Paradox Mouse

Featured on my blog at
www.TheTentacleParadox.com

The mouse I started with was a generic 5 button mouse with scroll wheel. The two main left/right buttons were the largest obstacles for I couldn’t find anything that would both look and function well. My first though was to use the two sides of a bottom jawbone of some rodent I had lying around, but they ended up being too small and fragile for constant use. I then decided I will just carve some pieces out of wood. After this, I made a mount using brass tubing and brass I-beam shaped pieces. To match the keyboard, I decided to add vintage typewriter keys to each of the finger points on the main 4 buttons of this mouse. I used Alchemy symbols to replace the original letters in the keys. These symbols may or may not have been chosen for a specific significance in this project.

The 3rd and 4th buttons are on the sides of the mouse. I used thin brass sheets cut in a small strip that attaches to the brass rod used to mount the main keys. At the end of the brass strip, I made a mount to add more Vintage Typewriter keys.

I then took apart the internal gears of a clock and used a dremel to cut the center of it out so it was large enough to slide over the scroll wheel. I did this with two gears and found a 3rd that actually slipped on the side perfectly. I then cut a thin strip of brass to wrap around the center of the scroll wheel. The scroll wheel is perfectly functional and also acts as a 5th button if you press down on it!

After the buttons were completed, the rest was easy since it all has to do with decoration! One late sleepless night, I had the ironic idea of using a mouse skull in the piece. Luckily I had a whole rodent skeleton sitting in a box. I bought this years ago with the idea of articulating it as if it would be a fun puzzle to do on a rainy day. Well many rainy days went by and it was never put together, but the head and a couple other pieces now reside in my new mouse!

There are 2 LEDs on this mouse, 1 was near the laser which gives the mouse a slight glow at all times, and a 2nd LED used to light the back of the mouse whenever it was moved. I extended the wires on the 2nd LED and then dremeled a hole into the bottom of the skull and stuffed it in there. The mouse was then placed on a big gear which I glued to the circuit board of the mouse, covering most of the internals. Now, whenever you move the mouse, the whole skull lights up! Creeeeepy!

To protect the skull and to give the mouse a shape that will contour to your hand, I decided to make a rib cage. I used brass I-beam shaped pieces that you can get at a hobby store and meticulously bent these to form a cage. I then JB welded it all together and painted any exposing epoxy with brass colored paint. I then took the vertebrates and tail bones from the same rodent and lined the center beam with it. I had to soak the bone in warm water for 5 minutes to soften the tendons which allowed me to bend it to its final shape.