openMaterials

I’ve learned that there are 3 main challenges in working with soft circuits. The first one is to create circuitry with materials that are almost always completely exposed: a lot of thought goes into the layout of the circuit to not only avoid accidental shorts during normal wear, but also to avoid crisscrosses between conductive [...]

Sugru is a brand new material developed specifically to “hack things better.” Here are some of its extraordinary properties: Cures at room temperature Sugru is like modeling clay when you take it from its pack. Once it’s exposed to air, it cures to a tough flexible silicone overnight using the moisture in the air. Working time = [...]

I thought I’d share with you how methylenchlorid can be used to glue and fix different plastics. Here’s an experiment I’ve just done using a hacked servo (continuous rotation) and polystyrene and methylenchlorid to make a linear actuator. The video below shows how easy it is to use methylenchlorid: If you can see this, [...]

Hot Glue (aka Hot Melt Glue, Thermoplastic Adhesive) This must be one of my favorite materials. It allows you to glue almost anything together in an often easy and semi-durable way. It dries pretty quickly so you don’t have to wait more than a minute or so to proceed with your work. And, even though the [...]