Cell Phone / IPod /MP3 Player Armoured Case

Intro: Cell Phone / IPod /MP3 Player Armoured Case

I was inspired by another member who made a wallet out of an old bike tire. I used his base design and modified it into a case that will take your sensitive electronic device and turn it into an armoured behemoth, worthy of a fully operational Death Star.

STEP 1: Materials and Tools

Many thanks to ineluctable for the awesome idea of using old knobby tires for a wallet; this is directly inspired by that project.
For this project you'll need:
An old bike tire
Pliers
Heavy duty shears/ scissors
Hole puncher
Pop riveter
Hammer
Punch [to remove rivets you may mess up]
Zip ties, small and medium; use black ones as they are UV resistant
Electrical tape [It was just in the picture...how'd that get in there...?]
Slotted buttons or a fastex buckle or other closure method.
The inevitable slices of bike tire inner tube.

STEP 2: Cutting the Pieces of Tire.

Cutting the pieces will probably be the hardest part of this project. I used a 3$ bike tire I bought at Zellers [A Canadian version of Target].
You will need one piece 12" long to form the case and lid; a second piec 1 to 2" long was used to form the belt mounting loop on the back of the case. Be forewarned: the wire beads along the rim are darn tough! Once your pieces ar cut, trim these off as close as possible to the wire, to avoid loss of material.

STEP 3: Forming the Case

I did a lot of folding and muggling about getting the right size for this. Initially I had made a wallet, but it didn't pan out as expected; so Plan Bravo, an armoured case, came into play. I disassembled the wallet, and finding the Blackberry too big, called it a cellphone/MP3 case.
Once i had my rough dimensions down, I  attached the slotted buttons for the closure device. I used the hole punch to make holes, then zip-tied the buttons in place.

STEP 4: Attach the Belt Mounting Loop

Before you can go on, attach the back belt mounting loop; again, using the hole punch , you can "sew" on the back loop with the zip ties.
Zip ties are awesome; with those, duct tape and inner tubes, you could build a blimp.

STEP 5: Finish the Closure Device

The next step is to finish the external components of the closure device. Slotted buttons work, but seeing this makes me wantto make a second case, with a Fastex buckle closure, for a high-tech look. Once again, get your hole puncher and zip tie on the lower button; then attach a thin swatch of inner tube as the elastic closing device. Now all that remains is to rivet the whole thing together!!

STEP 6: Riveting the Sides

Now that you have tweaked the dimensions [Measurements? We don't need no stinkin' measurements...], and got the external components added, it is now time to finish it off with the hole punch and pop rivet machine. I punched holes and then riveted each hole as I made it; that way I could keep things straigh as I riveted. You can use as few or as many rivets as you like. Go nuts!!

STEP 7: The End Product

This monster armour case came out even better than I expected; so good that I need to make another version, with  better access to the device, a headphone jack access point and Fastex buckle Closure.
This ought to protect your electronic devices against all those everyday, inadvertent bumps and bangs.
As always, I strapped this to my bike, and will probably end up using it as a bike tool case.
Very Mad-Maxish...see additional photos for the Mk II version.

Comments

[swim_guy5150]

We don't need no stinking measurements hahah

[mbreukel]

Perhaps if you put some silicone based glue between the sides you can water proof it. if you take strong glue you might even skip the rivvets, but then you loose the armored look ofcourse.

looks nice still!

[ManchesterUtd.]

You should find a way to waterproof it. Great job though