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

August 3, 2018
New Product: 50 Meter GroovyNoodle Wire ...

GroovyNoodle wire. Some is good; LOTS is better. We absolutely love our GroovyNoodle wire, with its super flexibility and silicone-jacket insulation in 7.5M "casual use" spools. For more ambitious projects that need more length, we now have our GroovyNoodle in value-priced 50 meter spools! It's more of our favorite 24AWG wire with a whopping 40 […]

June 22, 2005
Summertime Sale

Ah, the Summer Solstice... We thought it'd be a nice way to celebrate the passing of the longest day of the year with some permanent price adjustments and some special deals! Sale items: The always-popular PhotoPopper Photovore kit (regularly $60USD) is now $45USD! The GM10W Deal motor/wheel combination (regularly $11.39USD) is now $8.95USD a set! […]

June 6, 2012
Cool Link Wednesday: Yana Edition

About a million years ago (and by that, we mean 3-4) we had a crazy French intern called Jerome. He had a squiggly beard and liked to exclaim "SUPER COOL!" whenever he saw anything that caught his attention. But because he came up with neat stuff like the BeetleBot, we let him stick around. Even […]

July 10, 2012
Cool Link Wednesday: Lights, Lamps and E...

It's officially hot outside. So if you're looking for an excuse to take a break, check out this week's batch of cool links: Artist to Cover Bay Bridge in Programmable LEDs The idea is to cover the San Francisco area Bay-Bridge with a bristling of white LED pixels. The conceptual video looks great, but having […]

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