The Magic of a Cardboard Box | Hacker News Reader

The Magic of a Cardboard Box

nytimes.com

63 pointswallflower26 comments

Every year I build a Halloween themed cardboard structure for the kids. It started originally because we had just moved into our previous house and we had cardboard boxes everywhere. I was bored one night so I stayed up way too late and built a "Haunted Mansion". Kids loved it, so I've done it the last 5 years now.

It was a lot easier when the kids were 4 and 2, since the size of the structure could be significantly smaller, and therefore cost a lot less.

Last year I built a "Haunted Volcano" (imagine a large box structure covered in black fabric) complete with "lava" (orange lights flowing down the side), internal lighting, and a second level (used some of those little Ikea tables). It was over 6ft tall and probably something like 50sqft all told. I honestly probably spent close to $200 on it, so it's somewhat of a waste of money, but at least you can reuse some of the materials and recycle most of the rest when you're done.

Home Depot and other similar places sell cardboard boxes that are pretty reasonable and reasonably strong. The "medium" sized boxes are good for small kids. The large and XL boxes are better for big kids and, uhmm, adults who think they're still kids :). You'll quickly figure out good ways to combine and attach boxes to each other.

Grab a bunch of those, a big pack of quality packing tape (3M, not the knock off stuff), a tape gun, and a box cutter or two, and you're all set.

For building large structures like this, we've found Makedo's are great. https://www.make.do/collections/all-products

The screws and screwdriver make it super easy to connect the cardboard together, and I've found the fit to be surprisingly sturdy. It's reusable and pretty quick to remove from the cardboard once you're ready to take everything down.

The saw, in my opinion, doesn't cut that well. Possibly still better than having the kids use large scissors or a box cutter though.

Makedo is awesome, and I agree that the saw isn't very good.

We got this saw: https://www.amazon.com/Corrugated-Cardboard-Fluorine-Coating...

It's amazing! It cuts really well but is dull enough that I have no worries at all with my 6 year old using it as she pleases unsupervised.

Awesome. Just ordered one. Never knew something like that existed. I've nicked myself plenty with a box cutter.

That's pretty awesome! Though I'm surprised a 9 year old cares enough to play with that still. Maybe I just forget what it's like to be a 9 year old.

They definitely don't play with them as much as they originally did, but they both are still requesting that I build one. Might be the last year I do it though.

Sounds like it's time to get them involved building cardboard labyrinths for younger kids.

That's terrific! Do you have photos or videos of your structures that you can share?

Cardboard boxes with a utility blade or x-acto knife are really pleasant to work with. I've built plenty of things both for and with my son (now that he's a little older) for school costumes and projects. When we've got larger boxes, they're great for making a truck or a car to play-in. The durability of the box is usually pretty well correlated with the how long they remain interested in playing with the creation. Our latest creation was a cardboard knight costume with helmet, sword and shield. One of the more-freeing aspects of it all is that mistakes aren't a big deal because you've likely got plenty of replacement cardboard to try again.

We've found that box cutters like these[1] work great and are safe for even our six year old to use.

[1] http://www.canary.jp/canary-en/item/en_11_dan.htm

Thanks for this, which one specifically? My 5 year old watches cardboard project videos on YouTube and loves building. We even got him a hot glue gun which he uses on his own, after a couple of burns he’s very adept with it. Yes I tried to dissuade him but he’s very persistent!

We have a few of #2 we got from Amazon. You can still cut yourself but it's more of an abrasion than a laceration. It's great when you can find real tools for your kids to use and explore their ideas independently.

I have one of the #2's. It's certainly possible to cut yourself. I actually cut myself on purpose just to be sure it was safe, and it wasn't too bad ;-) It was an actual cut, not an abrasion, but not deep. I've gotten myself on accident a few times too. Never too badly.

Here's a $1m kickstarter idea that I'm never going to do, so have fun:

A computer controlled cardboard scorer/cutter to make Labo style toys from trash. Give it a simple UI that can import standard file formats, and have a website with a store/free sharing portal for users to download designs.

Great idea. That's basically what a desktop laser cutter does. They start at $400 for the Chinese versions that require a little elbow grease to get working, or around $3K for a well built desktop cutter that works and is supported.

It would be better if there's a software that can convert stl files to cardboard patterns to cut out. Would be exciting for complex shapes (ex: formed keyboards like The Dactyl/Manuform).

Adam Savage (of Mythbusters and tested.com fame) is a huge proponent of cardboard as a "gateway drug" into the Maker and/or cosplay world. One of his first major Maker projects as a kid was a set of armor made from cardboard.

How are there no mentions of the other great beneficiaries of cardboard boxes in here? I speak, of course, of cats. Cat + box = happiest cat.

One interesting factoid is that for a very long time cardboard was far too heavy to ship in bulk, so cardboard industries sprung up all over the world, and many of them were the foundations of very large fortunes.

One cardboard scion just bought a forest in Austria for $108MM https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-08/the-story...

Reading Calvin and Hobbes and seeing what he did with cardboard boxes made them even neater to young me.

Yeah, I really liked those strips :) Made myself a transmogrifier when I was younger too

Cardboard and duct tape have always been my go to for building together a lazy hacky solution. I always have access to nice boxes of every size and shape as well, usually from my leftover amazon boxes.

A few things I use cardboard for right now

- Filler material (e.g. if I need to clamp something on an uneven surface). My boom mic had some issues so I just took some cardboard and fixed it

- My treadmill desk, there's a safety latch that can be yanked off to quickly shut off power in case of an accident. It dangles around, so I used some cardboard and ducttape and clipped it below my desk.

- Storage dividers. I have some sterlite bins and I seperate them with cardboard + duct tape. Works suprisingly well

- Custom-storage solutions. You can build anything with cardboard its great

Back about 55 years ago, it was a big deal when somebody on the block got a refrigerator. Lay the box flat, open out the ends, three or four kids crawl in, face perpendicular to the ends and start doing an all-fours crawl forward: instant caterpillar.

When I was in elementary school (early 90s) our field day included a "tractor race" that was this - two kids in a box racing two other kids in a box. Of course you can't quite see where you're going, so it's crucial you and your teammate crawl at the same rate. Good times :)

Every year when I go to nerd conventions I like to make a costume out of cardboard and spray paint. I've gotten pretty good at making robot armor out of cardboard, and my friend's job gives me easy access to huge amounts of the stuff.

Cardboard really is an amazing medium for making toys that don't have to last forever

Immediately made me think of Halo Kid (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TPANByjqh8). I hope he found success somewhere.

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