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

May 8, 2009
Propellor, Maker Faire

Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to a special edition Evening News Post! That's right, it's way past the magical closing time here at Solarbotics but some of us are trudging onward. To what end, you wonder? Well, if you've seen that shiny orange promo banner up top you'll know why. MAKER FAIRE! Yup, just like the […]

July 29, 2003
GM8 Gearmotors win Minisumo!

Wheee! Well, that business trip to the Robot Society of America 2003 Robot Games and Expo went well! We went out to see what the rest of the hobby robotics community was up to (and to support one of our latest distributors, Hobby Engineering), and we ended up winning mini-sumo with StrongBad the president's (me) […]

June 12, 2003
Solarbotics WCRG mini-sumo workshop

The night before WCRG, and all through the office, not a creature was stirring...except two dozen mini-sumo robots - AAAHH! Thanks to Alberta Printed Circuits, we were able to sponsor a mini-sumo workshop to build 24 robots to compete in the next day's Western Canadian Robot Games.

February 23, 2018
Project: APA102-2020 MicroNova Custom LE...

I created this choker as a project to demonstrate the new MicroNova APA102-2020 LED strips. Photo by Yeti, edited by Batgirl These addressable LEDs are extremely small, less than 1/4 the size of a standard 5050 LED. This project was built using engineering sample standard MicroNova 99 LED / meter strips . The MicroNova strips we […]

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