Upcycled Electronics Jewelry

My 11-year-old son and I were browsing the Instructables Contests. When he saw the Jewelry Contest, he suggested using electronics to make jewelry. Since I’ve long found that the insides of things are beautiful, I was happy to oblige. I left the concepts and designs to him, and handled most of the fabrication (and dad jokes) myself.

This Instructable is in three sections: Steps 2-5 for a steampunk ring, steps 6-7 for a terminator earring, and steps 8-11 for a circuit board bag tag.

Materials:

1. Stuff to take apart
2. Assorted nice-looking electronics
3. Jewelry findings

Tools:

1. Tools to take stuff apart: Screwdrivers, a drill, pliers, clipper, soldering iron and solder sucker, etc.
2. Tools to shape stuff: Hammers, pliers, a jeweler’s anvil – whatever you have handy; and a Dremel tool with various attachments
3. Tools to put stuff together: We used a soldering iron and solder, though strong glue could work for similar projects. A set of helping hands was needed to hold hot metal as it was being soldered.

We first got together some old or broken electronics. Taking them apart, we looked for things that looked cool, to get ideas for what to make. That was among the most fun parts of this project, though we didn't use much of it here. It did inspire ideas for further projects.

I had also purchased some things at deep discount when Radio Shack stores were closing, without a clear plan in mind for them; so I was happy to devote them to this project.

Copper wire also looks very nice, is easy to work, and goes well with this project.

We took some copper wire left over from a home rewiring project, and shaped it into a ring.

Use a round object approximately the size of the ring you want to make, and bend it – otherwise, the bends will be too sharp and uneven, making the ring uncomfortable. We used the handle of a chisel for the first pass, then a jeweler’s anvil and a wire bending jig for refining the shape. Pliers are helpful, but not required.

The squared-off ends of the wire would not be pleasant for a ring, so I used a sanding disk attached to a Dremel tool to file them down.

I asked my son to choose what electronics to use for the ring. He looked through what we had taken apart and thought both through-hole and surface-mount resistors looked good. Rather than remove things from circuit boards, he selected some unused components: a 5-band blue resistor, and some surface mount capacitors.

I slid the leads of the through-hole resistor through the middle of the loops of copper wire, and wound the remaining leads around a few times. Now for soldering.

Since this will be against skin, we chose a tin/silver solder. If we planned to wear this long-term, we’d likely coat it with nail polish or a similar durable, skin-safe coating.

The copper is very thick and conducts heat so well that it took a long time with the soldering iron at its highest setting to let the solder flow well. I used a pair of “helping hands” clips (insulated somewhat with heat-shrink tubing) to hold it throughout this process, and turned the ring as necessary to reach each portion of the ring. I used solder to hold the resistor securely to the copper ring, fix the two windings of the ring together, and smooth out the tapered ends of the copper.

Once that was complete, I placed the surface-mount capacitors on the ring and soldered them in place.

The solder flowed quite well once the ring was hot enough, but there were still a couple rough spots. So, we used fine-grit sandpaper to smooth them out, then did a bit of polishing with a buffing wheel on a Dremel tool.

With all this done, it’s actually quite comfortable, and has a satisfyingly steampunk look. (Will it make you irresistible? Is resistance futile? Seems like a good conversation starter, depending on your capacity for puns.)

My son liked the look of a gold-plated 50-Ohm terminating resistor (terminator) for coaxial cables, and wanted that to serve as an earring. We found we had some screw-post earring mounts (for non-pierced ears), so we chose to use those. To connect them, we need a loop of wire extending to the central conductor of the terminator.

We used jeweler’s pliers (circular and smooth in cross-section) to form a nice round loop in a piece of 20-gauge copper wire. We then slid it through the hole in the earring, and twisted the wire together. (We originally tried using stainless steel, but since it is extremely difficult to solder to and it is harder to cut and bend, we abandoned that for this project.)

I pre-tinned the copper wire and the inner conductor of the terminator. The gold conductor was challenging since again, there was a large mass of metal drawing heat away, so it took quite a bit of time for the solder to flow. Be patient.

Once both conductors were pre-tinned, I held them against each other with two sets of “helping hands” and soldered them together.

It sparkles and dangles nicely. (Does it make you think, “I’ll be back”?)

As soon as he saw the circuit board from the TV, my son wanted to make a bag tag from part of it. It already looked cool, and had a ready-made hole. But of course there was more to do.

First, we took a circuit board from an old, non-functional TV. Then, I used a scroll saw to cut out the portion of the board he wanted. I used mineral oil all around the cut to minimize circuit-board-dust.

Several of the edges were a bit rough and some corners were a bit pointy, so I smoothed them with a Dremel tool (again with oil at the edges) before proceeding.

I removed the mineral oil with isopropyl alcohol after finishing this step.

It was tempting to call it done at this point; but the back of the tag had many sharp points sticking out (from the IC chip and through-hole components). This would tear up any bag it was hanging from, and would make it uncomfortable to grab. We needed a solution.

We could have simply covered the back with cardboard, foam, and/or fabric, but he wanted to be able to see the back. So, we took some scrap plastic packaging and trimmed it to the size of the tag. Then, using copper foil tape, we stuck the plastic to the back of the board.

The tape and plastic covered the hole that we’d planned to use for the chain, so we drilled that out.

Voila!

Here it is, wired and ready for action.

If you can repair or re-use something, that usually is best. Scrapping or recycling are also better than just dumping things in the trash. But if you take things apart, you can explore how they work, get a sense of how to design things yourself, and appreciate just what's going on inside the things you find around you. And it may inspire that creative spark in you.

It was also great to work on (and finish!) a project with my son. He's learned how to make things, how to explain it to others, and the joy of finishing a project. Let's do it again soon.