Steampunk Finger Stylus

I use a touchpad GPS regularly at work and lost the pen stylus a long time ago; it was inconvenient anyway trying to hold the stylus, GPS unit, and drive an ATV at the same time. So I made some finger stylussss?Stylii? from old water jug handles for work. For this Instructable I added some extra parts for fun Steampunk styling.

Step 1: Cut Handle Out of Water Jug

This is simple, just cut out a small section from the handle of the jug. Slip it over your finger and use a marker to draw a shape to make a pointer. Cut out the shape of the stylus pointer with some scissors.

Comments

[ishner]

to all the talk of conductive paint:
why not just make it out of metal?

preferably brass to keep with the steampunk thing

[ilikecake3]

If I want this to work and I use conductive paint, do I need a special tip?

[Remogeus]

I have a question. I know it is a stylus, but can it be used as pen for graphic tablet Wacom Volito?

[robbtoberfest]

If you make it conductive, I think it might work.

[Honda Enoch]

Ok, Does this work? It does not make sense. A standard stylus is metal with a special rubber tip. It uses the electricity from your body (your hand) and makes connection to the screen to work.

I have taken them apart and put the rubber tip on a plastic pen and it would not work. it has to be metal.

[robbtoberfest]

Honda, this is already dated somewhat; older touchscreens are more pressure sensitive rather than conductive like on most screens today ;)

[Honda Enoch]

Ah I see. I was wondering.

I wonder if you got some of the rubber tips from stylist pens and put on the tip and ran a wire from it to your finger if it would work.

I'll see what I can do and let you know. :)

[robbtoberfest]

Conductive paint.

[Honda Enoch]

Never heard of it.

[robbtoberfest]

http://store.sbs4dcc.com/metaylor18silverconductivepaint.aspx

[Honda Enoch]

Cool. thanks :)

[Dusk Shadows]

these look really good and i think your is good too prosper58 =)

[prosper58]

Thanks for the instructable :D. I made my own yesterday. I'm not sure if you can call it steampunk, since i lack a lot of steampunk items to use. (gears, coils, tubes, etc.)

[Falkenzz]

Nice profile picture.

[peyton14]

go to home depot LOTS OF STUFF steampunk hevan!

[spawnos3717]

Yours kinda looks like Borg tech from Star Trek.

[robbtoberfest]

I'm alway losing mine; and after seeing yours I had the idea of adding a magnet to stash it on the fridge or somewhere.

[VictorianVaudville]

If you use a magnet, and plan to use it as a stylus it may mess up the screen.

[peyton14]

yeah put a magnet near a 3ds and it stops working,untill you take it away

[Falkenzz]

If you hold a magnet near a object that uses diodes, your 3DS for example, it could permanently damage the chemicals in the diodes.

[prosper58]

Hah. Glad to have incoherently given you the thought. Also, I suggest using foil tape instead of paint.
(1)It's quicker than paint (2) It looks more like metal. (you can even age it, easily)

P.S- Great instructable. (5 stars)

[Briguy9]

Yeah the proper plural for Stylus is stylii. Anything ending in a 'us' removes the 'us' and replaces it with 'ii'

[anyoldmouse]

Platypus ends in 'us', but their plural is platapodes. The plural for stylus is 'styli', not 'stylii'. No more Nintendo for you.

[R.JStorey (Rodders)]

so was it the nitendo wus to start with? ps, the plastic makes an awesome hammer finish effect

[08motooley]

there is no agreed plural for platypus, personally i use platypi

[ALogan97]

But the technical plural is actually platypodes. This is due to the -pus ending being a Greek stem meaning foot, which is pluralized as -podes. instead of the common misconception that it ends in the Latin masculine singular ending -us, which is pluralized as -i. Same goes for octopus.

[spawnos3717]

What would be the plural for Wii?...LOL

[peyton14]

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. LOL

[Jyssa]

bus=bii?

[08motooley]

it only works with words of more than one syllable otherwise the rule doesn't count

[Briguy9]

Oh. Well good thing I didn't like Nintendo too much. My Wii broke and is now unresponsive to the Wiimote, my Gameboy SP and DS both snapped in half, and my DS Lite doesn't read games anymore. On top of that they had to make the DSi without a Gameboy slot.

[PikminRed]

(removed by author or community request)

[peyton14]

LOL!

[spawnos3717]

Or maybe just one word...Wiitard

[peyton14]

LOL

[toogers]

i've only had two "incidents" with nintendo devices.
1. broken DS hinge(game still worked, screen was just in a weird position)
2. (see picture)

[Falkenzz]

DERP

[fruitkid101]

dude my dslite fell into the toilet by accident. how do I fix that?

[peyton14]

FLUSH IT!

[valhallas_end]

Wow...I've had my DS for ages and I'm pretty rough on it, but its in near mint condition. What bricks were you throwing at it? :-P Also, the actual plural form of octopus is octopodes. It seems an animal that ends with 'us' becomes 'odes' in plural while plants (cactus) become 'i' (cacti). I'm not sure how far that runs, but it seems to be a good general rule of thumb.