How to Build a Toaster

Toasters have been around for decades, but they lack in innovation. A fully functional toaster can be made in your own home using only basic supplies. Put your own personal touch on a toaster by following the steps in this article.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Heating element
• Switch
• Screwdriver
• Metal casing

1. The heating element you will use is a mixture of nickel and chromium, and can be found in any good hobbyist electronics store. If you cannot find a walk-in store, look online. Buy a spool of this inexpensive "nichrome" metal.

2. Build an apparatus, most likely in the form of a lever, that creates an electrical circuit when pressed down. The ends of this circuit should be attached to the heating element. When a power source is supplied to the circuit, the heating elements will then heat up.

3. Stabilize the heating elements by welding them to some sort of spring-loaded base, which you can fashion yourself or buy in an electronics store.

4. Build a timer. You can integrate an exact timer, or you can fashion one out of a capacitor, which charges predictably and will stop current flow after a given time, depending on the exact layout of the rest of the circuit.

5. Now that you have a functioning circuit to heat your toast, make sure you enclose the whole apparatus for safety. Good choices are metal or plastic. Be sure that whatever material you choose, you keep the walls reasonably far from the heating elements so that your toaster's exterior does not heat up and burn you.

Tips & Warnings

• You can probably figure out how a toaster works by opening up your own at home. Unplug it, take it apart and see how the parts fit together. After you think you know how it works, buy some parts and make your own.
• Be careful not to burn yourself. Keep the heating element properly enclosed and ensure electrical insulation.