We always enjoy seeing our products being modified, revamped and DIY-ed, as well as the results of these transformations.
Our customer Vera Kark provided us with some thoughtful feedback on adding mechanical tweaks to improve our Solar GraviTrack build and documentation. She also painted the brown MDF of the machine. She used tempera paint on the wood components still in panelized form, and the GraviTrack's performance seemed to be unaffected.
The GraviTrack looks great in vibrant jewel tone colours, however, we do not recommend applying paint to the hand mechanism itself. You can paint the base and the rails, avoiding the hand mechanism completely. The moisture and the thickness of the paint might affect the precise tolerances of the moving parts, and will interfere with its proper functioning. Another relatively safe option might be felt tip marker since the moisture from alcohol evaporates quickly.
Photos & video by Vera Kark
P.S. Also, a particularly bad idea is painting your GraviTrackafter the assembly is completed. Even though we were using a very watered down acrylic paint, the mechanism seized up the moment the paint became sticky. Don't be like us. Take care of your GraviTrack.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1748603,00.asp Need I say more? (Except "Thx for the lead, Wolfgang") (For those who don't know, Mark Tilden is the founder of BEAM technology, and now designs toys for Wow-Wee toys. These are his followups to the very popular "RoboSapien")
We asked Grant, our resident BEAM technician, to come up with a list of some of the tools he uses, and here we have it! This list will help those first starting out to see what they should use, and for those who've been doing it awhile we have some of our more advanced tools. […]
With the runaway success of the Useless Box, many of us here at Solarbotics can be assembling the kits in our sleep, even under a dose of tranquilizers, and be orchestrating the two lasers at the same time with no difficulty whatsoever. Just like I used to count transistors for the latest in Soviet Death […]
Solarbotics has been operating for more than 25 years, bringing electronics know-how and supplies to both the electronics professional and hobbyist. We'll be happy to help you too!
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Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.