Duct Tape Texture Alteration

Whilst mentally idling in my class today, I tripped over a revolutionary idea! Duct tape's surface can be altered with sandpaper to give our projects a highly unique appearance and twist. Instead of always having a shiny, high reflective surface, we can give key areas of our projects dull appearance. This will greatly aid our projects with accents and shading enhancements.

As seen in the picture above, the surface can easily be altered with a small piece of 220 grit sandpaper. The result is astonishing and simple! So, keep an eye out, this technique will be utilized in our future projects!

The 2D Step by Step Duct Tape Record

Welcome! Today we will be making a duct tape record. For those of you who were born a bit later, this is an older form of audio storage. A record is the predecessor to the cassette, which is the predecessor to the C.D. So, in an effort to reach all of our audience groups, and in appreciation of our parents, we will be creating a fancy, sharp looking record to honor earlier generations.

When we are finished with our lesson today, our finished product will look like the picture below.

Be begin, we will need a few extra supplies. As seen in the picture below, I used a colored pencil, a small iced cream container, and a medium sized bucket to create the three necessary circles for our record.

However, here anything will work and long as they have the proper size ratio. So, refer to the picture below or get out there and Google, "records," to get a general feel for the sizes which are demanded by this project. (Our paper is 8 inches by 11 inches, so our largest object's diameter should be no larger than the copy paper which we are using.)

To begin our template, we will need to set our medium sized bucket on a piece of regular copy paper. We will need to trace and create a line around the circumference of the bucket.

Next, we will repeat the same procedure with our iced cream cup. Be sure to take the needed time to center the cup. Errors in centering are easily noticed.

Again, we must repeat this process by carefully tracing around the colored pencil. Be sure to firmly hold the colored pencil because it will easily displace itself.

When we are finished, we should have a paper that appears like the one shown in the picture below. We should have a total of 3 circles which have a similar size ratio to the picture below.

Now, we must prepare our cutting board. We must meticulously cover the cutting board with strips of black duct tape which slightly overlap each other on the sides. Be sure your duct tape base is larger than the largest of the three circles which we have traced.

Now, we must fix the copy paper, with our three circles, over the black duct tape. Be sure to tape the design down to prevent movement while cutting.

Now, with our trusty razor knife, we must CAREFULLY cut the largest and smallest circles. For now, we must not cut the middle circle. (Be sure to keep the circles. Throwing them away now would be bad.) Our finished product should look like the picture below.
Remember when I said save those circles? Well now, we will need our middle circle. We must lay a red foundation which is slightly larger than the middle circle. Next, we must fix the circles over the red tape and cut around our small circle and medium circle. Our finished product should look like the picture below, or a miniature version of the black circle we created.

Now, we must place the red circle over the large black circle and we must be sure to center the two small circles so they appear as one, like depicted in the picture below.

What would our red record label be if it was blank? Here at WeeklyDT, we go the full distance. So, now we must decorate our record with some song titles. This can be accomplished by carefully cutting a piece of duct tape in half, like a hot dog bun, Then, by cutting small, long rectangular pieces, as seen in the picture below.

When we finish placing all of our song titles, they should look somewhat like the picture below, but please feel free to install your own creativity into any aspect of this project!

To add the final, magnificent, finishing touch to our piece, we must add a realistic reflection. We must lay a long white base of duct tape. It must be two widths of tape long, and it must be two inches longer than the radius of the record. (Radius is the distance from the center point to the side of a circle.) It should look like the picture below.

Now, we must cut a piece of tape, as shown in the picture below. Be sure the cuts are curved as opposed to straight. They should curve outward from the smallest point.

Once we have our glare cut out, we must place it on the record. The smallest point should be placed over the center of the circle and the largest end should be overlapping the outside of the record.

When I originally placed my tape on the record, I felt that a shiny record label, in addition to a shiny record looked somewhat distasteful.

So I carefully trimmed the inside of the glare around the red label. Then I removed the label glare and presto! A record was created and we didn’t even need to hire any producers!

Great lesson today! Keep up the good work! Enjoy your new duct tape record and get out there and create a few projects of your own! I would love to see them!

Be sure to join me for my next lesson!

WeeklyDT News Update 2/12/08

Image from http://www.rpconline.com/catalog/content/images/tape_duct.jpg

Just to fill everyone in, WeeklyDT is now ranking in the search engines, particularly Google. We are still growing in our daily visits which to me, is just an uplifting thrill! This blog is really turning out nicely.

As far as projects go, we have the following coming up.

1. A duct tape record. (The old audio type.) You can expect this project to arrive in the next few days


2. A duct tape trombone. My friend requested this so I thought it would be a perfect lesson to publish.

I do however wish to apologize for the fact that my schedule has become significantly cramped. So, I do apologize if WeeklyDT becomes slightly slower for the next couple of days. However, like the name says, there will be a new project AT LEAST once a week, so have no fear, we are here to stay.

Stuck at Prom, The Duct Tape Scholarship

I'm sure everyone has heard about, "That duct tape scholarship," but surpisingly, very few people have looked into the matter. This scholarship is titled, Stuck at Prom. It awards the winning couple with $3000 dollars of scholarship money for their future endeavors in post-secondary education.

The website can be found at http://www.stuckatprom.com/contests/prom/ or it can be easily googled.

This scholarship is surpisingly competitive. As seen in the picture below, the winning couple's outfits were meticulously created with relentless precision and detail.

Despite one winner, several other amazing outfits were created, such as Cinderella themed apparal. Again, check them out at the homepage for this scholarship as provided above.

If you are a high school student seeking financial aid, this is definitely the opportunity for you! If you aren't, it is extremely entertaining to look at all the finalist's productions.

The Step by Step Duct Tape Wallet

Duct tape wallets are one of the most popular duct tape items. Accordingly, today, we will be learning how to craft a fashionable, trendy wallet, built WeeklyDT style! Not only will our wallet be a duct tape wallet, it will rival most top fashion wallets on the market today. Now that's practicality!

To initiate our project, we must first trace a regular bi-fold wallet. In the picture below, you will see two lines significantly close to each other. On a wallet, the outside is always slightly longer than the inside to compensate for folding radii. (plural of radius.) So, we must make two sheets of duct tape, but one must slightly exceed the other in length.

We must peel several lengths of tape, and slightly overlap them. The picture below illustrates what the finished product should look like. Be sure the sticky side is facing up because we will be placing another layer on top of it.

Now, we must begin to lay our second layer over the first layer. This will prevent our money from sticking to the sides of our wallet.

When we are finished, we should have a black sheet of duct tape as illustrated in the picture below.

Now, using the measurements we recorded from our template wallet, we will cut out sheets to a precise size. So, we must first fix our sheet of black duct tape to our cutting board using scrap tape, then fix out paper template over it.

We will cut it out. We now have the first major side of our wallet! It should look like the picture below.

Now, repeat this process to create the second major side of the wallet. Be sure to make it slightly larger to compensate for fold discrepancies. The picture below illustrates approximately how far the length variance should be.

Now we must put our two sheets together. Lay the sheets side by side, (small sides should touch) and place a piece of duct tape over them, like the picture below illustrates.

Now we must flip the wallet over. (The side facing down should now be facing up) We must place another piece of duct tape over the joint. Once we have completed this stage, we will utilize our razor knife (Very sharp, please be careful!) to trim the excess duct tape. When this is finished, the joint should look like the picture below. If it does not, don't worry! Discrepancies here are not fatal.

Now we must adhere our second joint. Unlike our first joint, this mandates a different procedure. We will take one side of the wallet and place a strip of black duct tape over the side. Be sure only half of the strip is stuck to the wallet. It should look like the picture below.

Now, on the other side we must place a piece of duct tape with the sticky side facing down. Again, be sure only half of the tape is sticking to the side. Refer to the picture below for a visual reference.

Now, we must fold the wallet so both sides with sticky tape are near each other. Both of our sides should now have tape with the sticky side facing up. On the side on top, we must fold the sticky side over so it is now facing downward. To make placement easier, we must fold the excess tape up, as shown in the picture below.

Now, we must stick them together. The picture below illustrates what our product should look like. Keep in mind, the wallet will and should not be completely flat. Remember, one side is longer than the other!

Now we must fold the remaining sticky side over the joint and trim the excess tape off. Once complete, the edge of our wallet should look like the picture below.

Now, we must seal the bottom of our wallet, so our money doesn't fall out. We must unroll a piece of duct tape, then divide it in half (with our razor knife), like a hotdog bun.

Like the picture below illustrates, we should have a piece of duct tape with half of the normal width. Now, place this over the bottom of the wallet. Be sure to fold it over from one face to the other. (The inside face to the outside face.) This signle piece should only cover half of the length of the wallet and be sure not to place any duct tape on the bottom of the folding section. Now repeat this process for the other half of the wallet.

After this section is complete, fold the wallet in half. (Like a taco) This will now be the official fold in our bi-fold wallet.

The skeleton of our wallet is now alive! But, here at WeeklyDT, we have to spice things up, and make our products look superior to everyone else's! That's WeeklyDT's competitive edge.

Let's continue by adding a pocket to our wallet! Unroll a small piece of duct tape. This will become the inside of our pocket so be sure it is as long as an I.D. card. (We must trim the edges to make the wallet look sharp and professional.)

As the picture below mandates, be sure this piece's sticky side is now facing upwards.

Now, unroll another piece which is slightly longer than the piece above. Place this piece, sticky side down, directly over our first piece. The shorter, first piece should not be visible now.

Now, due to the extensions of the sticky sections on the longer piece, our pocket is ready to be placed on the wallet. After placement, we must be sure to place a piece of tape to cover the bottom of our pocket so our I.D. doesn't fall out. The picture below illustrates this procedure.

Please feel free to make as many of these pockets as you wish! The more pockets the better!

Now it is time to focus on the outside of our wallet. We will begin by unrolling a long piece of white duct tape, and the regular gray/silver duct tape.

Once we have completed this task, using our razor knife, we must cut squares from our pieces of long white and gray tape. The picture below illustrates what the squares should look like. Be sure two squares = the total width of the duct tape strip. Remember a cube's length is equal to its width. Refer to the picture below to get a general idea of size. (Measuring produces a neater and sharper effect.)

Now we will start placing our cubes! We will be placing them like a checkerboard, with a slight, offset angle. (Refer to the final picture to observe this angle.) This part is the easiest part and final part of our lesson!

When we are finished with our placement stage, the wallet is complete! Be sure to trim off any excess tape where the cubes extend past the black wallets edges. The wallet should now look like the picture below!

We are finally finished! Now go show this bad boy off to all your friends! Be sure to stay close for our revolutionary future lessons! See you soon.

Upcoming Projects!

I was scanning around the duct tape community, a regular task, and I noticed that every other duct tape advocate possesses a duct tape wallet tutorial. I realized that the WeeklyDT crew (everyone) could make a wallet which surpasses those other guys! So, our next project is going to be the creation of a gallant, resiliant, mightily fashionable duct tape wallet. So, in the next few days, be expecting the best wallet tutorial to hit the web!

The Duct Tape Hand Print

In this lesson, simplicity will be making a return. The lesson, despite its simple nature, will produce a stunning versatile product which can be customized in many different manners. Think about it, we can vary and manipulate this project in an infinite amount of ways to fit any taste!

To begin this lesson, we must lay our hand flat on a piece of paper and trace around it with a pencil. Be sure the pencil is completely vertical, or the trace will become distorted. When we are finished, our product should look like the picture below.


Now, we must lay a duct tape foundation which is larger than the hand we have traced. Be sure to double check the dimensions by laying the paper over the tape and feeling around the edges. The finished product should look like the picture below.


Now, we must lay the paper with the trace of our hand over the duct tape foundation. Be sure to fix the paper into position with strips of scrap duct tape!

Now, we just cut along the solid lines. This reminds me of kindergarten... Ahh the easy good ol days!

Once we have are hand cut out, we must remove the excess tape, then gently remove the hand print. We must lay a large white base to place the hand over. (The base must be approximately one-fourth of an inch larger than the blue handprint.) We will now place the blue hand over the white base.
Now, we must trim the white tape off. Be sure to leave approximately one forth of an inch of white tape left around the print as a border. (Borders make the projects look sharper and more professional.)

Once our border is cut, we will remove the excess white tape. Our finished project should look like the picture below.

Congratulations! Your first duct tape handprint! But don't stop there! Keep it up! I want to see your variations and results!