Disco Hammer

CDs may be out of date, but disco balls certainly are not. Neither are disco helmets, disco visors, disco bras, disco sharks, disco bow ties, disco overalls, disco hearts, disco pumpkins or DISCO HAMMERS.

For this project you'll need a pile of old CDs that you don't need, a few big sheets of foam, spray paint, glue, and double sided tape. You'll also need a small saw, file or rasp, and a laser cutter.

In order to cut CDs on a laser cutter it is important to first make sure they are not too reflective on one side. The best way we have found to do this was with spray paint. I tried covering one side in masking tape, but it is a real pain in the butt to get off of each little square afterwords cutting.

LASERS ARE FUN. Start by placing the CDs dull side up on the laser cutter. It is best to just score the surface of the CDs rather than cutting all the way through. You'll need to break them apart into squares later, but you'll also avoid ugly burn marks on the shiny side of the disks.

First draw out your hammer (or any other shape) on some foam and cut it out with a saw. Once you have the basic outline cut out you can start doing some more 3D carving and sculpting. I used a small wood saw, a hot knife and a file for this part of the project.

Oh the wonders of double sticky carpet tape. This stuff is super sticky and super easy to use. Start by covering the whole hammer in tape, but leave the coating on until you are ready to apply the shiny squares.

Start pealing off the coating from the double sticky tape and applying the squares. Depending on the curvature of the shape and the size of your squares you may need to cut some of them to fit in funny shapes. I recommend only uncovering small areas of tape at a time to keep the rest sticky while you work.

Unfortunately I was almost finished covering the hammer when I realized it was hanging at the wrong angle and needed to have some extra weight, so I had to do some surgery. You can use anything heavy to add weight, but I chose to use a few steel rods. I recommend getting the weight right before you start sticking on the squares, but if you need to do it later, it isn't too hard. Just take off a few squares, drill a hole, stick in your weight, and cover it back up. Nobody will know you made this mistake (unless you post it on the internet for everyone to see).

I forgot to take photos of the hanging method, but it is easy. Before you start sticking the squares, make a hole and put a PVC pipe thought it. Once it's done you can hang it up by passing a string through the pipe.

Pretty sure it is HAMMER TIME!