Precise Instructions on how to cut & convert your SIM card from a Micro-SIM to a Nano-SIM. You may want to do this to: 1. Speed up the process of using your new phone 2. Avoid the headache of acquiring a new SIM 3. Avoid the cost of acquiring a new SIM
Product Links
- Mitutotyo Calipers: http://geni.us/qLBHl
- Mitutotyo Steel Ruler: http://geni.us/69ResUN
- Scissors: http://geni.us/SnVmZ
- Files: http://geni.us/s5sPb4
- Sharpies: http://geni.us/jjrV9r
The Templates
( source: gosoftworks.com )
In the video, I used the letter one. You should use the one according to what kind of paper you are printing on. Be sure to set it to print “actual size” in the print settings. There are many other templates available.
Transcript
Welcome to The Grok Shop! today’s video is going to be all about hacking SIM cards down. now if you need to upgrade your mobile phone or cell phone you may find that it uses a smaller size SIM card and there are several SIM card sizes out there. in today’s video I’ll be reducing a micro sim to a nano SIM. now of course the normal process will be to get a new SIM card from your carrier. In some cases you might be able to get them for free but usually you have to pay and sometimes you can get an aftermarket one for a little cheaper and then activate it but this provides a shortcut from the headache and might save you a little money. start off by removing your SIM card from your old phone. here I’m using an old iPhone 4. Next, you want to take your new phone and remove the SIM card holder. this phone is a Google pixel phone. so you want to try inserting the SIM card into the new phone’s SIM card tray verify that it doesn’t fit before you proceed with this. so now just to illustrate the size difference I have one of these SIM cards where you can punch out the nano portion from the micro portion and you can see the size difference here between the two. so of course I could use the template from the punch-out to draw the nano-sim boundary onto the micro-sim but since most of you won’t have that I’m going to use this printout template method so when you print it out make sure you’re printing on your size printers paper so the template should be matched. for example if you got a letter printer you want to have a letter template and then you need to print to actual size and then you can use some calipers if you have them you need to measure the distances shown on the printout so that they’re exactly correct. you can also use a ruler to get pretty… pretty close, close enough for the purposes of this anyway. okay next you need to use some double-sided tape to attach the micro-sim to the template. I use some 3M little wall-hanger tape thingies. it really doesn’t matter as long as it’s stuck on there really good. again you want to have the contact side facing up just as shown in the picture there. and make sure that the sim is positioned exactly within the boundaries shown on the template. next you want to take a sharpie or some other form of permanent marker and a ruler and mark along the boundaries on the outside of where the cuts are indicated. so that basically you’ll be cutting away the areas that are marked with the sharpie. so, it should look kind of like this when you’re done. one thing to be aware of is that little dot in the top middle there notice that the corner cut bevel key is below and to the right of that. when you’re done cutting you’ll be left with nothing but these contacts and the chip area and so it’s possible to get disoriented if you don’t keep that straight. okay next we can pull the SIM up off the template, remove the tape from the SIM and here I’m just going to bring over that little template from the punch-out SIM I had just check how well I drew these guides on here alright so next is time to bust out the scissors. I recommend some good sharp ones. it’s really not that difficult to cut but when it’s sharp you can get nice clean clean edges. I recommend cutting it a little fat cut just to the outside of the marker leave just a little bit of black behind or whatever color your marker is and that way when you’re done trimming with the scissors you can come back with a file and file it down just so it fits nice and snug inside that SIM tray. okay next is time to bust out the files. I tried quite a few different types of files and had some varying degrees of success. main thing is you want something kind of mild you don’t want anything too brutish. you could use sandpaper maybe a tube 220 grit or higher. the key of it all is going to be just taking a little bit of material off each edge at a time and then going back to your template or your tray and seeing if it fits in there okay and looking at where you need to take more material off and just keep working down each edge until it fits in there nice and snug. once you get the SIM to where it fits nice and snug in the tray, be sure to clean it off dust it off a little bit last thing you want is getting some sim dust in your phone. That’s how it’s done. Thanks for watching.
Disclaimer: I assume no liability if you doink it up, so perform at your own risk! Worst case is you’re back to having to acquire a new SIM & can’t use your old phone til you get one. If you are not sure about the SIM card sizes for your models, this site looks like a pretty good way to ascertain SIM card sizes for many different models: https://www.devicespecifications.com But, I can’t vouch for their accuracy.