Handmade USB Drive

USB flash drives are quite common today. You can even buy them in grocery stores (for vastly inflated prices). They are handy little devices that store much more than other removable media and are much more stable as well. I have had a 1Gb drive in my pocket at all times for several years now and it is quite handy for grabbing the odd bit of data and keeping some important stuff handy. The problem is just about all the USB drives out there look the same and none of them look very good. I decided to change that.

The Donor

This is a typical 1Gb USB flash drive that I picked up at a local office supply store for well under $20. It has a cheap plastic case that doesn't support the connector very well and the purple plastic makes the green LED inside look jaundiced.

I also didn't care for how light the USB drive was. It made it too easy to float up out of your pocket and get lost.

The Finished Product

This is what happens when I strip the case off the drive and build my own out of some scrap maple and what might be some unknown asian species of mahogany. Whatever it is, I think it looks much better than the cheap plastic case. The cap is a friction fit on the USB connector and holds quite well. There is no provision for the LED on the drive, but it was tiny and hard to see anyway. Just go on faith here...

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