A broken zipper pull offers a great chance for me to try my first Sugru fix. I've been using the paper clip for a little while now and it always felt like it was about to break. So I thought I'd try something a little stronger. The metal arm of a foldback clip offers a strong alternative. Since it's my first time using Sugru I was a little worried about the clip arm pulling out of the cured Sugru. So I decided to twist a paper clip around the base of the clip arm to use as an extra. This way when I pull the zipper pull the Sugru would push against the "flat" profile of the twisted paper clip instead of the thin metal of the clip arms.

Step 1: Materials

The first step was to get together the materials I would need.
a) foldback clip
b) paper clip
c) 1 pack of Sugru

Step 2: Prep Materials

The arms of the foldback clip are easy to remove by simply pinching them closed.
I twisted the paper clip into roughly a disk like shape that was big enough to fit over the clip arms and small enough to stay inside the profile of the folded back ends of the clip arms.

Step 3: Insert the Clip Arm

Because of the size of the bends the arm was a little tricky to get into the zipper. But a little patience and some fiddling did the job.

Step 4: Add Paper Clip

Pinch the clip arms together to fit the paper clip disk over the end.

Step 5: Add Sugru

After kneading the Sugru and rolling it into a ball I pulled off half of it and rolled it out into a long tube that I could wrap around the arms just above the paper clip. That way I could make sure the paper clip would be inside the completed Sugru zipper pull perpendicular to the clip arms.

Then I added more Sugru above and below the paper clip and shaped it as I wanted.

I added the last of the Sugru to fill out the shape.

Step 6: Wrap-up

So I just want to add a little here about my first experience with Sugru. The stuff is pretty soft and very easy to shape. It does stick to the hands a little and you can't wash it off with water. You end up with some kind of water proof film on your hands. It comes off very easily with some rubbing with a paper towel though.

I made this around 6pm and the next day (12 hours) I had to be careful with it as it was firm but it felt like the middle of it was still soft. It would still deform if I squeezed it too hard. To be fair I think the package recommends 24 hours to fully cure. By day two I sort of forgot about it and never really checked.

Today it's about 5 days after I made it and it's turned into a very hard rubber.

Nice product.

This zipper pull works great.