So there I was. Half-shaven with a stupid look on my face. My beard trimmer had just died. Any other time this would not have been that much of an issue. Just go get the charger from the bag, right? Right?

Not really. You see, I had also realized that while the charger was indeed in the bag I knew it to be, the bag itself was 3000 kilometers away.

Yea…

M’kay, think

Buy a new charger from Ebay? 5$ for a charger and 25$ for shipping. No bueno. Might as well buy a whole new trimmer set. But this would leave me with an extra trimmer I don’t really need.

Ship the existing charger from home? 20$ for shipping and gets here in a week. Tempting, if it weren’t for the fact that the package had been sent already (I also needed more laptop chargers).

But wait, I’m an engineer! And a proud one at that!

You might ask why not use a razor like normal people? Because I don’t like razors.

I shall build my own!

Observation 1

The thing only has two prongs, so I can’t be that difficult. I have 50% chance of getting the polarity right.

Two prongs

Observation 2

Someone has already attempted to modify a charger to work over USB.

This means my trimmer is known to work with a USB charger!

Obstacle

Even if USB charging works, I don’t have the specific end to plug into the charger.

Solution

Behold!

Solution

Essentially get yourself a USB cable and snip off its end. I like to use Micro USB cables for this. Then strip back the insulation and also trim back the green and white wires, leaving only red and black ones.

Then attach both of the wires to a screw. I used paper tape for this, but anything works.

Now comes the most important part! When holding the trimmer in front of you such that the power button is towards you, screw the red wire to the left hole and the black wire to the right hole.

Then plug your charger into the wall and hope it won’t explode. It didn’t in my case and even charged the battery :)

IMPORTANT

This approach is dangerous and could render both the trimmer and yourself inoperational. I did not try reversing the screws because it worked on the first try. I do not know what happens if you do.

Engineers, am i rite?