van Zoelen HomePage

M Y - O T H E R - A C T I V I T I E S

Some of the things i also do.

I like to build and create things very much.
Many things have my interess and these are a few of the things i am doing.

My scrap book locking system This is my scrap book where i keep in my notes, funny ideas and the plans of gadgets that i made earlier. It's a left over from the time that i learned how to bind a book together.
One day i saw this idea on the net ( here ) It got me intrigued. After close examination i decided to enhance my scrapbook with such locking system.
Klik this link to see a small MPG movie to see it in action.

A CD lamp
This lamp is made from 166 old CD's
Inside the land is a TL-tube and a complete starter unit the start the tube.

The top and bottom caps are re-used garden light tops. Each center hole in the CD had the made large to fit in the TL tube
An extra hole was made to hold the starter unit en trafo block.

Klik this link to see a small MPG movie of the lamp in action.

Steampunk style?
I never knew the name of it. For years i adored the marvelous artwork, style and machines till i stumbled into the name steampunk. I followed a this link and i was dropped right in the middle of it. So this is how this wonderfull world is called.

[Short story]
While designing parts for my latest project the lights go out. The room is filled with the dim light coming from the moon shining through the lab's window. "Not again! Power failure!" I grab my goggles. "Sigh!", i close my design manual and prepare myself to go to the boiler room again.
"This is the second time this week. How on earth could i work like this!"
The boiler room is a hot place underneath the house filled with coals, dust and most of all no light. The flickering of the candle displays ghostly figures on the walls. My cloths are already soaked of sweat and i didn't even start with the repairs.

Two hours later i am finished.
While i throw in the last batch of coaldust into the oven the steam pressure is raising again. The dynamo softly starts spinning and the rooms get filled with that typical ozon smell while the electric power builds up.

I am exhausted, the hard labour and heat have cast their toll. I stumble up the stairs and back into the lab. The lights getting on again and getting brighter and brighter. I need a good bath and something to eat. After washing myself i put on some clean cloths. The whistle of the kettle on the stove sounds the alarm that a nice cup of tea is ready to be consumed.
Back to work... Designing!

Like the goggles shown on the images. Big, with a great cool factor and very 'Steampunkish'
I love them, i made them and i wear them...

I made some games and tools for the Nintendo DS. A great little handheld that got lots of functionality. Here you see some examples. One is of a GPS system that i made and the other is a program that can aid you to learn then Japanese kana's
http://nds.zoelen.net

Books, in particulair my book. After years of waiting and waiting i finaly made some time to finish my book. Of course i went completly over the top and ended up doing the complete production on my own. Writing, illustrating, printing, bookbinding, i do it all. But the results are astonishing!

Click here to see the result

Yes, another item got my attention. Movie special effects. I wanted to find out how to do those niffty tricks too. My first experiment was to create some lightning casted from my hand.
After some fiddling around i got a nice result.
Right-click here and choose save to see the result
After the first test try i took my goal one step further.
Obi-Bram Kenobi in action. Have a look!
Right-click here and choose save to see the result

After reading Dan Brown's 'The DaVinci code' i got intriged but a device mentioned in the book, the cryptex. I descided to make one of my own. I used nothing more that hand tools like saw, vile and sandpaper.

The project i am currently working on is a 'Verge and Foliot' type of clock. It will be my own design. I made a test wheel to check if my idea's are right. The wheel is made of 2 CD's and 40 brass pins. (btw, my idea was right)

Project discontinued

I always wanted to build a metal detector.
After years going around with the idea i stumbled into this site
http://home.clara.net/saxons/bfo.htm

Here's the result. A metal detector that actualy work, Not very well
but it was a fun project.

Years ago i got interested into ancient weapons and the technics to build them. One of the things i made is this knife called a "Kris pusaka" or family kris.

I use several layers of metal and forged them into this shape. I used all known rituals such as fasting, praying and cleaning. I gave the kris it's acid baths, name and signs in the hecht. The casing is ingraved with a Arabic inscription.

In the same period as when i made the kris (see above) i also made this beast.

Some details. To cock the wire you need 20 kg force. When fired the arrow will pass through a tincan placed at 15 meters.
More pictures:
Image 1 Image 2 Image 3

Not all things must have a function. This is one of them. It's made from one solid block of aluminium on a lathe. When finished all pieces break loose and you can start polishing it. It's made out one piece and the inner cubes can't get out! For you to figure it out how it's done. (not that difficult)

Sometime ago i found this interesting shaped stone. I carved it a bit more into shape and i ended up with this nice looking 'fossil'

Stone carving is a nice way to get energy back into your life. Seeing the following pieces you can imagine that i needed much ernergy to replenish.
The dragon is behind another thing i do, Bonsai trees.

This piece is made from marble. It's a design of a Celtic hanger.

I like to make small robots. I am aspecially fond of those little things with legs. Here's an example of one of them. It's a 'proof of concept' for a new design. There is also a small Quicktime movie (1.1Mb) available here
More can be found here

Paper. A very nice product. You can do a lot of things with it. More can be found HERE!!!

Some commics books i reproduced
Opened

A small closed book
Opened

A juwellery box
Opened

Food!
I love to cook.
And love to eat it too.

I saw Bob Ross on TV and i was amazed by him. I wanted to try his painting style to and this is the result. My very first oil painting ever.

Boardgames and cardgames are another love of me. I like to play them very much. I also restore games and recreated games that are out-of-print.

I played Ports of Call for many, many hours on the Amiga. A great game
I tried to port it to GameBoy Advance (also running on Nintendo DS). The game is about 80% finished but due to compiler problems (the deveploper dropped the project) i am not able to finish it. Everything of the game is in it. The only part missing is paying back your loans and banking. Follow the link for the source code and compiler. The game is written DragonBasic.
More images

Making juwelery
My first try. My wife is very happy with it.

I still had a old laptop laying around. A 486 processor. I swapped some floppy disks and managed to get Windows 95 on the machine. After that i was able get a netwerk going via a PCMCIA card and dumped a pre-made slideshow (ifraview) on startup. I also demontaged the screen and turned it around so it would look like a tabletPC. (sadly it isn't.) The results are oke but my next scrap laptop will have a detached screen. It will look much smaller, thinner and is more light weighted.

Copyright © 1998, 2007 A.A. van Zoelen.
All rights reserved.

My scrap book locking system	This is my scrap book where i keep in my notes, funny ideas and the plans of gadgets that i made earlier. It's a left over from the time that i learned how to bind a book together. One day i saw this idea on the net ( here ) It got me intrigued. After close examination i decided to enhance my scrapbook with such locking system. Klik this link to see a small MPG movie to see it in action.
A CD lamp This lamp is made from 166 old CD's Inside the land is a TL-tube and a complete starter unit the start the tube.
The top and bottom caps are re-used garden light tops.	Each center hole in the CD had the made large to fit in the TL tube An extra hole was made to hold the starter unit en trafo block.
	Klik this link to see a small MPG movie of the lamp in action.
Steampunk style? I never knew the name of it. For years i adored the marvelous artwork, style and machines till i stumbled into the name steampunk. I followed a this link and i was dropped right in the middle of it. So this is how this wonderfull world is called. [Short story] While designing parts for my latest project the lights go out. The room is filled with the dim light coming from the moon shining through the lab's window. "Not again! Power failure!" I grab my goggles.	"Sigh!", i close my design manual and prepare myself to go to the boiler room again. "This is the second time this week. How on earth could i work like this!" The boiler room is a hot place underneath the house filled with coals, dust and most of all no light. The flickering of the candle displays ghostly figures on the walls. My cloths are already soaked of sweat and i didn't even start with the repairs.
Two hours later i am finished. While i throw in the last batch of coaldust into the oven the steam pressure is raising again. The dynamo softly starts spinning and the rooms get filled with that typical ozon smell while the electric power builds up. I am exhausted, the hard labour and heat have cast their toll. I stumble up the stairs and back into the lab. The lights getting on again and getting brighter and brighter. I need a good bath and something to eat.	After washing myself i put on some clean cloths. The whistle of the kettle on the stove sounds the alarm that a nice cup of tea is ready to be consumed. Back to work... Designing! Like the goggles shown on the images. Big, with a great cool factor and very 'Steampunkish' I love them, i made them and i wear them...
I made some games and tools for the Nintendo DS. A great little handheld that got lots of functionality. Here you see some examples. One is of a GPS system that i made and the other is a program that can aid you to learn then Japanese kana's http://nds.zoelen.net

Books, in particulair my book. After years of waiting and waiting i finaly made some time to finish my book. Of course i went completly over the top and ended up doing the complete production on my own. Writing, illustrating, printing, bookbinding, i do it all. But the results are astonishing!	Click here to see the result
Yes, another item got my attention. Movie special effects. I wanted to find out how to do those niffty tricks too. My first experiment was to create some lightning casted from my hand. After some fiddling around i got a nice result. Right-click here and choose save to see the result	After the first test try i took my goal one step further. Obi-Bram Kenobi in action. Have a look! Right-click here and choose save to see the result
After reading Dan Brown's 'The DaVinci code' i got intriged but a device mentioned in the book, the cryptex. I descided to make one of my own. I used nothing more that hand tools like saw, vile and sandpaper.
The project i am currently working on is a 'Verge and Foliot' type of clock. It will be my own design. I made a test wheel to check if my idea's are right. The wheel is made of 2 CD's and 40 brass pins. (btw, my idea was right) Project discontinued
I always wanted to build a metal detector. After years going around with the idea i stumbled into this site http://home.clara.net/saxons/bfo.htm Here's the result. A metal detector that actualy work, Not very well but it was a fun project.

Years ago i got interested into ancient weapons and the technics to build them. One of the things i made is this knife called a "Kris pusaka" or family kris. I use several layers of metal and forged them into this shape. I used all known rituals such as fasting, praying and cleaning. I gave the kris it's acid baths, name and signs in the hecht. The casing is ingraved with a Arabic inscription.
In the same period as when i made the kris (see above) i also made this beast. Some details. To cock the wire you need 20 kg force. When fired the arrow will pass through a tincan placed at 15 meters. More pictures: Image 1 Image 2 Image 3
Not all things must have a function. This is one of them. It's made from one solid block of aluminium on a lathe. When finished all pieces break loose and you can start polishing it. It's made out one piece and the inner cubes can't get out! For you to figure it out how it's done. (not that difficult)
Sometime ago i found this interesting shaped stone. I carved it a bit more into shape and i ended up with this nice looking 'fossil'
Stone carving is a nice way to get energy back into your life. Seeing the following pieces you can imagine that i needed much ernergy to replenish.	The dragon is behind another thing i do, Bonsai trees.
This piece is made from marble. It's a design of a Celtic hanger.
I like to make small robots. I am aspecially fond of those little things with legs. Here's an example of one of them. It's a 'proof of concept' for a new design. There is also a small Quicktime movie (1.1Mb) available here More can be found here
Paper. A very nice product. You can do a lot of things with it. More can be found HERE!!!


Some commics books i reproduced	Opened
A small closed book	Opened
A juwellery box	Opened
Food! I love to cook. And love to eat it too.
I saw Bob Ross on TV and i was amazed by him. I wanted to try his painting style to and this is the result. My very first oil painting ever.
Boardgames and cardgames are another love of me. I like to play them very much. I also restore games and recreated games that are out-of-print.
I played Ports of Call for many, many hours on the Amiga. A great game I tried to port it to GameBoy Advance (also running on Nintendo DS). The game is about 80% finished but due to compiler problems (the deveploper dropped the project) i am not able to finish it. Everything of the game is in it. The only part missing is paying back your loans and banking. Follow the link for the source code and compiler. The game is written DragonBasic. More images

Making juwelery My first try. My wife is very happy with it.
I still had a old laptop laying around. A 486 processor. I swapped some floppy disks and managed to get Windows 95 on the machine. After that i was able get a netwerk going via a PCMCIA card and dumped a pre-made slideshow (ifraview) on startup. I also demontaged the screen and turned it around so it would look like a tabletPC. (sadly it isn't.) The results are oke but my next scrap laptop will have a detached screen. It will look much smaller, thinner and is more light weighted.