How To: Print Your Emails in Style with This Steampunk Tape "Ticker Machine"

Last year, Instructables user Horatius.Steam created Dr. Brain, a small computer connected to a model brain that can tell stories and have Skype conversations. But one thing it couldn't do was print, so to solve that problem, he came up with this awesome Steampunk "Ticker Machine".

A wooden base and glass dome make up the housing for a thermal printer, and the driver is hidden in a paper tube that's painted to look like wood. A slot at the bottom feeds the paper out from under the dome and a tiny glass tube in the front shows when the power is on.

He used a printer that came with a Windows driver, and it can be scheduled to automatically print emails, or to only print certain ones based off of time or keywords.

If you want to make one for yourself, visit Horatius.Steam's tutorial for step-by-step instructions.

Trying to save paper? Instead, you could try this Raspberry Pi LED email notifier that lights up when you have a new email. This tutorial requires you to have Python installed, and you'll also need the Adafruit Pi Cobbler Breakout Kit.

You can also use a thermal printer to make the world's slowest instant camera, or turn it into an awesome paper and laser video game.