If you don't know what Sugru is, check out our FirstLook post. If you have ever looked at something and thought "if only...," then this stuff was created for you! The stuff was created by people-who-love-to-hack for people-who-want-to-hack, even if they don't know it...yet.
Sugru comes in a few basic colors and can be combined to create lots of different shades. The stuff feels like putty. It can be moulded, shaped, and worked just like putty. It will cure in about 24 hours. Once cured, the stuff is tough, but not hard. It is cold/hot resistant from -60º to +180º C. With that said, we are going to show you a few of our Sugru hacks.
We picked up this set of stainless steel tools at a special sale ($10) at Home Depot. It is destined for this year's Yankee Swap, but we thought we could Sugru it up a bit for the lucky recipient.
Next up was a repair we had wanted to do for about five years now but never got around to it. Our trusty Davis and Sanford tripod had "kicked" a shoe a while back. We wanted to put a new rubber pad on it. With a pack of the black Sugru, we fixed it in about three minutes. The repair job was so good that one would have difficulty telling the new pad from the original.
We were on a roll with foot-related fixes, and one enhancement we always wanted to make to our Draganflyer quadrotor copter was to put rubber tips on the landing feet. This is because we have a tendency to land the copter rather, uh, abruptly. Padding on the feet would lessen the impact...better for both the Draganflyer and whatever surface it was hovering above before we lost control of it.
Recently, we acquired a rather unique microscope. In the process of cleaning it, we noticed that casing of the power cord has some damage. We could have replace the cord, but it was simpler to just put some Sugru on it.
While Sugru is great for repairing stuff, it is also super for making things just a little easier to grip. We upgraded the grip on the letter opener, the leg-lock on the tripod, and the knob of the micrometer. Not only did we made those items work better, we personalized it by fitting them specifically for our fingers. Now THAT'S customization!
These are just a few of the quick and obvious hacks. We have about a dozen more complicated "upgrades" planned for gear and gadgets around the office. If you are interested in giving Sugru a try, pick some up here. It is not hard to become a Sugru guru. Interested? Here are seven easy steps:
- Trust Your Instincts: "Do or do not; there is no try"
- Seek Wisdom: see what others have done and copy, copy, copy
- Increase In Speed: don't wait, use it now
- Master Your Craft: just do it and keep at it
- What You Touch Touches You: add texture and patterns
- Embrace Diversity: create new colors by mixing
- Become One With The Universe
The problem is once you get started, EVERYTHING starts to look like it could use some Sugru. Before long, you will have bits of Sugru everywhere. Just remember...starting is easy, stopping is not. You have been warned. [Permalink] - Sugru Hacks
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