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How to Disguise an External Cd Drive As a Pile of Cans

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Have you ever thought 'Hmm, my external CD drive would look MUCH better if no one knew what it was.'? Here is how to do it.


  1. 1
    Poke two holes in 8 of the cans, the farthest down possible. (You can't really do it all the way at the bottom, because the can gets too thick.)
  2. 2
    Measure how tall your drive is. (Ex. 2 inches.) Cut from the hole you just poked that high. (Ex. 2 in.)
  3. 3
    Make the same cut, but with the second hole. Connect them by creating a cut to the tops of both.
  4. 4
    Make another cut at the bottom of the semi-rectangle you created to get rid of that whole rectangle of metal.
  5. 5
    Try turning your drive on its side, and seeing if the can will fit over it. If it doesn't, trim as needed to make it fit snugly.
  6. 6
    The next few steps might be a little tricky for you, but maybe not. Set the drive by itself, and put one of the remaining, whole, cans next to it. Use a marker and make a dot where the top of the CD drive touches the can.
  7. 7
    Take one of the cans that you have cut a rectangle in, and measure how high up from the bottom the original hole was. (Ex. 2 cm.)
  8. 8
    Take that height, and add it to the dot you made on the other can, and make a dot there.
  9. 9
    Take that dot, make a hole with your Xacto knife, and cut all the way around the can. You should be left with just top half (Maybe less than half) of the can. Discard the bottom half.
  10. 10
    Repeat steps 7-10 to 6 of the cans.
  11. 11
    At this point, you can glue the cans that have rectangles missing to the edges of the CD drive, but not the front. (When gluing to the edges next to the front, be sure not to cover or block the opening and closing mechanism of the drive.)
  12. 12
    Take the half-cans and glue the, to the top of the CD drive, so from the top-view it sort of looks like a bunch of cans set next to each other.
  13. 13
    Glue a can to the front of the opening part of the drive, so when you push the button to open it, the can moves with it.
  14. 14
    If after you glued the can to the front, you can still see two parts of the drive on either side of the can, glue some other junk there. (Ex. A balled of piece of notebook paper and a candy bar wrapper, being sure the drive can still open and close properly.

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  • If your drive has a detachable panel that has all the plugs and parts on it, you can cut a rectangle large enough for it to fit in, and cut holes for the ports and plugs, and glue that can to the back.


  • If there is any more of the drive exposed, glue more junk.
  • If you accidentally glue the CD drive shut, it may be hard to fix it, so glue cautiously.

Things You'll Need

  • Hot glue gun
  • Glue sticks for the gun
  • 16 or 17 cans
  • Junk
  • Patience
  • CD drive to be disguised

Article Info

Categories: CDs and DVDs

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