The Steampunkers Box of Memories

Dear Sreampunkers, dear Friends

Do you have one of these ugly plastic electronic photo frames on your desk?
If yes - did you think to give it a new look? To make it "Steampunky"?
I would like to give you whit this instructable some inspirations how you coud convert such a TFT photo frame to a nice Steampunk Gadget.

First of all you will need one of this TFT Photo Frames. I found an used one at home, a real ugly plastic one. It was running with an external power supply and there were some pink lines on the running screen. But I was inspired from this small piece of electronic and I had to pimp it, even it seemed to be damaged.

From a tabacco shop I had some nice old wooden boxes. The ones they use for the cigars from Cuba. They give me this boxes for free, because they sell the cigars by piece.

From the junk yard I got a brass fitting which I planned to use for the USB connector.

Because I wanted to use the USB power from the computer to run the frame I digged out an old USB cable. I collect this cables from the electronic trash, cut them off from old keyboards and so on... it's always good to have a stock of them...

Further I used a can of black color and some brass screws. The decoration on the top of the lid is from a gas valve and from a light bulb...

The cigar box was made from a very hard wood. I didn't expect such a hard work to cut out the sides for the TFT. But my DREMEL made a really good job. After the sanding I painted the box with black color. Just before that I demounted the brass fittings...

Because I planned to use my Steampunk USB Stick "Speichergerät Nummer 1" I planned to place the USB Connector in front of the box, so that you can see the unique Data Stick.
I found a nice piece of brass to use it for my USB Connector. The original USB plug fittet perfectly into the brass fitting without using a screw or glue. After inserting the plug I drilled some holes for the screws and for the cable.

After I removed all the plastic waste from the device I created a new power connection. I didn't want to use the external power supply anymore. I planned to take the power from the computers USB plug. So I soldered an old USB cable to the power connection. When I switch on my computer at work, the "Box of Memories" will start up - that's what I wanted to have!
The control panel with the buttons I didn't install anymore. There is a small remote to control the device. For that I drilled a hole into the box and installed the infrared led.
After that I soldered the USB Connector to the device and everything was ready to be mounted into the box.

To finish I mounted the TFT into the box and placed the Airship decal into the lid. The decal I simply printed out on my printer...
Then I screwed the brass screw nuts to the lid and placed the remainings of an old gas valve on the top of the lid.
After I finished my little son destroyed one of my nice old light bulbs. I didn't want to waste the brass socket and reused it for my device...

So, that's it.
After I finished and I started my new "Box of Memories" the pink lines on the TFT were gone....it works now perfectly!! I don't know why this pink lines disappeared... may the device feels more comfortable in the wooden  Steampunk box than in the ugly plastic jail!!

Hope I could give you some ideas how to create your own Steampunk Picture Frame. Just do it - it's a lot of fun!!

Sincerely yours

The Chocolatist

www.thechocolatist.com