The 5 Minute Sonic Screwdriver

[metrosonus]

[noimg]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2626/4008452874_6342c52472.jpg[/img]

Inspired by all of your work, I jumped in with this small starter project. I was at walmart yesterday picking up some stuff and saw a few things that might make a good sonic screwdriver. The body is a mini mag light, the shaft is a tire pressure gauge and the emitter shroud is simply the lens housing from the maglight. The emitter is part of a pen that I need to cut down, paint and sort out how to attach it to the lens housing. I tried using small nails, but I'm finding it too hard to cut them down by hand. I'm thinking I need to buy a Dremel. I'll need one anyway, but it may be a hard sell to the Mrs. as my multimedia pc just died    I'm also thinking an old stereo volume knob I have laying around would make a good frequency control at the bottom of the maglight.

[metrosonus]

Could you imagine what that would look like?

Thanks! My son can't stop playing with it! I was thinking this would make a good kids project, if mom or dad did the cuts. It's easy to do, stuff you can get cheaply, and has lots of nuts and bolts and things.  That was the part my son like the best, figuring out how all the nuts and bots went on the rod and in what order.

[Scarfwearer]

It looks great!.... I think... I'll just get my binoculars (a closer picture would be good .

Crispin

[metrosonus]

It was just a quick snap, but I ended up getting too much of the flash off the desk and that was the best one. I need to find a threaded rod, Dremel and some other bits this week. So I will document the project for sure.

As you can see, the flag broke off of our mailbox and I can't fix it because it's missing a plastic piece that I think was lost when it broke. Maybe I can paint it red and add it to my console build for a "you've got mail" sight gag. lol

[metrosonus]

Continuing on with the build. I tried to get a neutral background for the pics.

The Maglite breakdown:



Here you can see the lip where the bulb sat:



Originally, my idea was to run a threaded rod through the entire handle and attach a small stereo knob on the end. It didn't really feel secure and I felt the extra knob was pointless. After all, if I wanted to pretend to tune the frequency I could just turn the battery cover back and forth  So in playing around with it, I realized I could just bolt the threaded rod on either side of the lip using a washer and nut on each side. The result felt much, much more stable. I then cut the tire pressure gauge with my new Dremel (yea!) and bolted it down from the top and cut the excess rod off as you can see in the exploded view and assembled view.

[metrosonus]

And yes I fixed the mail flag. What a productive day!

[metrosonus]

Well it's done! The emitter is the end of a pen, with screws placed all the way around for the little bits that connect it to the shroud, which is the lens housing of the maglight.

All in all a neat project. Nothing fancy, it wasn't meant to be a replica, but it was a fun way to spend a few hours and a good excuse to buy a dremel and get to know it  

[geminitimelord]

Very Nicely done! Was thinking maybe Dyson could make a better sonic screw driver using sound multiplication technology. LOL

[doctor wholittle]

That's the most INCREDIBLE handmade, thought-up version of the SS since the Steampunk version I saw a while back!  I'll have to see what I can do to duplicate your efforts (after all... a guy DOES need a Dremel, right?!).  Thanks for sharing these marvellous pix!

DWL

[Captain_Zaphod]

Drat...pic is gone.

[metrosonus]

All the pics are in the following posts as imported by scarfwearer. Nothing is missing.. where you looking for something in particular?

[Captain_Zaphod]

All the pics are in the following posts as imported by scarfwearer. Nothing is missing.. where you looking for something in particular?

The pic in the initial post is gone...and for some reason when I last looked at this...none of the other pics appeared.  They're back now...hrmmm

[ten]

Fantastic! 

Absolutely brilliant in it's simplicity!

[puffdoctor]

Really neat. I was playing with my maglight last night to see if I could make a Sonic out of it - really I was. How did you attach the emitter head to the bolt head on top of your tire gauge? Is that epoxied or welded or something else?

[metrosonus]

Originally it was superglued, but the ring kept breaking off so I drilled a hole in the ring and slid it over the bolt and then put the nut on the inside. I should have done that first..