[DIY] Duct Tape Zune Case Tutorial

[Jmac the Man]

I always keep my MP3 players in a case. It would suck if my screen got scratched or smudged after I spent 250 dollars on it. It would utterly suck. Now I've heard that Zunes are build sturdier than their competition, but still, it's better safe than sorry. I saw that Zune cases cost 30 bucks in any store I tried to get one from, so I decided to make my own from duct tape. This is how to do it. If you want to skip ahead to see how it looks before you try it, I have completed pictures at the bottom.

Materials:
1 roll of duct tape
1 piece of somewhat flexible plastic

Equipment:
A cutting board
A knife
A pencil
Paper
A Zune with either headphones or speakers (so you can listen to music while you work

Time:
About an hour and a half. Maybe a little less if you're not taking pictures of the steps.

Instructions:

The Front Panels (*2):
First, you need to find out exactly how big your Zune is. I traced one corner of it, because getting pencil on the Zune while trying to protect it would be irony, and not the good kind. I traced over the line in red so you could see it in the pictures; the actual line I used is a pencil line, so it's a lot thinner. The vertical part of the line is exactly as long as an 80 gig Zune, and the horizontal exactly as wide.

With this done, rip a piece of tape off that is LONGER than your Zune. You'll cut it to size eventually. Lay it sticky side up on the table.

Then rip off another one that is about the same size, and lay it so it overlaps the other piece. Try to put it so it covers about half of the first one. These are the vertical pieces.

Now get another piece of tape. This one should be about a littler longer then the two vertical pieces together are wide. Lay them across the last two pieces of tape, perpendicular to them. These should go sticky side down (i.e. its sticky side stuck to the sticky side of the last two pieces.) These will be the horizontal pieces. Keep doing this until the first two pieces of tape are completely taped over. The picture should make this clearer. The two pieces across the bottom are horizontal pieces, and above the pencil is the two vertical pieces. I had to add two more horizontal pieces after this.

As you'll be able to see from the picture, this is bigger than the Zune is. Trace the shape of the Zune, and cut it out with a knife.


You need to make two panels, one for the front cover and one for the back. Here you see my top and bottom panels on top of my Zune.


Other Panels (*2 side panels, *1 bottom panel):
Make the side panel in the same way as the front panels. The difference is that there should be only one vertical piece of tape.

The bottom panel starts life as one panel that is the correct size for the bottom of the Zune.

Then, cut straight down twice, essentially taking out the middle to leave a hole for the charging port.

All the panels except the front panel are laid out here. It looks just like the bottom panel that is pictured.


Connecting the Back:
Connecting the side panels to the back is easy. Just use a piece of tape for the outside, and another for the inside. It helps if you make it bigger at first, then cut it to size.


Make sure you fold the side pieces up hard before moving on. Once the side panels are attached, the bottom pieces attach on the same principle. I found it easier to connect it to the back piece first, and then the sides. Fold this up too.

It will still sag a little, but we'll fix this in the next step. So far you should have:


Connecting the Screen Protector:
The screen protector needs to be just slightly taller than the screen, and a LOT wider. It shouldn't cover the controls. The screen protector is clear, so I couldn't photograph it well. The photograph shows a piece of paper folded properly.

The widest section, obviously, should go over the Zune's screen. The sections on either side next to it should be the same size as the side panels. The furthest outside sections should lay on the bottom panel. It helps if you put duct tape on the outside sections first. Then lay the protector in place, and press those pieces of tape down. Then you can anchor the middle parts of the protector to the side panel. It will still sag, so tape the screen to the side panels over the top. Use the as little tape on the front of the screen as possible, because you don't want to obscure the screen. The next picture shows the completed screen protector.


Connecting the Front Panel:
Make a thinner panel that is as tall as the front panel, and lay it in about the middle of a new piece of tape. Put just a little bit of the front panel on the tape, and lay it paralell to the smaller panel. Leave some space between the panels.

Tape over both panels, and cut out around where the smaller panel was. The front panel and the smaller panel will now be connected, and there will be a joint between them. Tape this assembly to the Zune.

The next picture shows that there is still exposed tape from the joint. Lay another piece of tape on that. Your case now opens like a book.


Completed?
I added a latch to mine by taping a long, thin panel off the side of the front panel and a panel for it to connect to on the back. You could do a belt clip on the same principles. These are my completed pictures:
Closed, from the front:

Closed, from the back:

From the bottom:

Open, from the front:


Let me know what you think. I'll be sticking around this topic to answer questions if anyone else tries this.

[133794m3r]

hmmmm..... have you posted this in instructibles yet? this seem like the kinda thing they'd be up for.

[phreakin318]

great idea, not the prettiest thing, but definitly a good idea if you dont wanna spend money on a case.

[Jmac the Man]

Originally Posted by 133794m3r

hmmmm..... have you posted this in instructibles yet? this seem like the kinda thing they'd be up for.

Instructables? Do you have a link?

[vhaanlen]

What kind of cases were u looking at? I saw some hard plastic cases and protect the screen for about $5.50

https://www.bargaincell.com/mp3_zune...ase_27218.html

for those interested

[Jmac the Man]

I was in an actual store, though. Normal stores are selling those cases for 30 bucks. I would have paid 5 bucks for the case, except I wouldn't have been able to carry my Zune around all weekend without worrying about it getting scratched up.

[deckardk]

instructables.com - they have a lot of DIY steps, like this one.
this is a nice idea, my friend uses his duct tape wallet all the time. plus i would bet a duct tape box would be much less likely to be stolen than a shiny new zune!

[133794m3r]

I really would like you to post this on instructables... since I'm sure other zuners out there will be wanting it also.