Diamond Plate Note Pad

This is a design for a notepad made out of diamond plate and rubber bands. When I have ideas I am usually scrambling around to find a scrap of paper to write them on. I started carrying around index cards, but they would get mangled in my pocket and they were hard to hold while writing. This solves the problem by sandwiching index cards between two pieces of diamond plate.

Step 1: Materials

Obtain the following

-A piece of 1/16 inch aluminum diamond plate at least 11" x 8", you can find this at your local home improvement store or online. It is fairly expensive so shop around.

-Rubber bands

-Index cards

Comments

[pcooper2]

I'd prefer to use a couple of pieces of Lexan® polycarbonate sheet instead. It's tough, fracture-resistant, weighs less than aluminum, and unlike aluminum, won't rub off and make one's hands and clothing black.

Some twenty years ago I bought a Tenba camera bag that had a piece of 1/8" plywood as a stiffener in the bottom. The plywood cracked in short order, so I replaced it with a piece of 1/8 inch thick Lexan. It's still going strong and hasn't so much as developed a crack.

[golddigger1559]

i made something like this ( i did use dimond plating) but i used a hinge and Velcro to hold the note pad on

[Father Christmas]

cut it just right, it would make a badass phone cover,

[longbourne]

I made something similar with carbon fiber. It has a slight lip on three sides to increase the rigidity. This has the useful side-effect of reducing slippage while I'm writing. Had it three years, not a scratch on it. (Looks best with black rubbers bands; the 4-way MUJI ones are nicest.)

[ndrdog]

How about two leather straps with rivets as hinges? Cheap , yet effective, and you can go with many different colors of leather as well as lengths. You could even pop a rivet in the other side coming in from the back and centered and put a few holes in a third leather strap thats anchored to the backside and use it for closing the "book" belt-style. Just a few thoughts.

[RFilyaw]

Something I'd use instead of rubber bands would be neodymium magnets glued appropriately. Do they make really thin ones? I received a little address book that was designed much like this but used two business card-sized rubbed magnets to hold the pad together.

[AT]

Hmmm, I like it but.... I'm thinking 'Skip the note pad and go right to a note book!' 8-1/2 X 11 with three ring paper. I don't think rubber bands will be the way to go for that? Maybe three heavy rings? Now were are talking! That will give you something to write on! And you would have non-slip plate armer in your backpack!

[BorisTheSpider]

Skip the rings, use 3 padlocks. And one more on the other side to keep prying eyes out. Definitely more "backpack" than "pocket," but it sure would look cool - and take a bullet to boot.

[BorisTheSpider]

Simple, but very nice. It fills a need and it looks cool. The instructable was very...instructive. Good job. You get a +.

[kneecaps]

not very useful... creative but not very useful. no1 is gonna just cray one of these around. looks stoopid carying a hardened metal notepad around.

[eragonsdragon101]

what?? this is very useful! it also looks cool. besides i might make one. well everyone has thier own opinion.

[kneecaps]

it may look kool, but its like at least 10 dollars or something. metal like this is a bit expensive. its just like any other notepad but more expensive.

[ARVash]

add hinges, and it instantly becomes awesome.

[kneecaps]

its would be more worth the trouble and expense to put hinges

[BorisTheSpider]

I didn't notice any place where the poster said this was a very cheap project. It's OK if you can't afford a few bucks for a very handy thing, but please don't flame just because others have a little bit more spending cash than you.
That being said, one could add hinges via a jacob's ladder type of setup (see this instructable and this video). You could use strong elastic bands, or rubber bands. What I would suggest for the straps, though, is a vacuum belt. A smaller, thinner one would hold up for a REALLY long time, and would really complement the already rugged design.
My 2 cents - there ya go. (though I guess kneecaps may need it more...)

[Hoopajoo]

I look at it as always having a hard surface to write on. That's something the floppy notebooks can't claim. Very cool!

[kneecaps]

... wel you could just use cardboard. its sturdy enuff. besides it doesnt need to be that hard

[HamO]

So much for the be nice policy!!

[tyeo098]

very useful,
imagine how cool itd be if someone whacks you with their paperback notebook, and you pull out your diamond plate one, lol

But seriously, its really cool, you just need a way to fasten the two plates together, dont really like the whole rubber band idea =\
how about a diamond plate binder? with the 3 rings? thatd be cool, then you can put the notebook inside it...

binders are... 13x16, for one front, same for back, and the side is 2x 16 inches

[bowmaster]

What I did was I got some steel plate 1 inch taller and 2 inchs wider then my paper then drilled three holes half an inch away from the edge spaced the same as on note book paper and 1 in the middle of the other a half inch away and then used some wire run through the three holes to hold the paper and used a padlock to hold it closed

[eragonsdragon101]

Thats a good idea. u can also put a mini door hige between the two plates to make the note pad swing open. then combine your wire idea with it! huh oh someone already had that idea.

[annaharris]

A cool way to keep your Hipster PDA safe and sound. Nice.

[BuffaloNickel]

nice.

[shoeBlade]

I think there is a bit of confusion. The plates are 1/16 inch aluminum which together are very light, the whole package does not weigh more than a few ounces. Secondly, I wanted this to be infinitely expandable, because part of its job is to protect cards that I have already made. The only way to do this was to employ rubber bands. Rubber bands are also very fast. If you are just using this to hold a few cards, then a hinge would be a good Idea.

[inspector_fegter]

I love the art of this idea. You did a great job! However, I agree with jgscott, I don't know how many people will actually carry two heavy plates of metal around in their pocket. It doesn't seem functional for everyday use...maybe for the office. Overall great idea though!

[Hoopajoo]

Buy your diamond plate from a junkyard. It's cheaper when it's from a wrecked truck, it's recycling and your notebook will have an interesting history too. Also, ever consider welding a binder clip to the inside to hold the index cards? The rubber bands will degrade over a week or so from exposure to ozone unless they're vulcanized (highly doubtful).

[ironsmiter]

instead of welding, you could rivet it in place. Not quite as pretty as a clean weld, but a whole lot simpler. Trapper Keeper has been doing it that way for years :-)

[LinuxH4x0r]

I like the idea of diamond-plate, but it needs to be one piece.

[jackfr0st]

try putting some hinges on the top

[John Smith]

Looks like a great way to make a note pad cool again, great instructable!

[jgscott987]

Well done instructable. I can't imagine much I'd less like to carry in my pocket than a piece of diamond-plate, however.