Tutorial - Endless amounts of FREE workable cardboard!

[FuncootForever]

Ok, lets get on thing straight. I am not responsible for what you do with this cardboard, I am simple teaching you how to get free cardboard with a painted finish, and then how to turn it into a workable paintable piece of cardboard. Yes these can be used for cardboard armor suites and props.

Where are the boxes coming from?
Now who is our provider? The good old US Postal Service of course!
http://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/ser..._category=11820

You say they are free?
Yes they give out free boxes for shipping purposes only! It is a crime not to use them for shipping, although I ordered about 250 boxes, they were delivered without any questions asked (no I never shipped a thing!). The only time they will ask you any question is if you order over about 750 boxes within 6 months. This is a large amount of boxes, you will never go through them all in 6 months!

These boxes have a finish on them, that is no good.
Says who, have you heard of sanding? Get either 60 or 120 grit sandpaper and a power sander, and simply strip it. Yes the box will lose only a tiny bit of strength, almost not noticeable, but it will work. The finish will be removed and you will have a workable paintable piece of cardboard! Be careful with sanding, just do it where it is just enough to remove the finish!



Pictures
What you need. I am just using the black and decker box as an example.



Once you start standing it should start to look like this.



Then you should finally end up with.

 

[Pkmnjunky7]

Stickin it to the post office! ahah. Thats what they get for always managing to mangle and destroy my packages!

 

[FuncootForever]

Stickin it to the post office! ahah. Thats what they get for always managing to mangle and destroy my packages!

I totally agree.

 

[Spartan118]

Nice find, how did you come across this?

 

[shadow74]

Good idea for people that cant find any cardboard lol

 

[MasterChiefRules]

It says the maximum you can order is 20. Does this mean to get an "endless" amount as you say it, you have to keep ordering and ordering 20 boxes at a time?

 

[The Mastah]

It says the maximum you can order is 20. Does this mean to get an "endless" amount as you say it, you have to keep ordering and ordering 20 boxes at a time?

My understanding is that the boxes come in packs of 20-25; and when you order them you can order, say, 4 of them so you end up with 100 boxes.

 

[MasterChiefRules]

My understanding is that the boxes come in packs of 20-25; and when you order them you can order, say, 4 of them so you end up with 100 boxes.

Thats what I thought after taking another look at the website.

 

[FuncootForever]

My understanding is that the boxes come in packs of 20-25; and when you order them you can order, say, 4 of them so you end up with 100 boxes.

This man speaks the truth.

Nice find, how did you come across this?

Well when I got my sander I got bored and sanded the box. Then I saw people making stuff out of cardboard here and said that cardboard was only good if it didn't already have a finish on it, so I put both those together and bam, a supply of endless cardboard.

 

[herogear]

Luckily, the majority of usps's boxes have an unclossed surface... You can glue & glass to your hearts content without much of any prep... The Priority Mail Box O-1095 , "12.5" x "15.5" x "3", are the largest, & I use a ton of them... Do yourself a favor though, don't run & order 20 boxes worth... 3 to 5 boxes (containing 20 boxes each) is all you'll need for a full suit of armor, with a bunch left over for extra helmets, weapons, etc... Figure each box unfolds to 31" x 18" sheet of cardboard. Hotglue works great on this stuff as well... Invest $10 in a decent full-sized trigger-fed gluegun... Trying to do big projects with the cheap dollar-store mini's is a nightmare.


Wolf

 

[Pkmnjunky7]

Another really great source for cardboard, If you prefer not to order boxes this way is to go to your local strip mall or grocery story and the dumpsters around those places are filled with giant boxes. Thats how i usually get my cardboard.

 

[cgspartan]

Another really great source for cardboard, If you prefer not to order boxes this way is to go to your local strip mall or grocery story and the dumpsters around those places are filled with giant boxes. Thats how i usually get my cardboard.

2 things with dumpster diving for cardboard.


1. make sure that the boxes you get don't have ANY residue from food in them if you're getting them from a grocery store. the boxes that eggs are shipped in is a good example. because 80% of the time at least a few eggs break during shipping and the inside of the box gets a healthy smattering of it.

2. make sure first that the place you're getting the cardboard from doesn't crush their boxes first. A lot of places will compact their empty boxes to be shipped off for recycling. No point in dumpster diving when there won't be anything in there in the first place. Just go inside and ask someone if they crush their empty boxes. Most of the people that work there will know. And a lot of places that don't compact their boxes will just give them to you anyways. No point dumpster diving if they just give it to you. (ikea is a good example of that)

 

[cell]

Ok so no one here lives near a walmart or local department store that throw away 1000+ cardboard boxes of various sizes every night?

 

[FuncootForever]

Ok so no one here lives near a walmart or local department store that throw away 1000+ cardboard boxes of various sizes every night?

Some people don't like digging through dumpsters maybe, and can't carry a 1000+ boxes in their tiny gremlin?

 

[Durlaburban]

go to walmart. walk to the back in layaway. ask them there for boxes. i just got 200 of the things with my truck.

 

[AoBfrost]

Asking for boxes without using them for shipping is illegal, dont do it, they have tracking numbers on these boxes If i am correct, they could become suspicious of why these tracking numbers were never scanned or proccessed.

 

[dead spartan]

he is right and theres no use stealing any more money from the goverment they are all ready in enough debt.

 

[Durlaburban]

dugg up some dirt... did some research... IT IS A FEDERAL OFFENCE to take these boxes for things other than shipping. if you got boxes from here you might as well of showed 200 kilos of pot to the police. RETURN THEM IMMEDIATLY!! if they are returned and yourself explained you will NOT FACE LEGAL ACTION.

makes me glad i didnt buy em. if you dont believe me ill save you the google search

http://lawcrawler.findlaw.com/scripts/lc.p...tes=findlaw.com

hope it dosent make you too mad. just mail stuff in em or return them to your local post office. it may be akward but when bubba asks why your in jail think back and remember. the post office ladies alot better then bubba trading you around for cigs

 

[AoBfrost]

Should I report this to the police? i think I should, This is illegal and a total waste of something useful, if you want free LEGAL cardboard, go to a store, any store, ask for boxes, they will be GLAD to give them to you, rather than having to pay a truck to come and haul it away.

 

[Durlaburban]

you dont need to pay a truck a simple email to the postal service will reveal all you need to do is bring em to the post office.
you need not panic.