How to Make Your Own Pill Towels, With Soap!

You might have seen these handy Pill Towels http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/japanfan/b235/ at ThinkGeek.
When i saw these, i though they might be useful, but the 10 dollar price tag turned me off.

Here's how to make your own from thing lying around the house.

You can even throw in something extra!

Step 1 What You Need

For this project, you will need:

A film canister
A paper towel
Scissors
Water
A piece of glass Tupperware
Your hands

Comments

[PatchIsCooking]

I might be wrong, but aren't the ones on Thinkgeek made of cloth? I've gotten full sized towels like this before. Would love instructions on how to do this with a cloth towel. Would be great for emergency kits.

[142400]

if you had a gash or dirty scratch you could use peroxide instead of water to open the towel

[strmrnnr]

You might try to sent up a - plastic bag - plunger in the canister (small hole in bottom to help drainage and push the dry cloth out) - vacuum arrangment to compress the cloth and extract the water. That would be the most compact you could get the cloth.

[strmrnnr]

Sorry for the multiple replys on this. The ideas are rolling tonight. If you use the vacuum pump you will likely not have to use more then a few drops of water. Maybe a 50/50 with a liquid soap would do. Not sure how well the liquid soap would hold the cloth together. Another idea may be to mist the cloth with a spray bottle of a dry soap/water mixture before stuffing in a tube.

[strmrnnr]

Here is a link to a neat, small, pump conversion I saw on here.

http://www.instructables.com/id/convert-a-tire-inflator-type-air-compressor-into-a/

[Lance Mt.]

they are cloth... liek the washing up ones

[nave]

yeah, and to make the towel bigger you have to apply water, but if you apply wayyer to this, wont it just kinda fall apart and be useless?

[jaxthecob]

I've tried this with a name brand and generic towel. The multi-layer "quilted" name brand ones seem to hold together no matter what.

[jaxthecob]

Yes, the thinkgeek towels are made with cloth. I'll see about making a cloth one, get back to you in a bit.

[stephenniall]

think im gonna build these later

[porcupinemamma]

Excellent! Thanks.

[nate121]

here try these they are smaller but a lot less expensive
http://www.survivalsolutions.com/store/product350.html

[berky93]

you could probably make one similar to this with a wash cloth an a vacumn bag...

[its a lion]

That's originally what I thought was going to be used.

[Darren.]

whats the point of this?

[skidude28]

Oh for God sake, if you read anything: They are small easy to store compact useful you can carry a lot take up very little space etc.

[sectheatre]

Could be good for camping, especially tight resource motorcycle camping.

[LemonLily]

What is it for?

[jaxthecob]

Soak it in water, it turns into a normal paper towel. Its to make the towel more portable.

[osgeld]

you cary these dry disc's around with you, and when you need soap and a little wipe you just add water, it fluffs out with soap embedded, and your good to go

[jaxthecob]

I just wanted to answer a few question, rather than clogged the wall. 1. I'm working on a cloth version 2. Size is your preference 3. Experiment on your own. Feel free to modify my design!

[merijnvw]

Is this really useful And don't those things rot when they're wet. And by the way when i was a little kid i made balls of paper towel, and let them dry, but then when i wetted them after they dried they became weak unhandy things. Wouldn't it be better to do it with a cloth tissue which you can wash? The only reason why it could be handy would be on a bycicle vacation.

[justoskar1]

(from thinkgeek) You might not have ever stopped to think about it, but ninjas and astronauts have quite a lot in common. They both wear specialized clothing. They both can fly (though astronauts need a little mechanical help). And (most importantly), they both have to be very economical with what they carry with them, especially in regards to personal hygiene. That's why we suggest you carry some Japanese Pill Towels - to make sure you are always at your best. Each tube of Japanese Pill Towels contains 10 pills. Each pill is really a towel seed harvested in Japan. Just hold a pill under water and it blossoms into a multipurpose towel - perfect for cleaning your hands after each ninja or space mission. And if you want to be super clean, might we recommend also carrying some Dissolving Travel Toiletries (see related items below). Then you can make sure you are always as clean as your mind is. Ok, bad example.

[Plasmana]

Very interesting, but, what are they used for?

[Lance Mt.]

Sorry for alot of messages, but for feedback sake "at a fraction of the cost!" is inaccurete! It HELLA CHEAP!

[Lance Mt.]

As awsome as this is, i'ming requesting somethign at least thinks of a way to make the "Dissolving Travel Toiletries"
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/travelpower/add9/

Even if you don't,
-Cheers, Chris

[Lance Mt.]

You I just had a look at the photo with the guy holding the pill towel at thinkgeek and it looks like one of those thin materials they use in washing up cloth... I inquired and it turns out you can make these on the cheap.. They had some off cuts and i think i'll be able to make 8 or so for the $0:70 (au) offcut

[Lance Mt.]

Sweet! I want to try the same with a towel and a bucket... Probbaliy fail! -(away trying),Chris

[hellstudios]

I buy these at dollar tree.....lol

[j626no]

which size is your personal preference for a size to function ratio?

[jaxthecob]

I've found that just using a fourth of the towel works for small things. If you want something bigger, try the one half, although you won't be able to carry as many. I wouldn't recommended making the whole towel at all, is is way to bulky. I did it just for fun.