DIY Folding Board

Intro: DIY Folding Board

Some things are impossible, such as unicorns, bipartisan agreement on the greatness of bacon and getting small boys to fold their clothes. While I didn’t do the impossible this week, I certainly made it easier to master.

A folding board is a cool little device that helps you fold clothes quickly. This is great for young children and people with mobility issues as it minimizes the physical effort while maximizing effect…it makes folding fun. Better yet, a folding board can be made with plywood, cardboard or any other stiff, flat material. There’s no need to spend $20, just use some scrap wood.

Thank you for your continued support. Thank you for visiting my blog.  To support for this site, please like WoodshopCowboy on Facebook or follow me on Instructables. Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram.

STEP 1: Materials & Tools

Folding Board Materials:

Parts A & B: 24” Long by 9” Wide x 1/2” thick or thinner

Parts C & D: 11 1/2” Long by 9” Wide x 1/2” thick or thinner

Duct Tape

Tools:

Table Saw

Miter Saw

STEP 2: Milling & Dimensioning

Milling & Dimensioning

Use a table saw or other appropriate tool to trim your plywood to size. If you are buying plywood at a home center, have them cut a 2’ x 4’ or 2’ x 2’ panel of plywood to size. In that case, rip the plywood into 9” sections, then trim to the appropriate length.

STEP 3: Assembly

Assembly:

Align the Parts A & B vertically in portrait mode. Join the two sides with a strip of duct tape. Flip the sides together vertically, then tape the joint. Now, there should be a one way joint between the two boards. Orient the assembly so the joint folds upwards.

Align right side, then tape the top joint only. Flip the joint to the front, then tape the back as shown in Step One.

Now, fold the board together, and place the left wing on top of the assembly. Tape the joint, the unfold the board so a gap forms between the left wing and the center boards. Carefully tape over the gap with duct tape.

Fold everything together to make sure the joints move as necessary.

STEP 4:

Use & Improvements:

Check out the graphics above to learn how to use your flip board.

1/2” plywood feels too thick for child use – this really lends itself to cardboard and thin plywood. Rounding over all the edges will help the hands, while cutting a radius on outside corners will give this project a cleaner look. Duct tape works well, but cloth attached with adhesive, similar to the DIY Notebooks I made in class years ago, would provide a sturdier hinge. Lastly, the pros make all sorts of cut outs to drop weight – I imagine a similar cut outs would work just as well in a DIY version.

Thank you for your continued support.

Thank you for visiting my blog. To support for this site, please like WoodshopCowboy on Facebook or follow me on Instructables. Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram.

Comments

[isa_k]

First one:
https://youtu.be/gzCHk0JZ2hY

Upgraded one:
https://youtu.be/S6clFbI1XLo

[Swansong]

I really wish I had one of these, it would make laundry go so much faster!

[woodshopcowboy]

They really, really do. A 1/2" thick is too much for little hands, but this is easily made from cardboard. I will bring some cardboard versions to my son's religious class on Sunday to help them teach mindfulness and direction following to young, young learners. My kids like them because they are much more independent folding clothes because of this little DIY widget.

[isa_k]

Izzy Swan has a similar design on his YouTube channel.

[ilpug]

Buy a cardboard box at a moving store or raid a dumpster for a clean one. Cut it to shape and duct tape it. Folds flat, much lighter weight than wood, and takes 5 minutes. I've used one of these for years in college.

[rafununu]

Duct tape don't stick well to cardboard, even doubled.

[xaenon]

You could use corroplast (corrugated plastic sheet) instead of cardboard. Duct tape sticks well to plastic; on top of which corroplast is waterproof, easy to work with, and fairly durable. It's used to make signs like the political signs you see in peoples' yards. A sign shop may even give you a couple of discarded (reject) signs if you ask nicely.

[Marrock]

Coroplast and Gorilla tape (which sticks to anything), mine has been in service for years now.