Ghetto pen: Story of the DIY Stylus

So late Friday night, of rather really early Saturday morning. l made myself a better stylus using the body of the pogo stylus. I saw that Crabfu had used an old drafting pencil. I couldn’t find my old ones, so I set out to find some. Unfortunately, Joann’s craft store didn’t have any in their art section and neither did Office Max. I could go down to the art store, but it would cost me ten dollars in tolls and gas to get one. You can find a decent one online for $10-15.

But what I did find at the craft store was this copper wire in the jewelry section. They have several different kinds of wire so make sure to buy the copper one and not the aluminum one. You could totally buy the sterling silver wire if you wanted a very expensive ghetto stylus. The craft wire comes in varying colors and gauges. Get the thicker wire or it will be too flimsy. Also, buy the copper one. I don’t want you to go home with something that’s non-conductive.

Instead of conductive foam, l used a scotch Brite sponge.

You only need like a centimeter of the sponge. I tried a couple of different things because I tried to make the stylus look more like a pen and tried to hide the copper wire. It didn’t work out. The great thing about the sponge is that you can still use it to scrub stuff. You have plenty of stuff left.

For the pen body, I use an old Pilot Bp-s. I’m not going to rehash the instructions. This is my final result.

Don’t as me why it sticks out so far. I was trying to do something with the pen that didn’t work. I just kept the length. The one thing that I’m having issues with is keeping the craft wire in contact with the Sponge. It keeps wanting to come out the top. Taping it didn’t help much. I think it’s just part of having an open ended pen.

The great thing is that the sponge is not falling apart. I wrote this whole thing in writepad using the ghetto stylus. And even if the sponge did fall apart, I can just cut up more of the sponge.

Overall, I would choose this over my pogo.

Copper wire : $2.50
Sponge : $1
Pen body : $0 or if you don’t have an old pen lying around, the pilot pen is $2. But you’ve got to have an old pen lying around. Any old pen will do.

Total : $3:50-5

pogo stylus: $12 and already falling apart.

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal