This Instructable shows how you can customize most USB drives and make them look like a figurine, statue, toy or whatever you can come up with. But most importantly, you get to bake your USB circuit board!
I had this ugly 2GB USB drive that I found laying around, and decided to do some experiments with it, like wrapping it in oven bake clay, which looks and feels like plastic when baked.
The yellow square head guy I created is kinda lame, I had this idea in my mind of some complicated Maya sculpture with different colors and layers etc. but the thrill to see if the circuit board survived the oven made me rush it. But the important thing here is to show that you can do the same and do something that you like with your USB drive and clay.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Proceed at your own risk. This could be problematic because you will be baking a USB circuit board at a relatively high temperature (125°C) and short time in your oven and this could be dangerous for reasons unknown to me (maybe fumes from some components or blowing parts, someone correct me if I am wrong).
I had this ugly 2GB USB drive that I found laying around, and decided to do some experiments with it, like wrapping it in oven bake clay, which looks and feels like plastic when baked.
The yellow square head guy I created is kinda lame, I had this idea in my mind of some complicated Maya sculpture with different colors and layers etc. but the thrill to see if the circuit board survived the oven made me rush it. But the important thing here is to show that you can do the same and do something that you like with your USB drive and clay.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Proceed at your own risk. This could be problematic because you will be baking a USB circuit board at a relatively high temperature (125°C) and short time in your oven and this could be dangerous for reasons unknown to me (maybe fumes from some components or blowing parts, someone correct me if I am wrong).
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Signing UpStep 1: The Ingredients
You only need two main ingredients:
- Oven bake clay ( I used Sculpey, but there's also Fimo and others that should work the same)
You should be able to find this at most craft and art stores around you.
- A USB drive you can take apart. ( I will not go over how to take it apart because that is part of the fun and there are so many different enclosures that it would be pointless). You just need the internal circuit board.
You can use some tools to shape your little sculpture, or just your fingers. There are some nice techniques out there on youtube that allow you to create patterns, stripes and other cool things using multiple colors. This could be neat to try.
I used my fingers and a couple of very simple tools that can be replaced with about anything.
You also need an oven, of course! NOT A MICROWAVE!!! but a regular one, where cookies are made for example :)
- Oven bake clay ( I used Sculpey, but there's also Fimo and others that should work the same)
You should be able to find this at most craft and art stores around you.
- A USB drive you can take apart. ( I will not go over how to take it apart because that is part of the fun and there are so many different enclosures that it would be pointless). You just need the internal circuit board.
You can use some tools to shape your little sculpture, or just your fingers. There are some nice techniques out there on youtube that allow you to create patterns, stripes and other cool things using multiple colors. This could be neat to try.
I used my fingers and a couple of very simple tools that can be replaced with about anything.
You also need an oven, of course! NOT A MICROWAVE!!! but a regular one, where cookies are made for example :)
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some usb flash drives work successfuly,my other usb works nice
but when i got another usb,it blew up my oven
anyway i use sculpey clay too
i used some air dry clay
The walleye, which we gave to my Dad was one with the lights and I had one eye centered over the blinking light, so an unexpected special feature best viewed lowlight conditions.
Thanks again!
At the very least, sealing it with a few layers of matte gloss would probably take care of any problems.