Cheerwine Deckbox

I like soda and I like card games. If you play a tcg be it Magic or World of Warcraft you need something to keep you deck in. For those of you that do not play cards a deck is the set of specific cards that you have put together to play the game. Deck boxes can be expensive, but are necessary to protect your cards. You can spend the three or four dollars on a deck box, but why spend money on deck boxes that you could spend on more cards or even more soda. I built a deck box using the cardboard and cans from a case of soda.

You will need the following

Materials
- Three or four cans of empty soda - start drinking
- Case that soda came in - yay recycling
- duct tape
- exacto knife
- hobby knife
- scissors
- permanent marker
- pencil
- glue
-deckbox for reference
- ruler

Work area
A surface that you can work on that will not mind being cut or nicked

Safety Message
You need to be careful. You should wear gloves or some protective eye wear. I am not sure why you might need to wear eye wear, but nearly every safety message I have ever seen has recommended it so I am following tradition. If you are a child do not do this alone. You are cutting metal and the cans are like razors after you cut them. You could easily slice yourself and get a nasty infection. The infection would make you sad.

In this step you will be cutting the cardboard. The deckbox I used measured 1 3/4" X 2 3/4" X 3 3/4". Unfold the cardboard where it is glued together. Then use your pencil and ruler and measure out all the little panels you will need. You will need to measure out

2 side panels 3 3/4" X 1 3/4"
1 front panel 3 3/4" X 2 3/4"
1 back panel 3 3/4" X 2 3/4"
1 bottom panel 1 3/4" X 2 3/4"
1 top panel 1 3/4" X 2 3/4"
1 latch panel 1 3/4" X 2 3/4"

Now use the utility knife to cut the top and bottom off the can. Then slit the cylinder down the middle so you have a flat sheet. Take one of your cardboard panels and lay it on the sheet of aluminum and trace it with a permanent marker. Use a pair of tin snips or scissors to cut the aluminum.

The inside of the aluminum panels have a coating that needs to be sanded. I used an emery board. You do not need to sand the whole piece til is shines just rough it up.

Now you will glue the aluminum panels to the cardboard panels. This will make the box sturdier. I used a specialty craft super glue that I bought from Hobby Lobby. After gluing put the panels between a book or put something on top of them to hold them together. The aluminum panels tend to warp. Pressing them in the pages of a book or underneath something helps flatten them.

Sorry I forgot to photograph this step.

After the glue dries you will need to arrange the panels and join them together using the duct tape. I chose to adhere the tape to the cardboard side. Thus making the cardboard the interior of the box. You can make either side the exterior. I wanted the aluminum side on the outside. I would recommend using a surface that the duct tape can be removed from for this part of the project. Here is what I did. I would tear off a piece of duct tape and place it on the glass. Then I would measure it and using the hobby knife I would cut it out. The glass surface is from an old printer. I like to turn old printers into storage boxes for my projects. The duct tape pieces were about a quarter of an inch thick.

You will now need to tape your project into the shape of a box. I placed tape on the bottom and sides of the side panels and then folded the bottom panel up to meet the duct tape, while holding the not sticky side of the duct tape back on itself. I did the same to the front panel.

There are a couple of ways you can do this. You could put a rubber band around it, use more tape, or magnets. I chose to try magnets. I found some little magnets that I had scavenged from a CD drive. I used duct tape.

Take your cards or whatever you want to store and put them in the box. I made this box for my cards but it would work for anything you wanted to put in it.