Capacitive Stylus DIY

I have to confess to playing "Draw Something" on my Ipod Touch a lot lately. I know, I know, another time-waster, but what can I say, I like showing off my mad drawing skills.
So, out of necessity came this very simple DIY project... I noticed how hard it was to draw with my finger, more often than not, my drawing did not resemble anything like what I was supposed to draw. I looked on Ebay for a "capacitive stylus" (the kind works on touch screens such as Iphones and tablets), and even though they are dirt cheap (some for less than 1 dollar!), I know that for the most part it would take about 3 weeks to a month for delivery (shipped from China). And I did not want to wait, I wanted something to make my drawings better right away. My next thought was to look on Youtube, and I got some ideas, but most of them were complicated (one person said you needed an umbrella, for the metal tubing part, I thought that was a bit wasteful). I went rooting through my junk drawers, and finally ended up finding something interesting in my son's desk drawer - an empty bullet casing (I have no idea where he got it - but thank goodness for teenage boys!).

308 bullet casing

Finding the bullet casing was the hardest thing about this project, as the next item was something I keep handy in the kitchen - a regular kitchen sponge (a brand new one of course).

Walmart Great Value All Surface Sponge

The next step is to cut a small chunk of sponge and trim the rougher side off, you will need the softer side, it has a strange texture, cellulose maybe? I'm not sure. 

Next, you tuck the piece of sponge into the bullet casing, exposing a bit of the sponge (make it a bit rounded and adjust to make it a more precise point).

That is all! It works like a charm, way better for drawing than my finger! I think I will end up buying a prettier stylus, but until then, this works just fine.