EPTMOUSE MODDING
Alright, so I've been having a few problems with my mouse lately - mostly related to gliding. The stuff underneath (advertised as 'teflon' but if it was, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't get indented just from the small crumbs on my desk; plus it looks and behaves like plastic so... saying it's plastic is a pretty safe bet) was uneven and produced a lot of friction. I was thinking about how I could solve this and came up with a couple of ideas.
First, whatever I'd want to use, it would have to be even and solid. Anything even remotely rubberlike would just stop the mouse movement. Second, it shouldn't be prone to abrasion or require cleaning. Third, it must be relatively flat; as in: the distance between surface and mouse should remain small - otherwise the laser signal won't get picked up. Fourth, it should have as little surface area as possible to remove friction and lastly, it should be sturdy so I only have to do the 'makeover' once.
Out of all materials, only two came to mind: metal or glass/ceramic. Since glass in that kind of shape and size is sort of hard to get hold of - and because it's not exactly sturdy, I decided metal was the way to go. As for the shape, to minimise surface area, anything spherical would be ideal - and luckily, I had picked up this small chain several years ago:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ZuMEo.png)
I removed the gliders and used some acrylic glue to attach the small metal balls to the mouse, so now it looks like this:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/mriaU.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/mX6kN.png)
Needless to say - now my mouse glides like a hero. Takes a little getting used to, because the force needed to move the mouse is drastically reduced, but together with the dpi adjustment options, it's not that big of a deal. No mousepad needed (I didn't use one before, either, though) and not bothered by sticky surfaces at all. Only (tiny) issue now is that because of the higher physical sensitivity, the precision suffers a little. Might be a problem if I'd wanted to paint the Mona Lisa by 'mouse' in Photoshop, but luckily my ambitions lie elsewhere.
What do you think about this? Have you modded your mouse?
