Dmitry (we share the workshop) always wanted an engine block coffee table. After buying a second-hand rusty Ford V6 engine block, he sent it off to sand-blasting, then powder coated it red. He also had some VW Scirocco pistons and connecting rods and those were powder coated black.

The connecting rods and their screws were epoxied into the engine block. Not having a welder is a pain. He also had the idea of somehow attaching a fan he had laying around so that it would look more like a functional engine. A “couple” of tries later, and I had a laser cut bearing mount for the fan.

Here’s a GIF of it in action:

The next feature on the list was some interesting lighting. Luckily we found a cheap remote LED controller with a lot of patterns and brightness settings. It’s the small shrink tubed thing in the upper part of the picture on the left. We used a really small 12V power supply from the LED section in the hardware store.

To get a nice glowing effect from the cylinders I laser cut some MDF discs to fit inside, and glued some LED strip to them. Then glued some spacers to the MDF and over those I placed (not glued, so removable) white acrylic to disperse the light.

And here’s a GIF of the lighting in action:

And some more pictures in its final position: