Tuesday, December 07, 2010

iPad Dry Erase Markers

I've not been crazy about iPhone / iPad stylii. It didn't seem right. Then, I saw this post, and it was immediately obvious why the stylii didn't work. I've made a slight change to his design: use a metal body pen. This means that the wire is no longer needed.

Supplies:
  • Sharpie "King Size" Permanent Marker (~$2.50 at Blick)
  • 1.5" x .25" piece of conductive foam (see Note below)
  • Pair of pliers
  • Pair of sissors
Instructions:
  1. Using the pliers, pull out the existing nib / point. (This is a bit messy)
  2. Let the pen sit, uncapped, for several days. There's a piece of felt that holds the bulk of the ink, and this needs to dry out
  3. With the sissors, cut a piece of conductive foam to size
  4. Push the foam into the body of the pen.
  5. Done!


Note: There might be something in doubling over the piece of conductive foam (cut it to 3" x .25", fold in half) I used a "dense" foam, but it still feels a little soft in day-to-day use.

Also, if you don't have conductive foam, drop me a note. I have a huge sheet of it that I'm not going to use, and we can work out some sort of trade.