Tool Hacks

3105 Articles

Sugru – Moldable Silicone Adhesive

December 4, 2009 by 29 Comments

Reader [James] told us about a new product developed with hackers in mind. Sugru is a silicone-based adhesive that cures at room temperature. It is moldable and once hardened it remains slightly flexible. You can see in the picture above that it has been used to create a hook but the inventor shows off a slew of other uses such as replacing missing feet on a chair, molding hand grips, and waterproofing. One of the most enticing aspects is that Sugru will create a chemical bond with smooth metal.

The product reminds us of the two-part earplug material used to ruggedize electronics from a while back. The difference is that Sugru is one part and is an adhesive. It comes as a satchel full of individually-sized packets. To use it, choose how much you need, cut open the package to reveal the product, then knead and mold the chewing-gum-looking substance to fit your needs. Check out the demonstration video after the break.

Want to try some out? Yeah, so do we but it seems they’ve already sold out of their initial supply (good for them, bad for us) and we haven’t seen word on pricing. We’d love to use this to mold enclosures, and for about a billion other things.

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Tube Prototyping Station

November 20, 2009 by 16 Comments

[Gio] enjoys using vacuum tubes in his projects. He designs the circuits using a CAD program but was finding that there is no substitute for actually building a prototype before heading to a final design. To make this process easier, he built his own tube prototyping station.

At the top of the board he’s got three different sizes of tube sockets with the pins from each wired as common. The nine pins from the sockets break out to a terminal strip where they can be interfaced with a solderless breadboard. For added versatility he’s included terminals to tap into some RCA jacks, as well as a 100 kOhm variable resistor. We’d bet this is not something that you can find ready-made, but it sure does look a whole lot better than a workbench full of components alligator-clipped together.

R/C Lawnmower

November 14, 2009 by 56 Comments

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[Johndavid400] built this incredible looking R/C lawnmower. After spending some time repairing broken R/C cars, he wanted to move on to something a little more useful and powerful. He decided to build a mower. He’s using a transceiver set from ebay, with an Arduino interpreting the signal and outputting to his custom motor board. In the video after the break, you can see that the mower looks responsive and quick. He does note, however, that he had some glitches early in the process that left him with a runaway mower. We covered a very similar mower ages ago that used a wheelchair as the base.

 

 

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PCB Light Box In A Scanner Shell

November 10, 2009 by 18 Comments

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[Kizo] repurposed a flatbed scanner to use as an exposure box for making printed circuit boards. Exposure time is controlled by an AVR ATtiny2313 microcontroller. The device is connected to a separate display board to control four 7-segment displays using one shift register for each. Time is set in ten second increments and once started, switches on the lights with a relay. Once the right exposure time has been reached, the lights are switched off and a piezo speaker is buzzed. There’s no mention of they type of bulbs he’s using but they look like compact fluorescent with tin foil beneath as a reflector.

If these are just CFL bulbs, how will the performance compare to a light box based around a UV light source?

[Thanks Jake]

DIY Circuit Etching Video Tutorial

November 9, 2009 by 33 Comments

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Circuit-bending blog GetLoFi has posted the best tutorial yet on home-made printed circuit boards using the toner transfer method.

We’ve covered homebrew PCB fabrication techniques about a billion times before. What sets this tutorial apart is that it collects many bits of knowledge otherwise scattered all about the web, and then depicts the entire process on video, from initial printing to cut PCB…because reading about it versus seeing it done are two different things entirely. They give a number of immensely useful tips throughout: choice of materials and where to get them, tools and techniques, and dispelling several myths about these methods (for example, they’re adamant about not using acetone to clean toner from the PCB). Well worth the 30 minutes to watch. If that’s too much and you’ve been stuck on just one part of the process, the tutorial is in three segments.

Trimming finished boards on a paper cutter? Who would’ve guessed?

[via Make]

Xerox Ink Will Print Circuits

October 28, 2009 by 40 Comments

xerox-silver-bullet-ink

Xerox has announced a breakthrough in printable circuits. They’ve developed a conductive ink called “silver bullet” that can be printed on many different types of substrate to create circuits. The key part of the new ink is its lower melting point. Plastic film substrate melts at 150 degrees Celsius but the ink is liquid when ten degrees cooler to avoid damaging the film. This begs the question: how do you then solder components to the circuit?

The benefits of printable circuitry are obvious. Aside from cheaper and easier RFID, disposable circuits like greeting cards, and fabric-based electronics, we’re hoping this will facilitate more environmentally friendly PCB fabrication. That really depends on the ink’s production process and the resilience of the resulting circuitry.

[via Gizmodo]