Comments on: ooooo shiny

ooooo shiny

divabat — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:00:15 -0800

Ever made an indie action film and needed something for that epic glass-break scene? How about the blackest black you can find? Want to adjust your boots so that they are mud repellant? Inventables has everything you need - for the budding inventor, busy set designer, or Q in training.

By: KingEdRa

KingEdRa — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:10:26 -0800

My God, it's like The Back Yard Mad Scientist's Supply Shop!

By: kaibutsu

kaibutsu — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:40:03 -0800

Hmmm... The bone black pigment doesn't come anywhere near the sheer darkness of my fuligin cloak.

By: Phire

Phire — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:40:24 -0800

"Ooh shiny" is right. This site is an exercise in self-restraint.

By: kaibutsu

kaibutsu — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:49:55 -0800

dude. Aluminum foam. fucking awesome.

By: jopreacher

jopreacher — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:53:21 -0800

Woah. There are a ton of conductive fabrics, threads, velcro switch strips... and super bright LEDs, skin conductor switches and things that glow... bendable wood and heat activated motion devices. This Halloween is going to rock.

By: maxwelton

maxwelton — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 03:06:42 -0800

I put one of everything in my cart. Please visit my kickstarter page to help me pay for it.

By: Dillonlikescookies

Dillonlikescookies — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 03:09:49 -0800

this site fucking rocks. now i need to win lotto.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 03:16:09 -0800

Heh. What's alarming to me is I've already visited every page on that site. There's another company (the name escapes me) that's been around for a while that is the same kind of resource for industrial designers and inventors, but it also operated like a subscription-based magazine. The subscriptions were insanely expensive but every week or month they shipped a new batch of samples of new materials or other resources. I think it also functioned as a library in that you could request samples of classes, types or applications of materials. It was designed as a way to stay current with newly available materials, which would justify the really expensive price for a subscription if you happened to be a working industrial designer or a studio/business.

By: ursus_comiter

ursus_comiter — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 03:38:35 -0800

I really want someone to take that mud repelling development and start using it to make some sweet, sweet steel toed hiking boots.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 04:40:35 -0800

Ahhh...Bone Black. My fave go-to black when I'm painting.

By: jaffacakerhubarb

jaffacakerhubarb — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 05:17:39 -0800

This is so many different flavours of awesome. My brother's starting university (college to the USAians) this year to study physics. I think I know where to shop for his birthday this year!

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 06:04:55 -0800

This Inventables.com site is pretty awesome.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 06:05:53 -0800

Oh shit, the post was for inventables.com. I just clicked one of the links (bone black) and was like 'hey this site is awesome!'. I didn't realize all the links were to there. Heh.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 06:09:15 -0800

suction cup tape! awesome.

By: idiopath

idiopath — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 06:22:10 -0800

You know, with that conductive fabric, you could make a lining for a regular hat, and nobody but you knows that you are wearing a tinfoil hat.

By: R. Mutt

R. Mutt — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 06:30:40 -0800

Sweet.

By: a halcyon day

a halcyon day — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 06:54:55 -0800

I have the feeling that this is a McMaster-Carr vs. Etsy mash-up... and I think I'm ok with it.

By: Wuggie Norple

Wuggie Norple — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 07:08:23 -0800

eeeeeeeeeeeeeee, I want my kitchen laminated with Super Hydrophobic Surface!

By: biddeford

biddeford — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 07:17:40 -0800

I have the feeling that this is a McMaster-Carr vs. Etsy mash-up... and I think I'm ok with it. I'm thinking ChemEtsy? Seriously, this site would turn me into an even bigger hoarder than I am now if had the do-re-mi. My head is spinning with the want. Squishy Magnets!

By: SmileyChewtrain

SmileyChewtrain — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 07:31:51 -0800

It's funny, all the link title and descriptions read like the masterfully crafted teaser ads from The Johnson Smith Company or the back of a Boys Life magazine ("YOU CAN FLOAT ON AIR"), Like, "Powerless Illuminating Tubing: Illuminates without electricity," which turns out to be glow in the dark rubber. Not that any of these things are really that disappointing upon further reflection or anything, but whoever is writing all that clearly knows how to grab my attention.

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 07:41:40 -0800

This is pretty awesome. I'd seen this site before they introduced sample pricing, and I was blown away by the materials available—but frustrated that I couldn't actually buy any of it! Once I start working on some of my art projects again this summer, this might be a really good resource.

By: idiopath

idiopath — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 08:05:00 -0800

"Hmm, this bend sensor is OK, but very sensitive to vibration, humidity, and miscelanious noise sources" "That's nothing some marketing-speak can't fix!" I am imagining a warning beep, similar to the back-up alert on a truck, when one's fly is open. Related idea: make this into a talking zipper, that instead of the standard zipping sound, delivers a custom audio message. The ones they sell on the site are demo models that all say "Congratulations". I want my pants to say "Congratulations" when unzipped.

By: jacquilynne

jacquilynne — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 08:17:51 -0800

At first I thought this was like a real life Acme Catalogue. But then I realized, no. This is where Acme buys supplies.

By: immlass

immlass — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 08:19:08 -0800

Now I know where to send my geekier friends the next time they want to film a 15-second clip from Star Wars, especially if they get an interesting 15 seconds.

By: bz

bz — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 08:19:11 -0800

Cool stuff at absurd prices.

By: Malice

Malice — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 08:25:54 -0800

The prices man. Some of this you might actually be able to find on ebay for cheaper.

By: spacewrench

spacewrench — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 08:38:33 -0800

Some of this you actually might not be able to find more expensively. Inventables Bone Black: $4.06/oz. Random Art Site Bone Black: $1.73/oz. And translucent concrete ($134.50 for a 4x4x0.75 tile)? Wasn't there a hoax about that a few years ago? Is it a real thing now?

By: bz

bz — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 08:50:12 -0800

Yes, translucent concrete is a real thing now.

By: CheeseDigestsAll

CheeseDigestsAll — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 09:00:47 -0800

I agree this is a cool site, but they're sorely lacking in product details. There's no indication of how much rubber glass I get for my $42. It could be 10cc it could be a liter.

By: charlie don't surf

charlie don't surf — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 09:06:38 -0800

Oh jeez, "bone black" is just Ivory Black, but not made from real Ivory. And this isn't the "blackest black." I've been lecturing photographers about that for years. There are two darkest blacks. 1. The blackest pigment you can find. You can see it by reflected light. 2. The deepest well you can find (ideally, a deep well with the interior walls painted with the blackest black pigment. It reflects no light, it's an "optical cavity" that absorbs all light rays. #2 will always be darker. OK, I might as well give you the rest of the lecture. There are two brightest whites. 1. The whitest pigment you can find. 2. The sun, or a "specular highlight" of the sun reflecting off chrome. That is the extreme range of naturally occurring brightnesses. This stuff is straight out of Ansel Adam's Zone System, you meter for the natural whites and blacks and let the optical cavities or specular highlights go out of the exposure range.

By: jedicus

jedicus — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 10:00:33 -0800

What I want to know is where I can get some of this ceramic material.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 10:18:39 -0800

There are two darkest blacks. The technical term for it is infrablack. It can be seen quite easily under experimental conditions. To perform the experiment simply select a healthy brick wall with a good runup, and, lowering your head, charge. The color that flashes in bursts behind your eyes, behind the pain, just before you die, is infrablack.

By: Mrs. Pterodactyl

Mrs. Pterodactyl — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 10:35:55 -0800

Yes, translucent concrete is a real thing now. What about transparent aluminum?

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 10:39:30 -0800

What about transparent aluminum? Also real.

By: Mrs. Pterodactyl

Mrs. Pterodactyl — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 10:40:53 -0800

What about transparent aluminum? Also real. AAAAH holy shit I was totally kidding! WTF! Oh my God this is seriously freaking me out, I don't even know why.

By: cmoj

cmoj — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 16:51:17 -0800

loquacious, are you thinking of Materia? If not, it would still be of interest to anyone enthused by this site.

By: jpdoane

jpdoane — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 17:40:42 -0800

It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black.

By: disillusioned

disillusioned — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:17:59 -0800

CheeseDigestsAll, are you looking at the same page I am?

4 pound trial kit of Tin cure silicone rubber product developed specifically for simulating ice and broken glass (specific volume: cu. in./lb.: 28.6). 3A:1B by volume mix ratio.

By: jfwlucy

jfwlucy — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 20:30:58 -0800

EEEEK!! I have to have squishy magnets in pink!! And shoes in radiant acrylic!! Or fish leather!! And ingredient impregnated foam for my makeup?! I'm DYING here. Scientists or whatever you guys are, you are sitting on some serious GOLD MINES!

By: hattifattener

hattifattener — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:15:36 -0800

ooo, cool stuff here. Stainless-steel yarn! It does seem crazy overpriced for the few items that I know of other sources for.

By: achmorrison

achmorrison — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:31:39 -0800

I've been looking for a source for UV-reactive beads like these for awhile now. If anyone knows of a cheaper source, I'm all ears.

By: charlie don't surf

charlie don't surf — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 14:06:22 -0800

The technical term for it is infrablack. Well, there is probably one ultimate black, depending on what cosmological model you use. Color can be expressed by the Black Body curve. Presumably the blackest, darkest conditions would be looking into deep space as the universe expands through the final entropic phases of "heat death" and all matter and energy are dispersed infinitely until there is nothing left but a background temp of absolute zero. But personally, I like Lamp Black (Carbon Black) even though stains my brushes.

By: wenestvedt

wenestvedt — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:53:11 -0800

achmorrison, I paid like $4.95 at Michael's craft store for 500 GITD Pony Beads. You should see those bad boys glow when I hit them with a UV flashlight. :7) MeMail me.