o.k. let me re-phrase that - another circular handle which operates an eraser which you can manipulate to rub out the lines (and only those lines) which you don't approve of and in order that you don't have to start all over again (I nearly said return to the drawing board).
-- po, Mar 10 2008

All About the Etch-A-Sketch http://en.wikipedia..._A_Sketch#Mechanics
[Amos Kito, Mar 11 2008]

Easier, shirley, to keep regular incremental backups?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 10 2008


Sounds like a good idea, but hard to do with a knob. I would think you could make a static pen that you could use like a pensil eraser to attract the particles back to erase lines by bringing the pen close to the screen.
-- MisterQED, Mar 10 2008


no, it has to be under the screen so that you need to blindly find the lines. can't make it too easy, sorry.
-- po, Mar 10 2008


Given the way Etch-a-sketches work, wouldn't that be a squirter, not an eraser?
-- DrCurry, Mar 10 2008


An iron pad, with a piece of cat-fur on it (to re-static-ize the erased area) inside the box and a stylus with a magnet to un-draw with? When the stylus is brought to the screen, the pad... aw, you get the picture...
-- Dub, Mar 10 2008


Yes, like [DrCurry] says, it would have to have a way to lift the particles back up to the screen. (The screen didn't get de-static-ed, just physically scraped clear.) So, of course, we require a bit of energy, supplied by a little pump button. Like any other pump, it needs a sump, so you tilt the etch-a-sketch up on one corner where the pickup tube is, and squeeze the little button in the opposite corner where the pump is, and you get a little burst of particulate onto the screen out in the middle somewhere wherever the nozzle is. If it's in the right spot, bye-bye line. If it's somewhere else, you can tell because of the little splayed pattern where the air hit. If you tilt the etch-a-sketch the other way, so there's no material at the pick-up tube, you get a very easily visible spray spot, depending on how hard you hit the pump. Great for drawing flowers, or stars, or smoke from locomotives, or explosions, or that certain twinkle in [po]'s eye...

gotta have. 'ist gotta.
-- lurch, Mar 10 2008


(+)
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 11 2008


Unless you flip it over to perform this erase function, aren’t you in violation of the etch-a-sketch Prime Directive?
-- Amos Kito, Mar 11 2008


provide a link Mr A.K.
-- po, Mar 11 2008


re: [Link].
I thought it was just powder inside. But there are styrene beads in the aluminum powder, to smooth out a fresh screen. I knew that just adding powder over a line doesn't erase it, but now I know why. Powder on your line may be satisfactory for our purposes, though not as good as a freshly coated screen. Anyway, to erase, "one simply turns the toy upside down and shakes it". If your third knob operated a little powder bucket or powdered wheel, flip the toy over to "un-draw" your line. See the following equation.

flip + shake = erase

It should at least do the flip. If you leave it right-side-up to erase, I'm concerned that you'll rip the very fabric of space-time, drain the universe through the rift and kill us all. That's basically what I meant.
-- Amos Kito, Mar 11 2008


flip.
-- po, Mar 14 2008


flip + shake = boogiewoogie
-- wagster, Mar 14 2008


True, but do you suspect a flip by itself might convey a different sentiment?
-- Amos Kito, Mar 15 2008


Perhaps the etch-a-sketch could be made up of dozens of mini-squares that combine to form the whole 8x10 screen. Then you can shake an individual square to erase it without disturbing all the rest.
-- phundug, Mar 18 2008



random, halfbakery