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.
Another Friday has arrived, and with it we have some new mounting hardware and buttons to look at: Pololu Mini Plastic Gearmotor bracket Pair - Wide $3.25 Affix our GM6 and GM7 motors to any project with these plastic motor brackets. Pololu Mini Plastic Gearmotor bracket Pair - Tall $3.25 Affix our GM6 and GM7 […]
Ok, yes, we know. This is yet another late cool link post, but... We have a good excuse, honest! We just got in a second laser (from Full Spectrum), and we were distracted for most of yesterday getting it up and running. So enough excuses - here's this week's batch of links: PVC Instrument, DRS […]
Our clear breadboard was recently blogged on Makezine, which reminded me we juuuust about had an instructable ready for that same item. So, a few hours later, it is finished and posted. And while I was at it, I finished editing another Instructable by Jerome Demers, our intern. He did up a DIY Miniball instructable […]
With the departure of our two interns, we're finding that we miss them. Damn them and their desire to complete their education... Since they left, we're finding we have too many projects and not enough hands to get them done. Got some/any of the following qualifications? Practical experience with sensors Experience with 8-bit embedded computing […]
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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.