The Saddle Stainless Steel Monopole E-Stim Electrode

Another new stainless steel monopole e-stim electrode hits the shelves, here's the background story to its design.

While sitting and chatting with Stunt Cock and sub'r' one day after a busy day of making electrodes, picking and packing orders, and a myriad of other tasks, the topic of conversation came around to those self-adhesive monopole electrodes.

We all love using them as they are so useful, especially regarding surface skin play. Stunt Cock brought up a good point about them though. They are often challenging to keep in place on an erect penis, especially if you are a grower and shrinker and your erection comes and goes during a stimming session.

Changes in dimension and skin tension often cause the edges of sticky pad electrodes to start peeling away from the skin. This can lead to hot spots, and that is never a good thing.

Stunt cock related things he has tried to keep them in place, and most recently, he has been using the stretchy adjustable straps that we sell here to good effect. So that's one solution to the problem of keeping pads in place.

We then started discussing stories we had heard about people who have had adverse reactions to pad-style electrodes, whether that is from the adhesive gels used to secure the pad electrodes in place or whether it was as a result of the edges peeling away, who knows.

The jury was out on that one, but my suspicion is that it is an adverse reaction to the adhesive gels. Changing the brand of adhesive pad electrode, you are using could alleviate that problem if it is one that you suffer from.

The lightbulb moment - A new electrode is born

Because of our recent steps into the world of 3D printed stainless steel e-stim electrodes in the form of the Jet Set Willy and Helmet electrodes, my thoughts turned to maybe coming up with an alternative to pad electrodes for the shaft of the penis in the form of a stainless steel electrode.

Out came my sketchbook, and we started bouncing ideas off each other while I doodled (poorly, I have to admit).

A possible design soon emerged. Stunt Cock wanted something that fulfilled some simple criteria, and these were:

1. The design should have a similar surface area to a 4cm x 4cm pad-style electrode.
2. It should be curved to wrap around a section of the shaft of the penis.
3. It should use one of our stretchy velcro straps to ensure good skin contact to prevent hot spots.
4. There should be lots of different ways to wire up to it to make it simple and easy to connect to.

One cup of tea and two biscuits later, I had done another sketch, and we seemed to have a solution that ticked all of the suggested requirements. Now, we needed to see if it would work.

Designing an electrode for sale is more complex than it would seem; with my self-taught skills, the design itself was the first hurdle to overcome.

So, after a few hours of using Fusion360 and more cups of tea, I was on to something. A design that ticked all of our requirements, was sleek, minimalistic, and with a few clever embellishments.

I opted for a simple square shape modelled in an arc so it would fit onto the shaft of a penis snugly. The elasticated strap would create good skin contact, and the shape should suit many different girth sizes.

I decided early on to use a similar connection style to the one on my Jet Set Willy electrodes. A simple arrangement of short lengths of conductive rubber inside stainless steel holes would act as sockets to allow both 4mm and 2mm plugs to be used.

I put two mushroom-shaped contact points on the top of the electrode for 3.5mm snap connectors. Finally, I added four small loops so crocodile clip cables could also be a connection option.

The clever placement of these loops keeps the strap in place. When fitted over the electrode and tightened, the four loops that act as a retainer to prevent the strap from slipping off. Another bonus of the strap, if you are using snap connectors, is that it goes over them, securing them in place.

Once the design was finished, we 3D printed one in-house and used some adhesive aluminium tape so Stunt Cock could try it out and give his opinion of it. One stimming session later, it was a huge thumbs up from him and a he had a very naughty grin on his face.

Electrode prototypes

So, happy with the design, it was time to see how it would look, feel, and work when made of stainless steel. A small sample order was placed, and we then had nothing to do except check its status daily and wait to receive our new electrodes.

While waiting for the prototypes, we gave our Ko-Fi supporters a sneak peek at the new design and asked if anyone had any name suggestions. We got one we love, so my latest creation was christened - The Saddle.

We didn't have to wait too long for the Saddle prototypes to arrive (about two weeks, which is good).

They arrived yesterday, and the finish and feel blew us away. We love them, and it wasn't long before we had the first ones through the media blasting cabinet to give them their final finish. They looked amazing.

The four conductive rubber sockets were fitted in place, finished, and ready to be paired up with their straps.

Stunt Cock got the honour of choosing one for himself, and after using it for the first time, let's just say he didn't mind me spending some more money on the first full production run of them.

Compared to a pad-style electrode, he commented on how good it feels when you strap it in place with some electrogel on the underside. The weight felt good, and the performance was exhilarating. He commented that he even used his to clamp a pad-style electrode in place so he could compare the sensations from both.

His findings were that he started to enjoy some really lovely sensations at much lower power levels than when using a pad, which is understandable due to the extremely low internal resistance of stainless steel compared with the pad electrodes. He also loved how easy it was to wire up to due to the ten locations, with four plug/snap/clip options to choose from, and how the strap kept it in place nicely.

Why would you want a saddle electrode?

It will only be for some due to its cost. It's relatively expensive, but that's the problem with small-batch bespoke designs like this when you are talking about cutting-edge manufacturing techniques. 3D printing stainless steel isn't cheap but it allows us to create unique electrodes that will last a lifetime.

Its performance and materials will appeal to some people, if not all, but if it piques your interest, let me give you some reasons to grab one of these fantastic little electrodes.

It's made from 316L stainless steel, which has extremely low internal resistance compared to other electrode materials.

The elasticated strap keeps it snuggly against your skin and allows for expansion and contraction if you grow and shrink during stimming sessions.

The multiple connection options mean no adaptors are required, which means fewer things go wrong, and it's easy to match it with other electrodes.

It's easy to clean after a play session and highly effective. Couple it with a Jet Set Willy or Helmet electrode for incredible sensations.

Getting one also supports us and what we do here and allows us to continue to design and create unique electrodes and solutions to common problems experienced by stimmers everywhere.

Thank you for reading this and reaching the end of this blog post.

Grab yourself a Saddle electrode

If you want to grab one, you need to be quick as they are flying off the shelves. These new electrodes will only be available in limited quantities, you can grab one today here - The Saddle Monopole Electrode.

If they have already sold out, then rest assured more are on the way.