iDuct – The duct tape iPod cover

Tonight, once again bored at work, I decided to tackle a project I’ve wanted to do for some time but didn’t have a clear concept of how to do it in my head.

Well, no I’ve gone and just done it. Mee iDuct, the duct tape iPod cover. And for under $5 in supplies, you can make one and tell all of those accesory makers that you’d rather do it yourself, thank you very much.

So you want to make an iPod cover out of duct tape, huh? You think you have what it takes? Well, if you’ve tackled either one of the messenger bags, you definitely have what it takes my friend, so let’s get down to the basics.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• duct tape, obviously. You should have some left over if you did the duct tape messenger bag 2.0. You can use any colors that you want to, but I had some black and silver, so I used that.
• a piece of mesh board (that is what I’m taking to calling it, since I don’t know it’s official name. Someone correct me on this.)
• a knife, whether it be exacto or a very sharp pocket knife.
• scissors
• iPod, obviously
• a clear, flat surface to cut and work on. Cutting boards could work as well.
• A sharpie (a black felt pen.)

45 minutes. That’s how long it takes to complete this project, and it should take ten minutes to read this. So let’s get to work.

First thing’s first, clear off your work area.

Now that you have that done, get your iPod, the mesh board and your sharpie. Face up, trace an outline of the iPod circle and the screen as best as you can. See pictures below for example.

Next, repeat the process for the back. Simple as pie.

Cut out both pieces. Then take the one for the front and cut out the circle and the screen square that you traced with the knife on a flat surface. The circular cutout, unfortunately, isn’t going to be perfect. At least mine was not perfect. Neither was the duct tape around the circle. Unless you make your circle a bit larger, expect not to be able to completely see the buttons. Now, this doesn’t mean you won’t be able to click the buttons, but eh, you get the idea.

Now that you have that done, we can talk about covering. This process, of course, is simple. Lie your mesh board piece already cut out onto the flat surface and cover it with duct tape. When you do this, ensure that everything is molded, so that there will be no shifting of the mesh board cutout piece. It also makes it easier to cut out. Take your knife, trace around the cut out areas and the edges. Pull up the excess tape, and voila. One side covered.

Repeat this last step for the back of the cut out piece that you just taped the front of, and also for the second piece of your cut out mesh board on both sides.

You should now have two pieces of duct taped mesh board, ready to be put together. But before we do that, we’re going to need to make a single strip of fabric.

Take a 8 inch piece of duct tape (roughly that size) and place it sticky side up. Then take two pieces and tape either end down, making sure the sticky side up is pulled tightly. Like so:

Place another piece of duct tape on top of the taped down piece, and do it slowly and carefully.

Then, take the piece and cut it into 1/4-1/2 inch strips (roughly.) You’ll need about four or five of these.

Now, after this is done, you’re going to attach these to the front and back pieces of the cut outs. Attach these pieces on the outside, and do it well. These will be what hold your iPod in place in the case. For the bottom, make sure to leave enough space to where you can fit the cable into the port in the bottom. Do this with the iPod inside of the top and bottom cut outs so you can get the tape tight. Do this on twice on either side and the bottom. The top, that’s your decision. I’d suggest if you do that to take thin pieces and use some leftover velcro from the last project so that those pieces are flaps that hold the iPod in, but make it to where you can take it out.

The finished product will look something similar to this:

This is a comparison between an iSkin thingamajig that was on my iPod before and the new iDuct duct tape iPod case with my 20gb iPod Photo in the middle.

So have I gone too far now? Duct tape messenger bags, duct tape iPod case… where will it end? Who knows. Next project: phone case and camera case, here we come!