Introduction: Mouse Purse

By

This is a try in the Instructables Wallet Challenge.

Seeing all the "classic" wallet designs made me think: "how I can do a wallet in the other way?" And after ditching the Pentium II wallet I came up with this mouse in my junk. Also I'm motivated by the Instructable t-shirt ;)

And so... the e-vile M$ mouse got a nother life with the "$" included.

Materials:
-A mouse. It should be a ball one. If not you might try to cut out the required hole.
-Some cylindrical object, that as such inside radius that will allow the coins to fall trough.
-Some kind of sticky tape.

Tools:
-Scissors.
-Knife.
-Scalpel (optional, but a scalpel works better with the tape used by me).
-Dremel with a cutting disc.
-A screwdriver to disassemble the mouse.
-Glue for plastics
-Some coins for testing.
-Pen
-Some measuring tool (I've used a calliper).
-Soap and water (optional).

Step 1: Rip It Apart!!!

...just do it carefully.

Take out the ball and the ball holder. Remove any dirt found (we won't need it ;). Then dismantle the rolling pins.
The two plastic pieces holding the circut board will easily break. Don't worry. If they would survive later they would be grinded out.

Step 2: Cleaning

Only if your mouse was abused by many users or lied in a very dirty stack of junk.

Step 3: The Cable

This step is optional. I've only did it for "neatness". But on a second thought would you like your mouse to "get lost". It will be very easy with a wireless connection ;]

To the surprise the mouse cable was VERY long. On the first photo you can see me holding the mouse cable. It should be noted that I'm about 190cm high and the cable is TALLE... err... longer... just longer...

Next pull the bit that holds the cable in the mouse housing. It requires some force, but after pulling it away from the plug it moved quite easily.

Then cut the cable to the desired length. Cut so that the mentioned bit will remain with the plug. I didn't had enough guts to try it the other way. Just remember to leave some cable for a knot.

Tie the knot. On the last photo the knot is a little bit too far from the end. I've adjusted it because I don't have any use for "reserve" cable in the housing.

Step 4: Dremel Time!

I've used Dremel for this step. It's quick but it leaves rough surfaces because of the melting plastic. The choice is yours.

Dremel out the marked pieces. If you have a different mouse then you must discover the bits to remove by youself. Just make sure that you won't remove the elements that are used to hold the housing together!

After you roughly removed the excess plastic take a small knife and remove the melted plastic bits. Manualy grind the grinded places if necessary.

Step 5: Sticky Tape Comes

The money needs to have something to slide on. This way it won't bump inside the mouse but go straight to the exit.

The top half of the housing is made just against this. So we need to fix this by adding some surface.

Now I would done this with some resin or additional elements. But I don't have the first (not mentioning resin-ninja-skills :P) and for the second I don't have time :P
To be honest I've tried the second, but it would take a lot of time and trials to get something just partially done.

So here comes the role of clear sticky tape. It can be any other tape, but this one is quite strong and thin (witch will make the difference in a later step).

So here you need to model out any edges.
In my mouse it was pretty straightfoward. Three pieces of tape accros the housing did the trick. It could go wiht one piece but to be sure...

Step 6: Mesure Once, Cut Twice (or Mabye the Other Way?...)

I don't know. I use to cut (too) much ;]

Measure the space that you have between the upper housing "ceilling" and the lower housing hole (count in the thickness).

Then take any cylindric shaped that would hold the largest coin you could have. Cut it in height to the size measured above. But be ready to cut it down than to fill the holes.

Take the largest coin and mark a "window", as shown in the third picture. Cut it as much parallely as you can.

Try the window and adjust if necessary.

Step 7: Excess Glue Usage

Now it will be neccessary to glue the piece cut in the last step to the lower half of the housing.

My cylinder had a similar radius as the leftovers form cutting the plastic. So glueing it was not a problem.

The problems began when I've used a silicon based glue in addition to the cyianide one. The glue flowed to the wrong places and the ball holding piece was hard to remove later.

Then patiently wait until the glue hardens...

Step 8: Tape Again

This time we will need the tape to make some "guidance" so the coins won't go beyond the "drop point".

First take about 6-8cm of tape and cut it in half along the wider side. Then cut it in half parallely to the last cut.

Ofcourse you'll probably need to adjust the sizes. But first take a look on the second photo. It shows how to place the tape pieces.

Trim the tape so it won't cause problems while closing the housing,

Step 9: Stick Around!

Glue the bit that was holding the cable to the lower part of the housing.

...
...
...I've just realized that this step is completley uneccesary...
It's an "leftover" from a previous conception how this purse should work. But I've wasted the glue so I might as well post it :]

Step 10: Finishing Touches

Time to let the world know what this is about!

You don't know? Well that's even better! Because if you don't know what are the things about they're about money!

Step 11: Last, But Not Least...

...a video to show how things work (just pardon me for my unclear voice :P).



That's all folks!