2001 monolith replica machined to 0.001"

SO. It turns out the 2001 monolith (in)action figure I wrote about last week is one of ThinkGeek's prank products. You can't actually buy one. Yet.

It's a clever trick, really: Call it an "April Fool's" product, then count the number of clicks on the buy link, and decide based on that info if you really want to manufacture and sell them, or not.

Me? Bitter? 'Course not.

Anyway, reader Dan Simpson saw that post and commented that

[b]ack in the 70s, I was commissioned to make one of these. I used one inch thick black acrylic plastic, and machined it to a thousandth of an inch accuracy on a vertical mill, then gave it a satin finish. Now, around three decades later, it's in stores. But I still have my prototype, which is a few thousandths off....

I asked, and Dan was kind enough to throw me a bone (sorry) with this photograph of his prototype. If it looks a bit funny, here, it's probably because I couldn't resist the temptation to crop it to 400.0 x 900.0 pixels. Although I am insufficiently evolved to perceive them, Dan assures me that the model's hyperspatial dimensions are equally precise. [Thanks, Dan!]

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/10/2001_monolith_replica_machined_to_0.html

Sent from James' iPhone