Make Cheap Standoffs with Nylon Tubing

Tan Tran came up with a cheap substitute for aluminum standoffs: nylon tubing. Polyethylene does a decent job too, and can be had for under $.10 a foot at your local hardware store. The 1/4″ OD (outside diameter) stuff shown in these pics accommodates up to #8 size screws.

Mercury Tilt Switch – Old School Accelerometer

Rummaging through the ubiquitous box of random stuff, I pulled out a mercury tilt switch, which were / are used in vending machines, thermostats, and construction equipment to detect tilt. The liquid drop of mercury conducts current when it bridges two contacts at one end, and, according to wikipedia, can operate millions of cycles since there’s no wear. Anyone know the right way to dispose of these?

About

CuriousInventor launched in late 2006 (pre-arduino era!) as a place to enable hobbyists, students, and musicians to create their own technology. We sold open-source kits and tools, and offered numerous guides & videos on things like soldering, metal working, screws, electronics, and more. 

The store is now mostly empty, but we’ve kept the product pages and guides up since they have useful information. Many of our guides and videos still rank on the first page of google searches and have been seen millions of times. Content on this site and the CuriousInventor YouTube channel produced by Scott Driscoll.

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