Product Description

Who says office cubicles need to be dreary? In this book, author Kaden Harris (creator of www.eccentricgenius.caEccentric Genius) introduces aspiring and die-hard Makers to a highly entertaining parallel universe of surreal office-based projects that are sure to pique the curiosity of even the most jaded office mates.

From desktop guillotines and crossbows to mood-enhancing effects and music makers, each project presents a different set of challenges and opens new avenues of Maker lore. There's a strong emphasis on the basic mechanical theories and principles of the devices presented in the book, as well as the fabrication techniques you need to use. But this is far more than a book of project "how-tos". Eccentric Cubicle offers oblique industrial design and fabrication philosophies, countless cultural reference points, and innumerable bad puns.

This book is a dream come true for you office-bound souls who are tech DIY enthusiasts, hobbyist engineers/designers, and Makers at heart. Imagine having your cubicle sport projects such as:

• A mechanical golfer
• Lucid dreaming induction device
• USB-powered bubble blower
• Fog machine
• A desktop guillotine
• And a whole lot more

In the Eccentric Cubicle, Harris starts with classic, time-honored principals, then modernizes and augments his designs with performance enhancements and updated feature sets -- all while precariously balancing form, function, and oddness. Scavenging and repurposing materials and components at every opportunity, he challenges and inspires you to modify and adapt the projects and designs to meet your own scale, performance, and aesthetic requirements.

Bring character and life to your office desktop with Eccentric Cubicle!

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #260730 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 391 pages

About the Author
Kaden Harris (a.k.a. the Eccentric Genius: www.eccentricgenius.ca) makes antiques from a parallel universe: museum-quality miniature catapults and machina arcana, handcrafted corporate gifts, and executive rewards. He lives in Vancouver, B.C., with his wife, "The Sourceress," and six shopcats: Tolka, Miqo, Aggie, Jasper, Pugsley, and The Giant Cat-Bear.

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Customer Reviews

This book makes me happy
I definitely don't have the chops, supplies or tools to make the projects in "Eccentric Cubicle," but I still love this book. It's a blast to read through the instructions for gems like this one:

"Fugly? Uh huh. Useful? Yeah, that, too. Recognizing the potential alternative uses for garden-variety stuff is an essential part of improvisational fabrication."

See, I'm pretty sure I'll never need a drill pattern for a rachet, but dang, it's cool to see how it *could* be done if I ever wanted to. I pick up this book the same way I flip through my baking, knitting, quilting books. To see what I'm in the mood for. To fill up the idea coffers. Or maybe to get some creative sparks going. If you know what I mean when I say that I don't have to start a new quilt project to need dozens of quilting books, then you'll know that you don't need a metal shop to enjoy reading "Eccentric Cubicle."

Plus, Kaden Harris' prose is clean, spare and danged funny (witness such section headings as "A Warning to Woodworking Purists" and "The Rites of Springs: Roll Your Own Boinginess"). It just does my heart good to know he's out there, thinking of ways to keep stuff out of the waste stream, and better yet, returning it to use. I almost wrote "good use," but didn't -- only because not everybody needs a mini guillotine on her desk. Seriously though, it warms my heart to think that somebody somewhere spent the time to make a desktop chopper and document the process so other out-of-the-box thinkers could follow along. That Harris was the one to do it is outright providential.

If you like the guerilla DIY style of Make and Create magazines, you'll like this book. 'nuf said.

Very cool stuff, but you better have some experience...
Following up on my review of The Best of MAKE, I also got a chance to read Eccentric Cubicle by Kaden Harris. You can think of this as MAKE magazine in overdrive. From a pure reading perspective, it's outrageously funny and very well documented. In terms of actually *building* the items here, you had better have some level of background when it comes to hacking and building things on the fly, making the rules up as you go along. And in some offices I know of, you'd probably get put on probation for having these items on your desk...

Contents:
Introduction; Active Deskchop; BallistaMail; Maple Mike; DeskBeam Bass; The Gysin Device; iBlow; Liquid Lens Meets DiscoHead; The Haze-o-Matic 3000 Fog Machine; Hammerhead Live; Homebrew Wood Finishes

There's a picture of Harris in the introduction, and he looks like someone you'd see on a show like Mythbusters or Junkyard Wars. He specializes in making incredible devices using discarded or trashed items he's found and/or scavenged over the years. I can only imagine what his house and work area must look like. All these projects, such as the guillotine and crossbow, are intricate and fascinating, and show a very high level of creativity and ingenuity to build without resorting to buying brand-new or made-to-order parts. The level of workmanship and detail that Harris puts into each one make them unique and special, especially considering that the parts are often from items that are rather mundane, like vacuum cleaners and record players. It just goes to show that looking at "junk" in different terms can open up a world of possibilities. Each project also has a little "nano-project" associated with it. These are things that are much simplier, like making a foot-controlled variable power switch from an old sewing machine pedal. A great idea if your Dremel tool needs to be slowed down a bit for what you're trying to accomplish.

While everything is profusely illustrated and documented, I definitely wouldn't recommend these projects to someone just starting into the DIY world. Harris has spent a lifetime collecting and finding a blend of tools that works well for him. Unless you are similarly equipped, you might find yourself making multiple trips to the store to pick up something you absolutely need to keep going. Of course, that sort of defeats the purpose and spirit behind the projects you find here. On top of that, I could imagine that it'd be easy to miss a step or do something "not quite right", and have the whole project fail to work as advertised. Without the experience of doing these types of projects previously, the troubleshooting could be nightmarish for a newbie. And that would be too bad, as being able to show off your own bubble machine powered by a CPU fan does have a certain amount of "geek cred" attached to it...

If you're comfortable working with tools and such, this book will be a fun stretch for you. If you're brand new to the MAKE culture, this is probably a bit beyond your initial capabilities (unless you're just plain stubborn, incredibly talented, or both). But if you're into these types of contraptions and want an entertaining read by a talented builder *and* writer, by all means go for it.

Tough Projects
This book contains a series of interesting projects to read, however, unless you have some fairly serious Maker background, I don't imagine they would be easy to pull off (both skill and tool wise).

However, some of the included "nano projects" have applicability to making in general, not just the projects they are lumped in with in the book. Two that specifically come to mind are the foot speed control for a dremel and the pegboard clamping system.

Regardless of project difficulty, the book is an interesting read, due to the interesting subject matter and the writing style of the author.