Introduction: Make a Thumb Hanger for Your Nook With Sugru


"A Thumb hanger?", you ask, "What the heck is a thumb hanger?"

Why, It's a way to hang your nook from your thumb of course!

Again you ask, "But why!?". And again, I astutely answer, "Because!"

Prior to this wonderful invention, you would actually have to *grip* the nook, while reading it.

"But doesn't your hand get tired from gripping a nook during those epic reading sessions?"

Indeed it does, indeed it does. Thus was the motivation for this novel method of nook hold-up-age-ness.

Enough yacking! On with the show.


Step 1: Tools of the Trade!

"So what do I need to construct this wonderful new method of hold-up-age-ness for the nook?"

I'm glad you asked! Because that's the whole point of this step. If you hadn't asked, I would have had to come up with some other way to introduce this step. And to be frank, I'm really quite short on ideas for other ways to begin this step, so it's quite fortuitous that you asked that particular question at this point.

Fortunately, the list is quite short. It consists of 4 items, those being:

1. A nook.
It seems a bit pointless to try to improve the hold-up-age-ability for an item you don't have

2. A hand
Yes indeed. You need one (preferably two!) of these wonderful tools that nature has bestown upon us to allow us the wonderful ability of manipulating things

3. Sugru
This wonderfully magical material is the keystone of this project

4. Scissors (or other sharp instrument)
It is not recommended to try to open these packages with your teeth. Do you really want sugru-mouth? Well, do you?

Step 2: First Step!

"So why is the sky blue?"

What?

"Oh, sorry. Wrong question there. So how do I get started with this project?"

Again, very serendipitous timing on the part of you, the reader. (I'll let the sky thing slide)

First, you shall lay the newly unopened package of sugru on a table. Such as I have demonstrated in the picture (You'll just have to pretend the package is really unopened).

Once the package of sugru has been placed on the table, you should admire the package for no less than 5 minutes. It really is nice packaging.

Step 3: Open the Package!


"So why..."

Enough with the questions already! Stop interrupting me every step!

*ahem*

Next, hold the scissors in one hand, while you simultaneously grip the package of sugru in the other hand. Use the scissors in the normal manner to cut off the top of the sugru package, taking care to not cut below the resealable zip-lock strip-thingy. Although, to be honest, if you do happen to accidentally cut through the resealable zip-lock strip-thingy despite my warning, it's not really the end of the world, as you'll see in a few steps.

Step 4: Open the Package!

"Wait, didn't the last step have the same title as this one?"

I said no more questions!

*mutters about impertinent readers*

The goal of this step is to complete the procedure of opening the outer package of sugru.

You should pick up the package of sugru, and hold one side of the newly cut off top between your thumb and forefinger, while you hold the other side likewise in the same manner with your other hand. Then you should move your hands apart forcefully, in order to cause the zip-lock strip-thingy to part, thus creating an opening by which the contents of the sugru package may be accessed.

Step 5: Dump Sugru Packets

No! Don't even think about asking a question. Do you want me to keep going on with this instructable or not?

That's what I thought.

*hmpf*

Now that the contents of the outer sugru package are accessible, you should rotate the package so that the opening faces downward, and provide egress for the packets of sugru contained within.

Step 6: Search for Colors


...

Good reader. You're learning.


Next, shalt thou peruse over the packets of sugru that were thusly dumped onto the table in the preceeding step. Thou should find 4, being the number four, unique colorations on the packets, denoting the frequencies of light which the material within the packet will cause to be directed to an onlooker's eyes upon looking at such material contained within each colored packet.

Step 7: Choose Wisely

Next, you must ponder deeply, and decide upon the color of material which you shall place forever-more upon your nook.

Choose wisely.


After much soul-searching, once you have reached a decision, you should discard all but the selected packets of sugru  (no! don't throw them in the trash silly. Just put them back in the main package, for later use. Jeez!).

And once again take up the scissors, and proceed to cut along the outer edges of the sugru package, as denoted by the cleverly placed dotted lines.

Step 8: Sugru Time!

Now you may open the package of sugru, and behold it for the first time in all it's wonderful glory. Your life will never be the same, you will remember this moment forever - the first time you laid eyes on the beautiful substance that is sugru.

Go ahead and remove the sugru from the packet. It likes to cling to it a bit. Be persistent, I have faith you can get it all off.

Step 9: Massaging the Sugru


Next, you may laugh while your cat makes funny noises on your desk in his sleep.

Oh, wait, you probably don't have a sleeping cat making funny noises on your desk like me. Nevermind then, you can skip that part.


After thusly laughing at your cat (or not), proceed to gently (or vigorously) massage the sugru. You should perform this action for no longer than 2 minutes. Yes, I know it's hard to resist the temptation to continue massaging it. Believe me, do I ever know. But time is indeed of the essence here. Once the sugru is removed from its impermeable, nay, impenetrable barrier, it starts to suck the very moisture out of the air, and in doing so, begins transforming into a hideous, monstrous!.. err, sorry. Got carried away there. It begins transforming into a much harder and more resilient, yet still wonderfully soft and rubbery material. Thus is the magic of RTV silicones.

So anyway, get to work! You don't have forever.

Step 10: And the Real Work Begins

Now that we have finally gotten through the tedious preliminaries, we may finally begin the real work of creating this wonderful thumb hook.

So go ahead, stick that dab of sugru onto the back of the nook. In the middle near the top is a pretty good area.

An astute reader will, at this point, notice that in the pictures below, I am in fact *not* placing the sugru near the top of the nook, but rather, near the bottom. If the reader is especially observant, he (or she!) may also notice the strange blue protuberance upon the back of my nook. Indeed, it is this very protuberance which prevents me from placing the sugru upon the upper portion of the nook. So for the purposes of this demonstration, I shall henceforth use the bottom part of my nook, while it should be understood that you, the reader, should in fact place your sugru upon the *upper* part of your nook, around where, say.. that extra blue protuberance is on mine.

Step 11: Forming the Sugru


Now that the sugru has been placed on the nook, you must commence the long and arduous process of molding the sugru into the appropriate shape.

Think of a dome. No, a half dome. This is the general shape that you want to strive for.

In order to achieve maximum usefulness and comfort, the dome should ideally be just the right size for the tip of your thumb to fit into. After much experimentation, I have found that the best way to achieve such a fit is, indeed, to stick your thumb right there, and form the sugru around it, being careful not to let the sugru stick too vigorously to your thumb, to prevent deforming the sugru when the thumb is retracted from it's position beneath the half-dome.

An additional tip which I will bestow upon you at no charge, is to push down the outer edges of the dome, thusly increasing the surface area with which the sugru is in contact with the nook, in order that the stick-to-itiv-ness of the cured sugru is maximized. I don't know if this is really necessary or not, but that's what I did, and it seems to work.

Step 12: Curing

At this point, your blob of sugru should have achieved a pleasing and functional shape upon the back of your nook. If it hasn't, then stop skipping ahead and go back to the previous step!

Now comes the hardest part of this endeavor. Indeed, this may be the hardest task you have ever undertaken. Harder even than that epic 3 day period without sleep in college, as you crammed for your last finals.

You must carefully prepare your body and mind, so that you may endure demands that were never meant to be endured by the human soul.




You must take your nook, with the newly formed sugru appendage, and you must set it aside.

...
...
...

For 24 hours.

...

Yes, for *24 whole hours*, you must resist the temptation to touch the sugru upon the back of your nook. And you must not, by any means, pick up the nook and attempt to test the newly added functionality.

You have been warned.





Note to reader: The sugru packaging says to wait 24 hours. But I've found that it actually reaches a sufficient strength within a lesser amount of time. Say, overnight maybe.

"But how do you know that? Surely you waited the full 24 hours before picking up the nook and trying it?"

In fact, the temptation was too great for me. I was not able to procure the herculean effort needed to withstand such a temptation. I poked, I prodded, and yes, I ruined my first attempt (not shown). For the second attempt (yes, you guessed it, that strange blue protuberance I was wont to talk about in the previous steps), I was able to withstand the temptation for somewhat longer, thus allowing the sugru to reach sufficient strength to withstand the forces put upon it when I could no longer resist the temptation (again).

Step 13: Using the New Appendage


Congratulations! If you made it to this step, then it has been 24 hours since you set the nook aside, and you have touched neither the nook, nor the sugru upon it's back.

Right?... ... Right?... ...



Well, in any case, you're probably wondering how to use this new appendage that you've added to the back of your nook now.

Fortunately, it's pretty easy. You grab the nook, and hold it in a vertical manner, while you put the thumb of your other hand (you're only using one hand to hold the nook, right?) up into the half dome of sugru. Then, you let go with the hand holding the nook.

And the nook hangs from your thumb! And you're not even holding on to it! No more going in to work the next day with "nook hand" impeding your productivity.

Enjoy!


(If you're wondering, after taking the pictures for this instructable, I took off the still soft orange sugru and used it elsewhere. I didn't really see much reason to have *two* thumb hooks on the back of my nook ;) )