The Flobo

 

Here’s my friend JRoss’ full testimony on the Flobo.

– The floppy box, or flobo for short(I think that’s what the kids are calling it these days), is a pen/pencil holder, but it can hold anything you want it to, change, paper clips, knives, etc.

– It  all started early one Saturday morning when I went garage saleing with Marissa and Julia.They bought practical stuff like a vacuum and a hammock. I wasn’t planning on buying anything…but then I stumbled upon this box of about 20 colored floppy disk. Instantly, I knew I had to have them so i could make a  pencil box out of them. Jk, my first thought was that it would be a terrible purchase b/c I dont have a drive that they can fit in and I asked Marissa to talk me out of getting them. But then the guy running the garage sale said they were only two dollars. Let me pause here and clarify and make sure you fully understand. It wasn’t two dollars per floppy disk. No, no, no. It was two dollars for ALL the disk! And the case they came in! So…at that point, it would have just been irresponsible to not get them. So, I buy them, to Marissa’s disgust, bc she was all like what are you going to do with those?(I can’t fully recall but I bet her sass meter was off the charts) I really had no idea what I would do with them though so I searched the internet for ideas. I kept coming across these pencil box things that looked pretty neat and easy to make. So, I guess to answer your question, I got the idea from the internet.

-So there was just pictures of the pencil boxes and not really any written instructions on how to make it. There might have been, but I didn’t look too hard. Even without written instructions I was able to use both my eyes to see that the box was just held together by zip ties. However, I did not have any zip ties so I went to target to get some. I couldn’t find any though! I asked an employee, I think his name was Walter but I’m not 100% sure, and he said they didn’t have any! I was slightly discouraged, but would not give up my quest that easily. I trudged over to The Home Depot and in aisle 2 I had over ten different sizes and color combinations to choose from. So, by using logical deduction, I picked out some small black ties b/c the holes that I would have to put them through was small.  I guess that’s the end of this part of the story.

-It probably took me way longer to make it than it should have b/c I had to go buy the zip ties and also I messed up constructing it the first time which I will explain late. If I had to guess in like real time from getting the ties to cutting the last tie, I would estimate about two hours.

-I guess I will give a step by step of how I made it. That seems like it will be the easiest.

1. Go to a yard sale and buy at least five floppy disks, b/c I don’t think target will have them, especially since they don’t even have zip ties. I would like to point out that there is this drug store on the corner of 9th and Santa Clara that might have floppy disks b/c I went there this summer to get some toothpaste and they had an entire section for VHS tapes and 90’s board games. They had a Lite Brite that was still in it’s package! And the best part is that all the games are  50% off!

2. There needs to be four holes in each corner so the zip ties can go through. The disks that I had already had two holes in the bottom  but not the top. I took a screwdriver and poked holes in the top corners.

3. Take a zip tie and place it through the top corner of one a disk and then through the top corner of another disk. Then you pull the zip tie, not all the way, but like 3/4 of the way. Repeat for all four disks. At this point I had a square and just had to attach the bottom.

4. Uh-Oh, I hope you weren’t trying to do this step by step without reading the full instructions first, b/c if you did step three already, you messed up. How do I know you messed up? B/c I messed up! So I tried attaching the bottom, and I was able to get one corner attached with the zip ties, but after that it became nearly impossible to reach my hand inside the box and pull the zip tie tight. So at this point I was about to give up, b/c I had already spent an hour on this and I’m not super artsy so this was already an accomplishment to get this far. However, I just knew that if I finished it someone would see it and want to write about it on their blog.

5. So the next step is to cut all the zip ties off and start over.

6. A person could hypothetically just jump to step six and start here if they wanted to know how to create it right the first time. Start with the holes at the bottom of the vertical floppy disks and attach each one to the base. It is still kinda tight to get all the zip ties attached, but it is not impossible.

7. Once the zip ties are pulled tight you should cut the extra off with scissors.

8. Put the zip ties through the top corners of the floppy disks and pull tight.

9. Cut off the extra zip ties on top now. At this you should have a box that you can put stuff in.

10. I guess it’s not too difficult if you start with the bottom, and not the top.

So I have no idea if you really want to use all/any of this. If like you want me to redo this and make it more serious or whatever let me know. Also, I don’t expect you to use all of it b/c I know its alot of text. It’s up to you. I hope this helps,

-JRoss