I was at Wal-Mart this morning to pick up some potting soil and oil for the ZX2 and took a look around the electronics section because I decided at the itch of a nose to buy new rechargeable batteries for the camera. Whilst there, I looked at CD labeling stuff, and also disk envelopes. I have cases for the critters, but I want to save those for stuff that really needs to be archived on a shelf, where the disks might be used from time to time. Other archive material only needs a sleeve, since it will get stuck on a shelf and forgotten unless something drastic occurs, like a need to format a drive.
It was almost $5 for a pack of 100 sleeves. I sez to myself, wait a minute, Horace, you also need to make some new Tyvek sleeves for your credit cards. Why not buy some rubber cement for $1.97 and kill two turkeys with one golf ball?
Ha! and you though I was sane?
So anyway, I designed a disk sleeve (copied the measurements from one that had an iBook install disk) and printed it out.
Then I cut it out, folded the flaps, and applied the rubber cement.
If you apply the rubber cement to both surfaces and let it dry before you press it together, it makes a permanent bond. You can rub off any excess afterwards.
And, to save you some work, you can get the .pdf pattern from:
Disk Envelope Template
and print it out. Might have to set your margins to zero, but I didn't.
I may be cheap, but I like to delude myself with thoughts of generosity!
After a Decade
6 years ago
Yeah, but how much for enough Tyvek to make 100 CD sleeves? And why do you need Tyvek sleeves for your credit cards? (Just curious.)
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall purchasing some huge number of paper sleeves for Vesper's Sunday sermons for some ridiculously cheap amount in bulk, but I can't remember where I got 'em or what I paid at the time...
If you search for bulk CD sleeves on eBay, you'll find people selling lots of 1000 sleeves for pretty cheap...
http://tinyurl.com/2da7vx
ReplyDeleteRight. What do I need 1000 disk sleeves for? You gonna mooch off me? And $20.98 for shipping is no bargain.
ReplyDeleteAll you have to do is print one of my handy-dandy sleeves -- one, if that's all you need -- on ordinary paper, and you are all set. And I was generous; I shared my idea. Ideas are not cheap. I kill more brain cells thinking than most people kill drinking health food drinks. Do you realize how dangerous health foods are?
I have odds & ends of scrap Tyvek around here. I save junk. The sleeve I made for my Discover Card (after the original Tyvek sleeve they sent wore out) lasted through two card renewals. Its time for a new one. Paper sleeves last about 3 months in my wallet. Tyvek, maybe 6 years or so.
Now that I think of it, longer than that. Last house I framed was over a decade ago.
You work too hard at being cheap. I'm cheap because it is fun. I just put together a 12' long treated 2x12 from some scrap. Lap joints and screws. Going into my greenhouse project, isn't structural, just needs to hold back dirt. I think I invented recycling before AlGore invented Earth Day.
"I kill more brain cells thinking than most people kill drinking health food drinks." HA!
ReplyDeleteI do work hard at being cheap, you're right.
You still haven't answered my question as to why I should be putting my credit cards in Tyvek sleeves... Its not like I have to protect my Discover Gas card from getting an STD from being in the same wallet as my Chase Perfect card...or do I? (Though if that really is possible I can probably count on being able to obtain credit-card-sized Tyvek sleeves for free from any local public high school in the near future, and at taxpayer expense...)
Oh, and after one purchase of 1000 CD sleeves you'll never have to worry about purchasing/making them again, and just imagine how SAFE you will be from any possibilities of little baby CDs magically appearing in your office...
Now THAT makes me curious as to what goes on in your wallet.
ReplyDeleteTyvek is wind resistant but not moisture proof. You can use it as a crude water filter. Tyvek and STDs does not compute.
Tyvek is TOUGH. The card stays clean, almost like new. The cards without Tyvek sleeves end up with the printing getting worn off. If you had me sitting on you all day, you might want a Tyvek sleeve too.
If I had you sitting on me all day, I'd probably need an aspirin, not some non-moisture-proof piece of tough paper...
ReplyDeleteArguing with a Mechanical Engineer is like arguing with a rock. Both arguments are undoubtedly logically framed in their own twisted way, but in the end the rock has enough sense to give up before it started.
ReplyDeleteYou sayin' I'm no smarter than a rock???
ReplyDelete