Introduction
Create a cardboard push button with this template, conductive Maker Tape, and a few rubber bands. You an then use this large cardboard button anywhere you might use a normal push button!
Tools
Optional Tools
Parts
Video Overview
Featured Document
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Download and print the last two pages of the attached PDF.
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Use the pages as a guide or glue them to cardboard so you can cut out the 11 pieces needed to assemble the push button.
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Using 1/4" wide Maker Tape attach two separate "sides" to Piece 11 as shown.
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Piece 1 is the bottom layer of our switch it will act as the “Stationary Contact” part of the switch.
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Have you seen this pattern before? If you've ever taken apart a remote control or calculator with "rubber buttons" you may have seen something similar.
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Attach Pieces 2, 3, and 4 to Piece 1 by stacking and gluing them together. (You can also use tape instead of glue if desired.)
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This will form the bottom half of our button, and the inside cavity that the Movable Contact will be placed in so it can be pressed down to touch the Maker Tape on the bottom that forms the Stationary Contact.
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Attach Maker Tape to one side of Piece 5, covering the entire side, then glue the other side (without Maker Tape) to Piece 6, centering it.
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This will form the Movable Contact which will be pressed down against the interleaved Maker Tape on the bottom layer of the button to complete the electrical circuit.
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Attach Pieces 8, 9, and 10 to Piece 6 by gluing and stacking them. Make sure the pieces are all centered.
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The top of the assembly will be the part of the button you press with your hand (or you can optionally add one more large piece (11) to the top for a larger surface area to press. The bottom of the assembly presses down to close the switch.
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Place Piece 7 on top of the assembly created in the previous steps. The stack of three piece (8, 9, and 10) should stick up through the hole. Hold the pieces together with two thin rubber bands.
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Now that we have the top and bottom parts of our push button we can assemble them together!
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You can glue the two halves together, and it will be nice and secure, but if you ever want to open it to show how it works you can’t really do so.
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We decided to use masking tape to hold our button together. This allowed us to easily peel off the tape if we want to show someone what the inside looks like. (You can also make a second button that isn’t fully assembled as a demo unit.)
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Adding Piece 11 is optional. Your Push Button will work just fine without it, but you can add it on using glue for a nice secure adhesion, or tape for a removable solution.
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Let's put our button to work in a circuit!
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If you wanted to use the push button to turn on an LED with a battery the two connection points would go between the LED on either the positive or negative side of the circuit.
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You can also decorate the top! You can color it, attach a photo or drawing, etc. If you have a bunch of buttons you can label them, or color code them, depending on what their functions are. Maybe you want a “Launch” button, or a “Play/Pause” button, or a “Cookie” button... Your imagination is the limit!
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Your push button isn't just limited to simple circuits. You can easily incorporate your button into microcontroller projects that use a micro:bit with our Bit Board. Just add Maker Tape!
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If you're up for a challenge (or if you have a laser cutter) we've also added a second PDF file with a round button template.
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The interior pieces are all the same, we just rounded the outside pieces to be circular.
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