We’ve just arrived here in San Francisco and we’re setting up our booth – woohoo!
With so much going on back at base, only 3 of us have been able to come from London (Me, James and Roger) , and with 100,000 people expected over the weekend – we’ll need help!

If you’re in the area and you know your stuff about sugru and would like to hang out with us on the booth, demo’ing, chatting about hacks and talking through peoples ideas and projects over the weekend, we’ve love to have you
The people that come by the booth are really awesome and the atmosphere is amazing… You can help us for a full day, or for a few hours, whatever suits you best. We can pay you with lots of sugru, a t-shirt, a pass for you and friend and lots of fun or in regular cash either – it’s all cool to us, just let us know! It’s starting tomorrow – so we need to get our skates on! Email james@sugru.com as soon as you can if you’re up for it!

We’ve just arrived here in San Francisco and we’re setting up our booth (woohoo!… more on that in a second post in a minute) but first – the line up this year looks incredible! so I pulled out my top 10 things happening this weekend I’m determined not to miss so you can get excited too!

Citizen Science and Space Exploration
If you want to fly in space, or just fly an experiment, this is for you. Low-cost suborbital spacecraft will revolutionize space science and exploration. With Edward Wright, Chairman of the United States Rocket Academy. Make: Education Stage, Saturday, 1PM

Raspberry Pi: How a $35 Computer Will Give Students an Appetite for Science
Raspberry Pi maker Eben Upton leads live session showcasing how easy it is to program the low-cost mini-computer, and shares insights into its development and impact on future engineers and innovation. Make: Demo Stage, Sunday 11AM

DIY Chocolate: Break Away from the Bar
Learn to make chocolate from cacao beans, sugar, and a food processor. Karen Solomon, author of Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It, will teach the simple satisfaction of roasting, grinding, and flavoring your own DIY dark, chocolatey confection. Maker Square Stage, Saturday 11AM

sugru – us of course!
We’ve brought lots of sugru and we’ll be demo’ing and playing around with it all weekend, we’ve also brought loads of different hacks inspired by the sugru community and are there to help you talk through your projects and ideas and how sugru can help! All day at booth #56 in the Expo Hall and at the Make: Projects stage Saturday and Sunday 4PM

World Record Paper Airplane
The Sultan of Oman, the builders of the next generation of space vehicles, and Fry’s Electronics all come together in one man’s dream to be the best paper airplane designer in the world. John Collins, The Paper Airplane Guy shows off the plane. Make: Center Stage, Saturday 11.30AM

littlebits electronics
A super cool little open-source library of electronic modules that snap together with tiny magnets for prototyping and play. Designed and recently launched by Ayah Bdeir – littlebits speed up putting projects together and taking them apart again, thus making electronics easier and more playful. Make: Education Stage, Sunday 3PM

Organic Beekeeping: Saving the Honey Bee One Bee at a Time
Organic Beekeeping in an Urban Environment presents many challenges. Find out how each one of us can make a difference by utilizing our maker skills to create a safe haven for the honey bee. Maker Square Stage, Saturday 2PM

Democratizing Access To The Tools of Innovation
A hundred dollars a month now gives you access to the tools of the Industrial Revolution for the first time in 250 years. Mark Hatch, CEO of the amazing Techshop, will show examples of makers who are changing the world with access to machines, some training, and a shared workspace. Make: Center Stage, Saturday 3.30PM

Dave Eggers – A Modest Proposal: Bringing Makers to Market
Dave Eggers, founder of one of the most genius things ever – the pirate store at 826 Valencia – and longtime fan of the Maker Movement, will share ideas and some sketches for bringing a Maker’s market to the centre of San Francisco.

The Story Behind DIY.org
DIY.org is an online community for maker kids. Co-Founder Isaiah Saxon will share the back story – from Encyclopedia Pictura’s animation work, to Trout Gulch, to the feature film DIY in 3d, to the formation of DIY.org Make: Centre Stage, Sunday 1.30PM

Can’t wait !! If you’re not in the area, enjoy the links and think about coming next year maybe! And if you’re coming – make sure to come by and say hi – we’re at booth 56 in the Expo Hall, if you hadn’t planned on coming but are considering it now, check out my second post in a minute – we need help and have passes!

Most sugru users start with a simple repair… and what we’ve found is that sometimes a repair – as well as being a solution – can also be an opportunity for awesomeness!

We love that thought! So we made a video of 3 simple improvements to the iphone cable that evolved from the classic sugru repair / strain relief hack.

Have any of your repairs resulted in you making improvements to the design of something? We’d love to hear about them!

Check out this awesome idea from @Miklpa over on gurus!
sugru + plexiglass = kid-safe oven door

The sugru elevates the plexiglass plate a few millimeters from the glass surface of the oven, which makes the insulation quite good.

What a clever hack, we love it!

After years of fumbling around and complaining we thought that it was about time we did something about the crappy USB ports on the iMacs in our office.

With 2 small magnets and a USB extension lead, we made a clever way to access our USB ports that’s totally awesome to use.

We should add that this is our second attempt at cracking the problem. We were told by the shy folk on Instructables that the original solution was ugly Thanks for pushing us guys, you made us think a bit harder about how to make this look good too. Without your comments and suggestions we would not have come up with this solution.

Credit to Criggie for suggesting that we use magnets, this turned out the be a fantastic idea and allowed us to make a very discreet USB cable that is incredibly intuitive and fun to use.

Check out our new ible with simple step by step instructions.
oh, and in case you are worried about removing this from your iMac sometime, check out our removable video.

A few months ago, a sugru’er called Roman who works at Google had the idea that sugru could make a cool Google gift.
We loved the idea, so we worked together to make special edition Google sugru

Engineers love sugru and these are beautiful and useful little promo gifts to help lure all the most talented engineers at recruitment fairs and events into the Google clan…

But what should we call it?
Google + sugru = …. googru of course !

Google brought the first batch of these to the WWW2012 conference in Lyon this week, apparently they all disappeared in a few hours
We’ll have to make some more so!

People have been coming up with awesome hacks ever since sugru came out at the end of 2009, and recently we’ve had a bunch of emails expressing surprise that your hacks have withstood extreme conditions, frequent usage and everyday exposure to wear and tear. You shouldn’t be surprised…sugru is designed to last!

But we think this is really cool so we ran a little contest to celebrate those tried-and-tested hacks…and these are the winners!

All the best entries here show sugru hacks that are challenged by their conditions – from long winters to harsh detergents – but because the sugru was applied well, they’re standing the test of time. Have a browse through them to see what we mean. Special shout out to Scott for his awesome heavy-duty all-weather car airfoil repair, which may not be the most beautiful hack in the world, but it sure demonstrates longevity…

“This hack is almost two years old and survived two U.S. Midwest winters. The airfoil cracked completely through as I had used it as a curb squeegee one too many times. It’s not a pretty hack but the sugru is tough and has held the airfoil together at all speeds and in all kinds of road conditions.” Scott, USA

More hacks aged 2 years and counting…

Secure your bike’s wobbly D-lock clip attachment – from Jenny in York

Add an attachment to your vacuum cleaner that holds excess cord – from Rita in Pennsylvania

Make a storage jar lid easy to unscrew by adding grips – from Ellen in New York

Keep a turnip knife with a cracked handle in action – from Deidre in Glasgow

Hacks aged 18 months and counting….

Prevent dog leads from snagging in the gaps on wooden decking – from Meghan in Ohio

Create simple and adjustable dividers in a storage basket – from Jennifer in New York

Fix up the volume control on your car’s steering wheel with a tactile button – from sugru guru @lysdexic

Hacks aged 1 year and counting…

Reinforce your Kindle’s case to prevent pressure damage – from Rachel in Atlanta

Keep your circular knitting machine still by adding suction cups – from sugru guru @linuxgirl

Everybody listed above gets a lovely multipack to enjoy! And big thanks to all who took part – we love learning more about what’s worked for you over time.

I should also mention our very own James and Roger, who’ve been hacking with sugru since the protoyping days – you’ll be pleased to hear that their favourite early applications are lasting beautifully - James’ bike bell mount and Roger’s greenhouse doorstopper have both stayed put for five years now, and are still going strong!

This one’s from Ben here in the sugru office:
“Aaaargh, every time I need to plug headphones or a USB device into my iMac I either have to climb over it or fumble around blind !!!”


“This is a bit of a pain but super simple to solve, I made a full step by step ible to show you how to put your ports exactly where you need them, on the front of your iMac. Try it and see what a difference it can make ”

Remember, although sugru will stay stuck for as long as you want it to, it can be removed from your iMac later if needed, simply by cutting it off with a sharp knife. Our Removable video shows how.
If you make this, or if you have ideas how to make this hack even better let us know!

And then make a stylus from it!

Guru of the month goes to Ola from Sweden aka @olacarlsson on gurus for this super cool project. To make your own, follow the full step-by-step on gurus!

Congrats Ola! 5 packs of sugru and a Hack Things Better t-shirt will be on their way to you very soon!

For a chance to win guru of the month yourself, just get yourself some sugru, hack some stuff and upload pictures to gurus to help others do the same!

Hack of the Month!

The winner this month is to Joshua in North Carolina for not only hacking his car better but showing us all a beautiful technique for forming precise sugru parts.

“With my satellite antenna taken apart by a rampant car wash and us not using satellite radio anyway, I replaced the bare antenna with a sugru covered screw. I placed the screw in a drill, applied sugru, and spun it while forming with soap covered fingers, as if on a potter’s wheel. I also used the turning drill to carve a concave shape for the base with an exacto knife. It was amazing! I’ve posted a full step by step on instructables.”

Awesome – congrats Joshua! 5 packs of sugru and a Hack Things Better t-shirt will be winging their way to you very soon.

For a chance to win Hack of the Month yourself, just get some sugru , hack some stuff and send us some photos for a chance to win!