Sprucing up a flash drive

Written by D_Ave

Monday, 29 October 2007

 

 This is a thing i meant to do for quite awhile now, but was unable because i couldn't find appropriate casing :) As it turns out other people have already thought about this , but it matters not. I've never seen such a mod at any Bulgarian forum or website.

Ever try PEZ? I haven't - until yesterday, but once I tasted them I can say - not a big loss. But the candy is unimportant, the packaging is. For mere 2 leva (1 €) you can get your favorite hero, be it monster, car or anything else. Yesterday when i was shopping i saw one of my most favorite - Mike from Monsters Inc. as a box for PEZ and i couldn't resist! I've been searching for appropriate casing for awhile, but they were all kind of ugly. So for my two bucks i got the casing and two packets of candy, supposed to go inside. I had no intention to do that - so as the story unfolds, watch the pictures :)

1. Materials:

- some USB flash drive with appropriate dimensions (if it's bigger or smaller you'll have to compensate somehow :) )
- PEZ casing
- small screwdriver
- small files
- sandpaper
- soldering iron (if you desire)
- Strong glue (Magic Glue)

2. Here is the flash drive and Mike:

I'm using a complimentary 256 MB flash drive from some expo I went to.

3. Poor Mike got his head ripped of from the casing. It's not hard, with the small screwdriver you push gently one of the sides until one of the plastic pins pops out and then just pull the other one out.

 

4. Remove the insides that keeps the candy in place by mere strong pull, still observant not to break the casing.

5. Since the back end of the flash drive is going to be glued to the head and will go inside the casing, we will file it or the casing until it fits snugly. At first i started filing the flash drive , but at some point it's plastic thinned out quite much while still not fitting in. So i moved to the casing with the small file. It turned out to be easy job and there was even a thin groove in the middle as well as locking mechanism, as if made for flash drives!

6. After the flash drive fits in the casing it's time to take care of the head. Inside it there are two teeth that must be removed somehow, so the flash drive will stick perfectly. On the picture they are marked with red brackets. The easiest way for clean removal would be with the soldering iron. We melt and cut them forming the plastic underneath in the desired shape. It's fast, but it stinks (literally)! Be careful with the soldering iron - touch the head anywhere else and you'll get an ugly melted spot!

7. Then we glue the back end of the flash drive to the head. I used magic glue and did use a reasonable amount, since you all know what mess is it if it leaks. I hold it together and then put some more glue. It is important to to make it strong since every time you pull out the flash drive you'll be pulling it by the head. :) It is imperative to wait for the glue to set before putting the flash drive in the casing, otherwise you'll have a ugly situation on your hands because it will almost certainly stick to it.

8. Wait for it to set completely and if needed file off the edges of the casing so it would fit perfectly and you're done. :) For a mere 15-20 minutes you had made quite charming flash drive suitable for a gift or just getting "WTF?!? looks when you pull a flash drive out of a PEZ :)

Good luck to you all. I'm curious what hero will you be using to conceal your flash? :))))))))