Useless Box

In systems engineering I made a useless box, this was a very fun experience, and I learnt a lot. This instructable page will cover, the materials you will need, the tools you will need, step by step instructions on how to build one for yourself and my journey to making my first useless box.

What you will need:

Motor

Wires

Limit switch

Switch

3v Battery pack

Solder

Tools:

Soldering Iron

What you will need:

Motor

Wires

Limit switch

Switch

3v Battery pack

Solder

Tools:

Soldering Iron

For this step you will need, a switch, soldering iron, solder and two pieces of wire (or one piece cut into two pieces) about 9 cm each. Make sure the switch you have has six pins. You want to take off about 3mm of the plastic coating on either ends of the wire, you then should place a little bit of solder on all the exposed wire. Then place some solder on the two middle pins on your switch. After this you will solder one end of either wire to the two middle pins, like the second picture seen. This concludes the first step.

In this step we will be connecting the motor to the switch. The motor is the thing that allows the hand of the useless box too move, this accompanied with the switch allows it to move clockwise and anticlockwise. What you will need is your soldering iron, a bit of solder and a motor like the one seen in the photos above. First locate the two pieces of bronze on the front of the motor as seen in the 2nd photo, then add some solder to these two pieces of bronze. Then grab the two wires already connected to the switch and use the wire that hasn't been soldered to anything yet. Solder these to the bronze pieces like seen in the 3rd photo. It should look something like the 4th photo

In this step we will be connecting the battery pack and limit switch. You will need, your soldering iron, a AA battery pack, and a piece of wire around 30mm and a smaller red wire about 20mm and another black wire of the same length. You first need to distinguish the two wires from the battery pack this being the red and black wire. You will connect the red wire to the bottom right pin with solder, make sure you add a bit of solder to the exposed piece of wire before you solder it to the pin. Next on that exact same pin you will solder one of the ends of the smaller red wire, make sure its on the same pin as the big red wire which is connected to the battery pack. Then solder the other end of the small red wire to the top left pin. Now you get that 30mm of wire you have been saving, cut it into two equal pieces and take off some of the plastic coating on either end of both pieces of wire. Then get the two wires, use one of the exposed pieces of wire on either one and twist them together. Then with this twisted piece of wire solder it to the black wire coming out of the battery pack. With one of the still exposed ends of the wire, solder one of them to the bottom left pin on the switch and solder the other end to the limit switch. Make sure the two straight pieces of metal of the limit switch are facing up and the small piece of metal from the side is facing up just like in photo 5. Solder the wire to the right piece of metal that is facing up as seen in photo 6. Now using the small black wire, solder it to the top right pin on your switch and the solder the other end to the piece of metal seen on the left side of the limit switch.

You will need:

Wood that is laser cut just like the pieces in photo 1.

Wood glue or super glue.

Masking tape.

First you want to get the same or similar pieces of wood as seen in the first photo, you would use a laser cutter for this.

In the top right corner of the first photo you see the bottom of your box, you will grab the and on of the side pieces which are directly under it in the first photo and glue these together using either wood glue or super glue. You will put these in between the little buds of wood sticking out of the pieces and the ones in between them. Then you will stick the two pieces together, you should add masking tape to keep them from moving about. Then add the other side to the other side of the bottom piece of wood.

Now grab the piece of wood in the top left corner of the first photo and stick this on the back of the box, it should look something like photo 3. Then using the piece of wood directly under the one you just used, go through the process of gluing again but this time on the front bit. It should look something like photo 6 from the front at this point.