Simple Tea Bag Extractor

Once a day I drink a large mug of Tea.

Unfortunately there are times when I forget to take out the tea bag and I end up with a very bad tasting tea.

There are 2 types of tea I consume, peppermint and a green tea.

I can handle a strong peppermint tea, but not over-steeped green tea.

I could set an alarm or wait in the kitchen for the tea to steep, but that's not a perfect solution.

In this Instructable, we'll make a simple Tea Bag extractor.

No more over-steeped tea!

What's needed:

• A Ping-Pong Ball
• Plaster of Paris
• Popsicle Sticks
• Kitchen's Timer (Similar to the one I used)
• Some kind of Base to attach the gadget. I used a wooden plate
• "L" bracket
• Nylon nuts and bolts (optional)
• A washer (optional)
• BBQ stick

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Step 1:

I cut a hole in a Ping-Pong ball.

After heating a part of the ball with a lighter, I used a pen to make a little dent.

Step 2:

I mixed Plaster of Paris and poured it into the ball.

Then I put a popsicle stick in the center and let the plaster set.

Step 3:

To make the ball look more appealing, I glue a purple washer to it.

Step 4:

I prepared popsicle sticks by drilling holes, cutting them shorter etc.

We ended up with 6 popsicle sticks

Step 5:

The gadget was assembled on top of an "L" bracket that was attached to a wooden plate.

I used nylon nuts & bolts, because they don't loosen as easy as metal ones.

.

Step 6:

I cut off the tip from a BBQ stick and glued it to the popsicle stick.

When the glue was dry, I cut off the excess.

Step 7:

I opened an egg shaped kitchen timer and attached the base to the bracket.

Step 8:

I put back the top piece to check where I need to drill a hole.

When that was done, I put a bolt into the hole.

Step 9:

After making sure the gadget is calibrated, I screwed another screw into the bottom and glued both pieces of the timer together.

Step 10:

I made a little cut in the popsicle stick, so it can hold the tea bag better.

Step 11:

That's it!

You can steep the tea up to 1h.

When the timer reaches "0" minutes, the arm will lift the tea bag.