th, 2007
Ícaro
Nice, vvvvvvvvery nice.
´brazil’!
Nov 28th, 2007
ROD
Será que o autor tem o desenvolvimento da peça gravada em vídeo?
Visualmente interessante, tenho uns livros antigos em casa, isso me deu uma idéia…
Brasil!
Nov 28th, 2007
JL
Next time, add yellow dye, keep the bubbles, go for the “Amber” look.
Nov 28th, 2007
Hal
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!
Nov 28th, 2007
eXe_Qt
Woa!!! Really cool!
Nov 29th, 2007
anne
very awesome — but possibly the best part of this post is the loving comment signed “Mommy”.
Nov 29th, 2007
Whity
Realy nice :) Thanks for this post!
Nov 30th, 2007
Robert
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!
Dec 2nd, 2007
amber
So how do you take that thing to work and such right now? I’m from Texas…
Dec 4th, 2007
Mike
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.
Dec 4th, 2007
Rob
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.
Dec 4th, 2007
jj
That would be one hell of a prank!
Dec 6th, 2007
Paul Thompson
mmm, nice especially as i know how tricky that casting resin is to work with, its pretty unpleasant stuff - I hope you wear a mask!!!
I have attached a link to the gentleman of europe site
http://www.gentlemenofeurope.co.uk/
which shows some work that I have been doing with casting resin (I have used it alot less delicately and less patiently but discovered some nice random effects)
As you say working with high volumes is potentially scary. The first piece I did was for Mondo (see link). I used a 12×12 perspex container and mixed the whole lot in one go in the backyard (volumes always confused me!!!) it started to rain so two of us moved the item into a garden shed, …1 hour later we heard a massive “crack”, i went to the shed and the heatwave accompanying the overwhelming fumes actually knocked me back!!! - The resin had super heated, contracted bending and distorting 7mm perspex (which it sticks to like noones business) and changed to a golden brown colour, this piece took over 6 months to stop “changing” - its a powerfully reactive material.
I then tried to use it properly (casting the boot and the mobile phone etc). In 2005 I removed my central heating system, split the boiler, left it outside to rust and then cast it in a solid block (see old boiler), I opted not to completely encase it for 1.Artistic reasons, 2.Money (its costly stuff) and 3. Its so very very heavy for its size, takes 3 average males to move it believe it or not!!!
Its astonishing that you can keep the ipod running, nice work
Paul Thompson
Dec 10th, 2007
Curtis
Nice! What are you going to do now when you go want to go for a pedal with your tunes? Will it fit in a fani pack? Not really portable anymore is it. Cool as crap though.
Dec 11th, 2007
JoblessPunk
SWEET! I want to see you second try at it!!
Dec 27th, 2007
Primejones
You should get on line and buy some high quality resin. All your problems with resin can be solved with a little more dough. You will not need any pressure tank, just a steady pouring hand into a measuring cup. Resins can be purchased that if you pour a cloudy layer you can pour over it and it will be completely clear. Great idea, MODERN ART. Could sell at MOMA in New York for twice the cost of a real IPOD, if you can add on the warranty.
Jan 13th, 2008
Math
its like balistics gel from mythbusters :))
Feb 23rd, 2008
handy
Wow could you try the same with an iPod touch? It would be interesting also to see how you will do this :-)
Apr 14th, 2008
Sm@rt
Amazing Ipod Very cold idea
May 21st, 2008
jubba
sweeeettttt
Sep 19th, 2008
Handy Student
Amazing. Where can I buy one?
Oct 30th, 2008
phap8
so how do you turn it on and off? and what if you need to rest the darn thing?
Nov 20th, 2008
Alice
How can I connect earphones to this iPod?
Dec 4th, 2008
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