Twister Hack

Tonight I present to you a simple little tool hack that I just made. It was embarrassingly easy, made from free/salvaged stuff, and required very few tweaks to work as planned.

Influences:

• An article about a Dutch guy that built prison-style tattoo guns using miscellaneous found junk.
• Cathy Habermann's finishing workshop in which we twisted cords from DMC to make cording.
• My inability to find my little hand-drill style twister machine that I had bought, requiring me to use the twirling pencil method to twist my cord earlier this weekend.
• Locating a discarded disposable electric toothbrush in one of my desk drawers that I saved because, "You know, it's got potential good parts!"

The case has a bottom end that pulls off, revealing a spot for two AA batteries. Once off, it allows you to pop out the innards. I used a hacksaw to chop off the casing just above the buttons.  I reinserted the parts and the batteries.  I used pliers to crimp on a mangled paperclip. The clip needs to be on there tight, and the apex of the hook needs to be centered directly over the motor's shaft, or it wobbles.

Things I may want or need to fiddle with: attaching the paperclip more securely just in case, and perhaps changing the buttons from needed an ON and an OFF to a single button that is only on when pushed.  But as you can see - it worked great. Note: it twists fast, but not so fast I felt like I needed to gear down the rotational speed.

I love it when a plan comes together!