Conductive Ipad Stylus

[Hunter1787]

Greetings and salutations!
Up for your viewing pleasure today are two Ipad stylus made with the Woodturningz stylus tips. I tried to make one of these several months ago but found that our Ipad requires a conductive stylus which my initial attempt was not. I shelved the idea for awhile because I had a craft show coming up and didn't have much extra time, but then didn't get around to it until yesterday. I used aluminum siding that we had laying around for the slantways thingy (or whatever the proper name is) and it works great.
One thing that is interesting to learn was making a closed end anything. In the end what I did was drill an extra long hole slightly smaller then the standard pen mandrel I use and screwed the end of the mandrel directly into the blank. It worked quite well with very little flexing as long as I didn't push to hard.
The reason for the angle to the aluminum is to try to ensure that most finger positions will have at least one point of contact with the aluminum. Plus I think it looks better then a straight piece across the stylus.

The Styli are about 2 1/2" long and a little less then 1/2" at the widest point.

Any and all comments are extremely welcome.
Thanks for looking,

John

 

[sbwertz]

Usually the brass tube itself is enough to make it conductive. But I like the design.

Sharon

 

[Hunter1787]

Yeah, I thought that too. I guess it is probably the shape of the stylus because unless I was touching the chrome plated head itself, the stylus would not work. I recently experimented on the old stylus I made and after cutting it up, putting aluminum on, and re-turning it, it works just fine.

Thanks for the comment,

John

 

[cwolfs69]

Usually the brass tube itself is enough to make it conductive. But I like the design.

Sharon

the brass tube does conduct to the stylus but you have to be in contact with the tube/stylus yourself somehow. the aluminum in these serves that purpose. if you just touch the acrylic, you will have no conductivity and hence it will not work.

 

[longbeard]

Those are very stylish stylus'.

Always thought just touching the acrylic blank was enough for the conductivity.
I know with wood blank you need to be touching the clip or in your case, the metal stripes.

 

[SteveG]

I have made and used numerous styli where there was no direct metal contact by the hand(including not via a pen clip). It was sufficient to be holding the acrylic clad device that had a brass tube core per normal pen construction. It might just be the greater thickness of your design that caused failure (prior to your using the aluminum).
Steve

 

[longbeard]

I used one to type that last message, only touching the acrylic blank.
Could be the thickness.

 

[bjbear76]

I've sold a couple dozen - haven't had any problems that I'm aware of. Never thought about the thickness of the acrylic though. Mine have been fairly straight with just a slight bow to it.

 

[dbledsoe]

I have a wooden trimline that I use, and I have never been particular about touching metal. As far as I know it has worked every time.