Recycling is what we are hearing all around us. We have seen moms recycling virtually everything like using old letters for making new shopping lists and may be an old frock being used for making a carry bag. On similar lines, I thought I have a lot of floppy disks unused and waiting to be thrown out. Why not put old unused technology to work again and use it for making a carry bag. It will put our creativity to work in a new dimension totally unexplored.
Difficulty level
Since this is a new experiment, it would be convenient to keep the difficulty level as simple as possible. Making the carry bag will require basic skills of using gluing and welding tools. More than anything else this experiment will need lot of creativity and analyzing capability as no model is readily available for us to use.
Time required
It will take not more than an hour to make the bag, if all your tools are ready beforehand.
Resources required
1. Old unused floppy disks
2. Hand drill
3. Drill bit
4. Pliers
5. Links
6. Bits of chain
7. Nails
8. Wooden plank
9. Pen for marking
10. The hardware for adding a strap
Instructions
1. Decide what you want to use your bag for. For instance you may be planning to make a laptop bag. Plan the dimensions accordingly. And arrange the floppy in the shape you want your bag to be.
2. Now you need to fasten the floppy together. For this, drilling will be needed. The floppies that are horizontal to each other are to be attached together. Floppy disks have nails so you just need to drill along those holes. Attach links so that the disks are attached together. The difficulty encountered will be in attaching the floppy disks in a vertical manner. Here the best idea would be to make a template of floppy disk ready and using this template to drill other disks. This will simplify the effort required and increases the accuracy.
3. Now we have to attach the edges once we fold to make the shapes. Notice that the top holes for the disk on the left are not the same as the top holes for the disk on the right, this is because on measurement it is found out that where those holes will need to be so they can fasten the pieces together.
4. Fold the corners and fastening till the final shape of the box is obtained.
5. Drill the structure for attaching the strings. The choice of string will depend upon you and the use of the carry bag.
Frequently asked questions
1. What will be the strength of this bag?
Ans. The bag’s strength will depend upon your tricks for fastening the floppy disks together. Take care will have to be taken while folding to give the shapes. The glue and fastening should be strong. Also take care while drilling and choosing the size of the fastening bits. Floppies have a small strength so too mush drilling will weaken their strength.
2. Can I add designs as floppy seems boring?
Ans. Yes why not. What is written here is the basic design. You can add creativity of your own. There are multi-colored floppy disks available. Use that to make your bag look different and charming. The choice of strap should also be smart. This can altogether change the look and feel of the bag.
3. What can the bag used for?
Ans. The bag can be used for a variety of things like keeping laptops, youngsters shopping, and mountain bags. They look tough but are light to carry as individual weight of floppy is very less. SO, it would not cause pain to use this bag for long travels.
4. Any Idea for making recycled straps as well?
Ans. Since we are doing haste with waste, the true essence will come out, if we use some ready to use recycled materials for making the straps. You can go for using cable wires or coir ropes. For a complete package, LAN wire cables can also be used on either side. This will complete the techie bag picture.
Additional tips
This is just a small use of floppy. You can always try out something new and different than what is being told here. In similar fashion, wall hanging or pen holder can also be made out. It is cheap in terms of cost, less in terms of time needed and great in terms of number of uses this bag can be put to.
