Introduction: Steampunk Finger Stylus

About: Dad and hubby, good food enthusiast, solar energy, boating, making stuff, melting stuff, and raising chickens.

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.

*update: This was used for pressure responsive touch screens like a Nintendo DS; to make this work for capacitive screens I would suggest adding a conductive coating like copper foil tape.

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.

Step 2: Plain Stylus Finish

Briefly hold the tip of the stylus in a flame to round it and keep it from being scratchy.
That's it for a plain finger stylus. Go to the next step to Steampunk it.

Step 3: Paint and Hot Glue Extra Stuff

Getting a sense of Steampunk style takes a little intuition and internet browsing for ideas. Steam water tanks, brass, copper, rivets, hoses, gears, adjustment screws, leather, and levers come to mind when I think of this design style.
I spray painted a base coat of silver onto the stylus; then I added some gold Victorian style picture frame stickers from the hobby store sticker section. Finally, with hot glue I added some circuit board components and a brass screw.

Pocket-Sized

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