Painted GraviTrack

Solar botics
March 5, 2018

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 GraviTrack after 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.

A portrait of a sad stuck GraviTrack

MORE POSTS

September 2, 2012
Oh, Right. We're Closed Monday, Septembe...

Whoops, we totally forgot. Tomorrow is good ol' Labour Day-bour, and you know what that means. Yup, we are closed on Monday, September the 3rd. You know, exactly how we just said in the post title. So the same stuff as usual - submit orders, leave messages/emails. We'll pick things up again and resume order […]

July 8, 2013
Project Monday: Gilroy's ErgoGP

Since we've been slacking for awhile on our Project Monday, I thought I'd share a project I've been working on the past couple of weeks. Being the office code monkey, I spend a lot of time in front of a keyboard. This has led to a fair amount of discomfort and sparked a quest for […]

July 7, 2016
New Product: Thymio Robot and ESP01

Thymio II Educational Robot $182.25 The Thymio 2 is a fully-functional robot out-of-the-box, with a excellent pedigree. Thymio II Educational Robot - Wireless $249.75 The Thymio 2 is a fully-functional robot out-of-the-box, with a excellent pedigree. This wireless version offers some excellent live features not available in the stock version. ESP01 programmer $7.80 The ESP-01 […]

November 23, 2003
Absolute Beginner's Guide to Building Ro...

We've been getting requests for the parts bundles as mentioned in Gareth Branwyn's book 'Absolute Beginner's Guide to Building Robots'. We're sorry to say that we don't have them ready yet (major website development takes up staff man-hours), so please bear with us - we're working towards having something together. And no, we don't have […]

Solarbotics Ltd Logo
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!

Solarbotics, Ltd. is not responsible for misprints or errors on product prices or information. For more information, please see our Terms and Conditions.

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.

cart