I had some old broken laptops lying around from another project and I have been wondering what to use the keyboards for. I finally landed on creating coasters from the keyboard keys. The flat form factor of laptop keys makes them well suited to be transformed to usable coasters.

Supplies

1. Keys from old laptop keyboards (25 keys for each coaster)

2. Cork mat 3 mm thick

3. Utility knife

4. Hot glue gun

5. Black marker pen

Step 1: Cutting Cork Coaster Base

First I started planning out how many keys I wanted to fit on one coaster. I found that for the keyboards I had 5x5 keys worked out perfectly (adding up to 9cm x 9cm). Once that was sorted I started marking the measurements on the piece of cork I had. I then took my utility knife to cut out the correct shape.

Step 2: Glue on the Keys

Before gluing the keys down I mapped out which keys I wanted to use and spelled out a few relevant words. You could also skip this and glue the keys on at random.

I found it was easiest to glue one column at the time using the hot glue gun to make a stripe of glue. I could then place each key in place.

Step 3: Cleaning Up the Coasters

Once all the keys were glued in place I used a utility knife to scrape off the excess glue between the keys. Finally I used a black marker pen to fill in the gaps between the keys as well as around the edge of the coaster. This can also be solved by painting the cork black before gluing on the keys.