Make a computer mouse out of recycled plastic

With this mould you can inject the case for a computer mouse for the fair electrical components from Nager-It (https://www.nager-it.de/en). If you are interested in the design process of the mouse and the mould you can check out the research of the computer mouse: https://community.preciousplastic.com/research/fairmouse-a-computer-mouse-from-recycled-plastic It was a big prototyping phase to get the best results for the computer mouse, so here you can download the final version of the mould. Happy recycling! Thomas @johannplasto

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7 steps

1 Mill the Mould

Download the .stp-files and the blueprints for the mould for CNC milling. Metal examples for CNC Milling: Aluminium: Aluminium - 7050 Aluminium - 7075-T6 Aluminium - 7075-T651 Steel: Mild steel 1045 CNC mill the mould according to the blueprint and insert 8x10mm Dowel pins.

2 Inject

Fill the injection machine with Polypropylene, heat up for 10-12min, check the viscosity of the outcoming plastic, if everything is alright inject fast and hold a strong pressure for about 30sec. You need about 25g for the bottom part and 30g for the Top Part.

3 Demoulding

Unscrew the moulds, use the demoulding pockets to open the moulds, knock out the sprues, cut them and do the afterwork.

4 Drill the holes

You need to drill 2x D2mm for the button screws and 3x D2mm for the case screws. Keep attention just to drill 3mm deep. After that insert button screws. The setting height is fine-tuned again after the complete assembly.

5 Soldering the electronics

Ll electronic components come from the Nager-IT association. They are on a mission to make electronics as fair as possible. To this end, they offer the Nager-IT mouse and do a lot of educational work to raise awareness of the problems in the electronics industry (critical raw materials, electronic waste & working conditions). I made instructions for soldering the circuit board some time ago and can be viewed clearly at Instructables: https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Make-a-Fair-DIY-Computer-Mouse/ Also check out Nager-IT: https://www.nager-it.de/en/projekt

6 Final Assembly

The final steps are inserting the lens, the circuit board and screwing the top and bottom together. After testing the click for the first time, the button adjustment screws can be adjusted to achieve the best click feeling. Finally, the gliders are glued on, which allow the mouse to glide smoothly on the table. The mouse is connected to the computer via USB, is automatically recognized by all common operating systems and can be used straight away. Optionally, the mouse can be checked with an online mouse check.

7 Fairest mouse in the world

That's it, probably the fairest computer mouse in the world! :) What do you think? Feel free to leave your comments and follow @johannplasto to keep up with the latest news about the mouse and other products and projects made from and about recycled plastic. Happy recycling! Thomas @johannplasto

Precious Plastic is a project by One Army.Please sponsor the work or help us build the software.