Introduction: Flatpacked Tape Holder
Welcome everybody.
In this instructable I will show you how to construct a classy and super cheap tape holder.
Let me introduce you how I came up with this idea:
Transporting products with a large volume in order to their weight has always been a big problem.
When we apply this problem to the producer of tape holders, this is the question we should ask ourselves:
Wouldn't it be nice if the producer just had to transport a flat sheet of material to the buyer who could easily fold that sheet into his/her own tape holder for the cheapest price possible?
Well, that's the reason I invented an easily constructable tape holder out of a single rectangular piece of material by just doing some simple folding work.
The initial idea was that the tape holder could be lasercutted in large numbers out of a big sheet of metal , but for this instructable I wanted to make the construction of the tape holder accessible for everyone who has the possibility to use a normal - plastic cutting - laser cutter.
Step 1: Ingredients for an Easy Foldable Tape Holder
These are the materials you will need to flawlessly construct your own tape holder:
- A ruler
- A lighter
- A A4 sheet of acryl plastic with a thickness of 3 mm ( Thinner will be less durable, thicker will be harder to fold )
The actual size you will need is just 3.5 cm by 30 cm, but by buying a full A4 sheet you don't need te be afraid of making a mistake becouse you can perfectly construct 6 tape holders out of that one A4 sheet of acryl.
Step 2: The Lasercut Files and the Dimensions
If you would like to skip the time-eating hand cutting of the rectangular shape out of the A4, you should check out the given files for lasercutting purpose. ( the red lines will be cut,the blue lines are folding lines) I suggest you to lasercut one of each files, one with and one without the folding lines. The one with the folding lines will be the reference while constructing the other one.
Step 3: The Folding Technique
In order to make the acryl flexible, you will have to heat it, preferably with a lighter, by moving it underneath the folding line.
Make sure the flame doesn't make any direct contact with the plastic, otherwise you will get burnt spots.
Once hot and flexible, the ruler comes in handy. You should use it as an extra wall and just to make sure you don't burn your fingers in the folding proces and to get yourself a decent rectangular corner.
Step 4: Start
To make it easy to follow the folding proces I made pictures out of the same perspective after every folding starting off like this.
Take your time to heat the folding line, if done correctly, folding the piece should go effortlessly.
Step 5: The Folding !
Staring from left to right.
Tip: to fold the third one use a pencil in between the two planes to simplify the folding .
Step 6: The Final Result !
And after half an hour of patience you got yourself your homemade, classy and super cheap tape holder that can stack up tape rolls form 1.5 cm inner diameter up to 6 cm outer diameter.
