CD Sleeve From Outdated Electronics

Intro: CD Sleeve From Outdated Electronics

Using a old computer keyboard you can make a thin sleeve to protect your CD or DVD from damage. Inside computer keyboards is a thin, flexible, and sturdy membrane with printed circuits on it. Older keyboards tend to have prettier colors and designs in my experience. If you have upgraded to a USB keyboard or one with a bunch of fancy function keys and can not find a taker for your old keyboard, grab a small screwdriver and see what's inside.

Making a few sleeves like this could be combined to make a retro CD wallet. Adding a "jacket" made from an old 5 1/4 inch floppy diskette gives the newer disc even more protection and also makes your CD protection quite similar to the old familiar albums.

Use of this project should attribute credit to Ryan "Zieak" McFarland and direct a link to zieak.com in addition to this Instructable.

STEP 1: Gather Materials

You will need just a few items to make at least one of the sleeves. Depending on the keyboard you may have enough circuit sheets for up to three compact discs.

• Keyboard
• Screwdriver
• Utility knife or hobby knife
• Cutting board
• A square
• Clear packing tape
• 5 1/4" floppy disk (optional)

STEP 2: Cut and Tape

Open up the keyboard and remove the circuit sheets. You might want to clean them with hot water and a sponge. Cut two 5 inch squares out of the circuit sheet and put the smooth sides together. Now cut three pieces of tape to seal three of the sides. I used the edge that I did not cut for my opening so there are not any rough edges and there is a line of circuits that help distinguish the opening. The circuit sheets are very forgiving so you can remove the tape and fix things if you need to. Trim off any pieces that overhang. If you can find an old floppy for the outer sleeve then just trim off one edge (I cut the edge with the notches in it) and pull out the inner disk. Orient the opening in the sleeve toward the top or back of the disc and your CD or DVD will not fall out accidentally.

Comments

[TSC]

I made one of  these before I saw This!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rimar2000]

Or "how protect outdated stuff with other outdated stuff" ;-) Good work.

[zieak]

So true! I admit that i do still use DVDs though.

[ReCreate]

DVDs? They aren't outdated...

[ReCreate]

Ill tell ya whats outdated,Those 5 1/2Inch floppies are outdated!

[H3xx]

But they make some bitchin' Frisbies!! :D

[ReCreate]

:D yeah

[H3xx]

a good project (probably impossible though) would be to take a 5.25 floppy drive and get it to read bluray discs. this way you can make your own bluray umds. I would love this, because umds have the best of both worlds when it comes to cartridges and disks. they hold large amounts of data, and can be tossed around without fear of being scratched. and using cheap plastic would make them cheaper than flash drives, so you could give em' away like burnt cds.

[ReCreate]

It would be very near impossible...(unless you are a manufacturer...)

[diydept]

Modernizely ,well done 5*

[rosquillo]

What a wonderful retro look! Thanks for the idea!

[cueballmccue]

I like it. Cool idea, and what a great use for those old floppys.