Make your own Steampunk mouse

Posted at: Wednesday 2nd April 2008

Sheffield-based modder Unklian shows how to bring the age of steam, furnaces and brass to the optical mouse, with stunning results.

As Steampunk originates from the age of furnaces and coal, I decided that some kind of fire was required to power the mouse (picture 14). I extended the original blue LED wiring from the PCB towards the back of the mouse and used an orange LED to provide the illumination for the fire. I then glued the new LED on top of the large controller IC. The furnace surround that the LED illuminates is made from flattened copper pipe and bent to follow the shape of the rear of the PCB. At this stage, I made some 'workings' to poke into the fire. These comprised a couple of lengths of brass rod, more copper wire and some brass tap internals - basically, anything that came to hand.

After that, I had an idea of how the whole mouse was going to fit together (picture 15), so I took it to pieces. I then sanded the wood smooth, varnished it using a hard external gloss varnish, scrubbed it with a pan and varnished it again (picture 16). This process was repeated several times until I'd achieved a glossy finish. Once everything was shiny and bright, it was time to assemble the mouse. I soldered extension wires onto the micro-switches and the PCB, and glued it in place with Araldite. After polishing it with Brasso, the rear furnace surround was glued back in place.

For the rear furnace, I needed some coal. For this, I used glass from a broken window, taking care not to cut myself on the fragments (picture 17). Unsure of the conductivity of the Araldite and silicone sealant, I covered the electronics with a small piece of a plastic, then a thin layer of Araldite and finally the glass coal. It looked a little bright, so when it was dry, I added a second, darker layer by rolling the glass in black silicone gasket sealant before pressing it in place.

I then polished the innards and glued them in place, followed by the rear cage, using just a quick touch of Araldite on the ends of each wire to secure them in their holes (picture 18). All the front components were polished before being refitted. A quick test run showed that all worked well apart from a little tightness on one plunger; this was rectified by a quick spin of the drill (picture 19). The mouse works well apart from the position of the buttons, which ended up slightly further forward than I'd originally intended. Therefore, my advice from my experiences while performing this mod is to measure, measure and measure again. And then measure some more.

For more on Steampunk, check out our Different Engines feature.