What is a Box Rivet, Anyway? cardboard life
You’ve heard me talk about Mr. McGroovy’s Box Rivets now a couple times here and on Fort Birthday’s Instagram and Facebook. But what are they anyway? The secret to cardboard box for excellence. Mr. McGroovy’s sent me a box of Box Rivets to help keep Fort Birthday standing as long as possible, AND my instagram and facebook followers have access to an exclusive discount, AND they sent me a box to GIVE AWAY to one of my readers. Watch my instagram next week for details.
Well what is it? A magic tool for cardboard
An easy and reusable way to hold cardboard together for building any sort of play space you can dream up. I was given my first set by a friend who used them to build a parade float. I used them to improve on the structure of Fort Birthday throughout it’s first year.
a simple and genius way to fasten cardboard together.
Here’s a quick tutorial
Look at Mr. McGroovy’s for a more detailed set of directions.
It’s just two identical pieces of plastic. Punch a hole through both layers of cardboard. Push one half in from the back and push the other half in from the front making sure they interlock and click into place. It’s super easy.
I’ve highlighted the overlapping edge of the cardboard to better show it. You could tape this securely, but it takes a lot of tape. And if you use tape you cant evenly paint the surface of your fort.
Step – 1 – Make a hole – here i am using this stubby phillips head screw driver, A scratch awl (pointy stabby tool), and a nail set (dull pokey tool). to make the hole for the box rivets. Make sure you go through both pieces completely.
Step – 2 – Push one piece in from the back through both holes.
You can see how it looks when one piece is pushed through from the back here.
Step – 3 – rotate the second part so that it will interlock with the first and snap together through several clicks.
Here’s the super cool part: They are re-usable!!!
Here is an example of an installed rivet
You can use a claw hammer to pry them apart – I used a plastic auto body tool – but that’s just cause I’m the kind of girl who has a plastic auto body tool.
My first set of Mr. McGroovys Box Rivets was a gift from a friend who had already used them once.
Here’s how I used them to make Fort Birthday Strong – cardboard matters
Mr. McGroovy’s Box Rivets are perfect for minimizing or eliminating excessive tape from your creation. Especially when fastening two flat surfaces together which otherwise are awkward to tape and structurally more sound with the rivets.
These Amazon Prime Boxes are held to the side of Fort Birthday with four Mr. McGroovy’s Box Rivets. It holds the box on firmly and doesn’t require tape. Once I installed them, I closed the boxes and taped them shut where they had already been taped.
Box Rivets help hold two flat pieces together. These pieces were doubled up for strength, I could not have taped them together. I would have needed to glue them. Which would have been messy and tricky to do without damaging the cardboard.
Here you can see how just TWO Mr. McGroovy’s Box Rivets replaced yards of tape. Not only is it aesthetically better; it is stronger. You can see here how the old tape had begun to separate from the other box. This was in part due to the cardboard aging, but also due to the forces pulling the boxes apart.
Get building
Make something. Make it with your kids. Even young children can help with this and then all of you can enjoy the work and fun of a great fort. Share your work by posting it to our Facebook or tagging Fort Birthday in your instagram pictures. And remember to use your discount link.
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