Need a strange machine, that has to actually operate? A catapult perhaps? I may be able to help, drop me a line.I build weird and functional objects, usually from scavenged materials. My style is best described as Mad Max post-apocalyptic. (see my photo collection for examples) I first got onto the little screen by founding The NERDS, the first US team to appear on "Junkyard Wars" (Scrapheap Challenge outside the US). I build, usually with a camera or an audience, under impossible timelines, and with heavy lumps of steel, and dead cars. I have cut cars (and trucks) in half, converting one to run on steam, another into a fire fighting boat, and a cement truck into a paddle boat. I built one of the largest operable ballistae in the modern era a machine that can throw a 10 lb weight over 1,200 feet, and another catapult that threw an upright piano. I am based in Boston, but normally build on location. Me and/or my stuff has appeared on "Scrapheap Challenge", "Man, Moment, Machine", "Lock and Load", a video for the band "Dirty on Purpose", and in every "Punkin Chunkin" thanksgiving special. I won the first "Raising the Bar" building event for the distiller George Dickel, and was "Maker in Residence" at Parts and Crafts, a Boston Area kids Maker space. My most recent appearance was six weeks ago, on the Nat Geo series "Going Deep with David Rees". If you are in the NYC area, and might consider attending Maker Faire (on Sunday, 21 Sept) you can stop by my space (area 4, just down the hill from Eepy bird, and the "Game of Drones"), and get a chance to operate "Decisions, Decisions..." one of the devices I built for "Going Deep". Catapult an 18" diameter "coin" 15 feet into the air. When not building strange machines, I run team building events, either a building challenge ala Junkyard, or one that has people building catapults taller than they are, and hurling for distance.
Introduce Yourself : Prop designer/builder. I make big, post-apocalyptic functional machines. by Jeff Del Papa
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Holy cow you are talented! I can't believe your mind thinks of those props and then you have the capacity to construct them. It's amazing working with that industrial of metals and conforming them to look the way you make them. Truly inspirational, Jeff.
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Cool you sound like a guy who can create what somebody envisions.
Thanks for the kind words everyone.
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What an interesting person you are. I wish I had time to meet you in person at the maker faire.
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It was fun reading about your "strange machines". I thought it was just me into wacky props. Joking aside, in my tour of France looking for Indie material, I stumbled across an industrial park in Nantes full of giant machines, straight from Jules Verne World. Time machines, a greenhouse full of metal Venus fly traps, topped by a fifty foot wood and metal elephant, that walked around the park ,with us on top. Children lined the streets to be sprayed by water from its trunk, as giggles and screams filled the air. Indie even gets to machines, it seems!
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It's great to have your unique talent as part of the community!
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Hi DP! The Nerds are awesome! What you guys do is amazing - I love it all... You could say I'm a geek for the nerds.
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Debbie, that place you found in France sounds amazing. I get to add another kudo to my collection, Maker Faire at the hands of Mike Sinese, awarded me an "Editors Choice" ribbon, and we did an interview (including a "coin" flip) for their livestream video. If you aren't in a place to use my building skills, I suggest you all check to see if your city has a makerspace. As Makers go, I am almost middle of the road, you might just find another creative, and wacky prop builder living a mile away from you. Consider the exhibits within easy sight distance of my spot at this years maker faire. I shared the performing space with a college student who built himself wrist mounted flame throwers. Basically he had 4 foot jets of flame sprouting from the palm of his hand. (and by bending his wrist different amounts, he could control the size. There was a guy that built "Glank" essentially a Javanese Gamelan out of propane tanks like you fit to a barbecue grill. Another group, was the "Brooklyn Aerodrome" which made RC aircraft out of a triangle of (reclaimed) corrugated plastic, and very little else. how about a 4' long scale model of the "Serenity" spacecraft from the series and movie "Firefly", made of solid duct tape. Driving around the grounds there was an electrically driven two passenger, essentially life sized metal framed Giraffe, festooned with hundreds of colored lights, that could blink in patterns. Equipped with a serious sound system, there was a 6 passenger bicycle "train" (segmented) with an alligator body shell. If you can, please send some work my way. If that isn't an option, try your local maker community, you might get more than you imagined possible.
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Wow. I'm in UK now, but if i ever travel your way will come see exhibits. I'm hoping to get an Indie group off the ground, ........in time we may need something. That whacky place I found in France was by Francois Delaroziere and Pierre Orefice. Their indie idea to have a bestiary of "Living Machines" that escape the confines of the workshop. And the elephant roams the ex shipyard. Debbie