How to make a lap table with VHS tapes

If there's something we don't need any more in this planet is trash. I hate throwing things away. Instead, I always try to find good uses for stuff I don't need anymore. So, here's something useful to do with your old VHS tapes: a lap table to hold your meals or your notebook while you're comfortably sitting on your sofa. :)

Step 1: The material

To make the lap table, you'll need:

- Old VHS tapes (for the table I'm showing here, I used eight tapes)
- Packing tape
- Scissors
- Some strong glue
- Two thin flat aluminium bars (I could only find curved ones, so I had to make them flat by hammering them. Also, I live in Brazil, so I don't know if this item is easy to find in the US. You can think of alternatives to this, considering what's more available to you.)

For the decoration, you'll need:

- Pictures or posters or whatever you'd like to decorate your table
- Double face tape
- Transparent contact paper

Step 2: Preparing the VHS tapes + planning your lap table structure

The very first thing you're gonna do is make the VHS tapes more firm by adding a strap of packing tape around them. That is to prevent that side of the tape that opens to reveal the magnetic tape inside the VHS from moving. One strap around the middle of each tape is enough to accomplish that.

Now you can organize your VHS tapes in a nice structure for your lap table. Here I show my structure, which required 8 tapes.

Step 3: Glue the VHS tapes

With your structure defined, you can now glue the VHS tapes together. Start with tapes 1-6. Glue them in pairs first, then glue the pairs to each other.

I always add some extra fix to the table with some more straps of packing tape around the glued parts.

Tip: if you want to decorate your table, it's best to do that now, before you glue tapes 7 and 8 to tapes 1-6. See on the next step how I decorated mine.

If you don't care about decorating your stuff, you can glue tapes 7 and 8 now. =p (Jump to step 5.)

Step 4: Decorating

Like I said, if you want to decorate your lap table, now is the time. For mine, I picked an old poster and placed it on the top of the table using double face tape. I Added a nice colorful frame and then covered it all with transparent contact paper. Please note that the contact paper must be larger than the surface of the table, so it reaches all the way to the back.

After you've decorated your table top, you can glue tapes 7 and 8 to its sides. Go to the next step!

Step 5: Supporting tapes

Tapes 7 and 8 must be glued with the side that has the two white holes out, because those are what you're gonna use to hold it and carry it around.

Step 6: Add the aluminium bars

Now you must glue the two aluminium bars (which will be a little shorter than the table's length) under the table. They'll be there to assure your lap table is always nice and firm, and to help tapes 7 and 8 support any weight you put onto it.

Place the bars in the middle of the table, as seen in the picture.

After you've glued them, you must wait for the glue to dry. You can leave your table upside down, with a bunch of heavy books on it, to assure the bars will be tightly glued to it.

Step 7: Voila!

After waiting for all that glue to dry (I waited 24 hours), now you can finally look at your brand new lap table made of your old VHS tapes you thought you were never gonna use again!

Here I showed you how I made my VHS table. I hope it'll serve as inspiration for you to create your own. :)