THE RETURN OF....

Blendzilla's engine was pirated from a commercial-grade Shindawa gas-powered line trimmer. It's 21cc in size (nearly 1 cubic inch), a 2-cycle model, and the engine case was modified to mount on a sheet of diamond plate (which was hand formed to fit around the magneto coil). The engine / blender adaption plate was custom fabricated by Jeff Brandon, owner of The Brandon Company - a machine shop in Everett WA.

The 'space frame' is made from 6 pieces of ultra-light 6061 3/4-inch aluminum tube and thru-bolt assembled using aircraft-quality fasteners. The throttle linkage was adapted from bicycle braking cable... and the gas tank is a 3-ounce airbrush paint reservoir, which sports braided 5/32" steel gas lines and a in-tank fuel filter from Homelite line trimmer products. We elected to use this small gas tank to minimize hazard and to easily run the system dry for storage.

Fuel used is high octane VP C120 gasoline (110 research rating) with Redline 2-cycle oil at 90:1... Blendzilla will run about 5 times between 3-ounce 'fill-ups'. Pipe insulation wraps the footing for a slide-and-scuff-resistant base to finish the design.

The quicktime video was made aboard the good ship Kazool (owner Bruce Maresh) during the blender's inaugural run at the 3rd Duckdodge meet for 2004.

Duck Dodge is Seattle's 'easy paced' sailing regatta held each Tuesday evening on Lake Union in the summer. It was at this regatta, during 'apre-sail' socializing, the idea sparked for a cordless blender... and Blendzilla 1.0, followed by it's upgrade - Blendzilla 2.0 (compatible across all operating systems) - was born.

Special thanks goes to:

• Jeff Brandon of the Brandon Company - machine shop owner and inventor of the SpringSkate for lending his machining talent

• The WaaHoolians - little mysterious creatures oftentimes heard on warm summer Tuesday evenings on Lake Union. Top scientists are still trying to study their party & communication habits.

• Steve Hartson of HartsonPhoto.com for the design / build process, and for some of the initial photography (not shown on this page - these photos do not do Mr. Hartson's work justice!!).

• Bruce Maresh of Seattle Shipwrights for letting his Santana 21, Kazool, act as the vehicle for the inaugural run.

Blendzilla in action for GoLive inaugural run - Click here (Quicktime movie, 500 KB)

Blendzilla 1.0 - the beginning:

ChainSawZilla (the Predator!) - a fellow gearhead gone mad!
(yes, that is a V-8!!)

In action - Click here (Quicktime movie, 5 MB)

The original video circulating the 'net (1.6 MB Windows Media file)