The stick figure logo is clearly intended to convey the idea of “keep out of reach of children,” but the vibe is definitely “play keepaway with children.”
Child Resistant
Author: Brian Garthwaite
Non-Shatter
It wasn’t unbreakable, but didn’t claim to be. Definitely didn’t shatter.
Fake Batteries
What to do when a battery-powered device would function better with fewer batteries? In our case, a dead-simple DC motor that gives better results when operating at 4.5 V instead of 6 V – but the holder that completes the circuit is sized for four AA batteries.
The answer: a battery-shaped slug of aluminum, which happily conducts current, fits in the place of a functional battery, and has some adorable bright-yellow heat-shrink tubing to stand out! Mostly because bright colors are easier to identify when you drop something on the floor. Round things have a habit of rolling off of surfaces at inopportune times.
Exclusively For Export
There are many tools for communicating new ideas, including candy. Boxes upon boxes of candy intended for consumption in other countries, apparently.
Desk Toys
Ah, physics. Where we have an eclectic assortment of desk toys and mostly-useless gimmicky trinkets because their very nature, the quirks of physics they embody, are helpful explainers of scientific principles.
And while their appeal is typically short-lived – how many times before the levitating magnet loses its novelty? – that ooh! factor only needs to work the first time.
FAILED
Look, it’s old, doesn’t work, and isn’t worth the cost and effort to repair. We’re assuming, of course, unsure who deposited it in the loading dock, and curious where it – or its constituent parts – is headed next.
At least it’s amusing?
Classroom Key
“Classroom door key.” Matter-of-fact, handwritten on a torn adhesive label. No need for building or specific room number identification. (The other side has no markings.)
Maybe there was only one classroom at the time? Maybe they were all keyed identically? Maybe the original bearer was only concerned with one specific classroom, one which needed no elaboration? Who knows?
Keys
Another coffee can, this one half-filled with old keys, most unlabeled, almost certainly all of them to locks long gone. Not like “bucket of keys” is a prime organizational strategy, so one supposes these can be used for some exciting new arts and crafts project?
Apparently, at some indeterminate point in time, the second floor held cabinets with a breathing apparatus inside. Respirators? SCBA systems like firefighters use? SCUBA systems like divers use? Pretty confident that those’re long gone.
This one has become disconnected from its key, so your guess is as good as ours. What useful information could that possibly offer? Like, even if we knew which key it identified?
Can of Screws
It’s an old coffee can full of tiny screws. The ones on top appear to be #3-56 (fine thread) in stainless steel, though the variety beneath is diverse. All in all, weighing in at approximately 3,063g. Individual screws weigh in – from a coarse sample – between 0.11g and 0.67g each.
Not going to throw them out, but just as unlikely to know when they might ever be put to use. Or how, precisely, we’d expect to find the necessary screws buried in such a mass.
Just, please, don’t drop it on the floor.
Iterations
One of the key benefits of a 3D printer is the ability to create prototypes rapidly. Doesn’t quite fit? Adjust the model, re-slice, and set the new print to go. When you’re down to sub-millimeter tweaks with each iteration, it’s a relief to let the machine whir and ooze out the next version.
If at first you don’t succeed, try again and again and again and again…