Print PDF
Favorite
Email
Extreme Geek Valentine's Day gift. Give the Fn key to your heart. Use it as a footrest and show some love to your tired doggies or else use it and pamper your significant other with a footrub. Truly functional and multipurpose. Yeah, you could buy this thing with $$$ but the best gifts are made with love XOXO.
What is this meaning behind this? You can start looking at Lithium Rain's xkcdian SkiFree 'F key pendant instructable. You have to get your own Fn key. What's love got to do with it? Maybe ask singer Tina Turner.
This is made entirely from recycled box cardboard. Be good to Planet Earth.
WARNING: This seating device has not been tested with IKEA's repetitive sitting test to conform to any industry safety or durability standards and has not determined what the maximum static and dynamic load capacity is. Your mileage may vary. Implement at your own risk.
What is this meaning behind this? You can start looking at Lithium Rain's xkcdian SkiFree 'F key pendant instructable. You have to get your own Fn key. What's love got to do with it? Maybe ask singer Tina Turner.
This is made entirely from recycled box cardboard. Be good to Planet Earth.
WARNING: This seating device has not been tested with IKEA's repetitive sitting test to conform to any industry safety or durability standards and has not determined what the maximum static and dynamic load capacity is. Your mileage may vary. Implement at your own risk.
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1Glue, paper, scissors...
Glue
Doing cardboard projects like this requires a lot of glue. The cardboard is porous and there is a lot of area to cover. Thinning out glue with water helps with being frugal but it weakens the glue. I used about 4 small bottles of school glue. It helps to buy it in the quart size to refill the small ones.
You can search for "wheatpaste" to make a batch of homemade glue which others have used in making cardboard furniture.
Cardboard
Most cardboard furniture tends to be heavy masses of cardboard but this design gets it strength from parts tied together similar to an I-beam. The Fn computer key stool is essentially a trapezoidal box with an internal reinforcing structure. Reinforcement comes from a standing pipe with radial fins connected to the shell of the seat.
We will take thin sheets of cardboard and laminate them into a thicker and stronger material. Try to alernate the "grain" or the direction the internal corrugations are running in each layer to get the most strength just like a sheet of plywood.
The walls of the seat should be at least 3 layers of cardboard to make it sufficently stiff for a chair. The sides should not bend in when you press on it. If it does, just glue another crossgrain piece on the back to reinforce it. This could even be done with thinner IKEA cardboard box remnants, just add more layers.
It would be nice to have big perfect sheets of clean cardboard to work with but as you will see, you can piece together scraps from smaller boxes into what we need. The outside cover paper is peeled from the cardboard for use as paper mache for a smooth finish.
The cardboard needed for this project is probably about 4 or 5 medium sized Amazon shipping boxes.
Slice and Dice
You can use heavy duty scissors or a utility knife to cut the cardboard. Be careful with sharp instruments. Cut over a scrap piece of plywood or a few layers of cardboard to protect your flooring or carpet.
It may help to have clamps, a stapler, and some tape just to hold some parts together as you try to glue up the structure.
Doing cardboard projects like this requires a lot of glue. The cardboard is porous and there is a lot of area to cover. Thinning out glue with water helps with being frugal but it weakens the glue. I used about 4 small bottles of school glue. It helps to buy it in the quart size to refill the small ones.
You can search for "wheatpaste" to make a batch of homemade glue which others have used in making cardboard furniture.
Cardboard
Most cardboard furniture tends to be heavy masses of cardboard but this design gets it strength from parts tied together similar to an I-beam. The Fn computer key stool is essentially a trapezoidal box with an internal reinforcing structure. Reinforcement comes from a standing pipe with radial fins connected to the shell of the seat.
We will take thin sheets of cardboard and laminate them into a thicker and stronger material. Try to alernate the "grain" or the direction the internal corrugations are running in each layer to get the most strength just like a sheet of plywood.
The walls of the seat should be at least 3 layers of cardboard to make it sufficently stiff for a chair. The sides should not bend in when you press on it. If it does, just glue another crossgrain piece on the back to reinforce it. This could even be done with thinner IKEA cardboard box remnants, just add more layers.
It would be nice to have big perfect sheets of clean cardboard to work with but as you will see, you can piece together scraps from smaller boxes into what we need. The outside cover paper is peeled from the cardboard for use as paper mache for a smooth finish.
The cardboard needed for this project is probably about 4 or 5 medium sized Amazon shipping boxes.
Slice and Dice
You can use heavy duty scissors or a utility knife to cut the cardboard. Be careful with sharp instruments. Cut over a scrap piece of plywood or a few layers of cardboard to protect your flooring or carpet.
It may help to have clamps, a stapler, and some tape just to hold some parts together as you try to glue up the structure.
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
It took about two evenings to make. Had to wait for the glue and paint to dry. Give it a shot.