Introduction: CD "BOOKENDS" - for CD's

By www.angelfire.com/in2/manythings
About: I'm a refugee from Los Angeles, living in backwoods Puerto Rico for about 35 years now and loving it. I built my own home from discarded nylon fishnet and cement.

This CD "bookend" is made out of two CD's. One of them is heated, folded to 90 degrees, and glued to the other CD which is used as the base.

The bookends hold a collection of CD's vertically on a shelf the same way larger bookends are used for holding books.

Step 1: HEATING AND BENDING

I always thought of CD's as being brittle. When you bend them cold, they usually shatter.

If you heat them first, however, they will bend without breaking. Folding them to 90 degrees turns out to be fairly simple. Just heat the line where you want them to bend with a propane torch, being careful to not burn the plastic. When the CD becomes flexible, hold it down with a block of wood and use another block of wood to fold the exposed area up against the side of the block.

Hold it until the plastic cools and it will keep the 90 degree angle.

I torched the shiny side of the CD. Any paint on the top side of the CD might burn if it is in direct contact with the flame. In making this bookend, the paint on the other side was not scorched.

Step 2: GLUE THE CDs TOGETHER -- Method One

I experimented with two different ways of gluing the CD's together.

In order to avoid making a commercial endorsement, I forget the name of the glue I used here. It was something like Ape Glue, or Simian Glue.

Clean the surfaces first with alcohol, and dry them with a clean cotton cloth. Apply the glue and clamp the CD's together with clothes pins until the glue dries.

Step 3: "GLUE" ALTERNATIVE - Method Two

Acetone (also known as fingernail polish remover) is a super-fast and super-strong way to join this plastic together. Use it for sticking together areas that don't have paint on them. If either, or both of the surfaces have paint, you might be better off using the Ape Glue mentioned in method one.

The pictures below demonstrate how well the acetone fuses the plastic together. In my test, the CD broke before the acetone joint let go. It only takes a drop or two of this solvent to do the job. Clamp the parts together with clothespins for a few minutes and you are ready to go.