Custom coffee table from old carpet tubes

prusaprinters

<p><strong>A complete system for making a customised table out of an old carpet tube.</strong></p><p>Make the table whatever shape you like (doesn't have to be rectangular!), and add modules to hold cups, pens, stationery, a light. I will probably design other modules to add in the future.</p><p>Here's how it works:</p><ul><li>Take the massive cardboard tube from the inside of your recently delivered carpet. My tube was around 110mm diameter, with a thickness of around 6.5mm, but these tubes are never very regular so there is flexibility. (If yours is very different from this, scale the models slightly in your slicer.)</li><li>Cut your big tube into as many pieces as you need. The pieces should be equal length but there is tolerance for inaccuracies.</li><li>Clip the tubes together at the bottom using the <strong>inner connecting foot</strong> piece - use one in every place where one tube touches another.</li><li>Place an <strong>outer foot</strong> on the bottom outer edges of each tube.</li><li>The idea is that <i>every tube piece will have four feet<strong>: </strong></i>a mixture of connecting feet shared with its neighbours and outer feet for the outside edges. If your table is large, like mine in the photo, there will be some tubes with no outer edges at all.</li><li>Place a <strong>top connecting clip</strong> on the top, wherever one tube touches another. In other words, you need one top connecting clip directly above each inner connecting foot</li><li>Choose your surfaces!<ul><li><strong>Plain square top</strong> is just a flat area</li><li><strong>Cup holder</strong> has a round indented dish to put your drink, or to keep any little objects</li><li><strong>Light clip</strong> has a vertical piece where you can clip a reading light, to make a perfect little desk lamp</li><li><strong>Stationery pot</strong> has a spiral of holes of increasing depth, to hold pens, pencils, tweezers, screwdrivers, paperclips, whatever.</li></ul></li><li>The surfaces are designed to work with really varied and uneven tubes. Bash them in firmly - even sit on it! - until you're happy with how solidly fitted they are.</li></ul><p><strong>Two notes about accuracy</strong></p><ol><li>Carpet tubes are really uneven, often bashed and misshapen. This means, by definition, the surfaces will all fit slightly differently, some might even overlap, and the whole thing totally embraces the homemade ramshackle look! See photos. <strong>This isn't for you if you need a perfect smooth surface.</strong></li><li>You won't be able to push the feet all the way on, and you won't be able to push the table surfaces all the way down. They are angled, so that they will work with different thicknesses of cardboard and slightly different heights of tube pieces. The top connecting clips, on the other hand, should slide all the way down.</li></ol><p><strong>Supports</strong></p><ul><li>The feet and top clips all need supports, as they are curved where they sit on the print bed.</li><li>The cup holder needs supports underneath its main area.</li><li>Plain square top, light clip and stationery pot all print without supports.</li></ul>