DIY: Glass USB Flash Drive

Diy: USB Glass Flash Drive | Microwave Kiln #3

Birthday, Anniversary, Valentines day or just an ordinary day. It's nice to surprise your loved ones with a customized gift.

In this Instructable, we look at a way to make a glass USB flash drive.

What's needed:

Microwave kiln

I used a large kiln for this project, but the small one will work just fine.

Smaller the kiln, faster it will heat up

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Remove a flash drive from its case. I already had one lying around.

Use your flash drive as a guide to cut out a rectangle out of a thick fiber paper.

Rectangle should be a little bit larger than the flash drive.

Cut out 2 pieces of glass. One bigger than the other.

Just an ordinary glass cutter will do the job.

Score a line and break the glass in half.

Put your glass on the kiln's shelve.

Make sure to use kiln's shelf paper or fiber paper to avoid the glass from sticking to the kiln.

I put the small piece at the bottom and the big piece on top, leaving the fiber rectangle in the middle.

This way the glass will fuse together making a sleeve for the flash drive as the fiber paper can withstand very high temperatures.

Put the kiln in the microwave on high power. Time will vary depending on your microwave, the kiln and the glass you will use.

For this Instrucable I used a large kiln, so it took me around 12 - 14 minutes to fuse the glass.
If I would have used my small kiln, it would have took me 5 - 6 minutes.

Keep checking the the progress by stopping the microwave and opening the kiln.

Just make sure to do it quickly to not let the heat escape.

I usually look at the kiln's hole. When it's red, you know the glass is hot.

When the glass is getting red, keep checking the kiln every 10 - 15 seconds.

It's easy to ruin your flash drive by melting the glass too much.

When you're happy with the result, take out the kiln and leave it to cool down for 30 - 40 min.

When the glass has cooled, take out the fiber paper. If you fail to get it out in one piece, try wetting it.

Then use a small tool to scrape it out.

Now glue the flash drive inside of the glass.

That's it!

Your glass flash drive is ready.