how to make the magic dollar device

Dan Noren

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since i had the camera out anyway, i thought it would be a good idea to take the usual step by step pics of how they went together. well kids, here we go...

the wooden part can be anything you want, i used some extra 3/8" baltic birch plywood i had in the shop that wasn't doing much more than collecting dust. the ribbons are 5/8" wide by 18 ft long (enough for spares in case you goof up). the finish on the wood is just sanded to 220 and 2 coats of shellac lightly scrubbed with 220 for a nice not too shiny texture. on to the really fun part now. in the first six pics (as there are 12 of them, this will be in 2 posts) we have everything that we need, the wood has been cut to 6 5/8" x 3 1/4", and finished as previously mentioned, along with both sets of ribbons, cut to well over needed lengths. then i lay out the horizontal ribbons close to the marks that are 3/4" in from each end on both blanks. then i put the other blank on top, and secure the whole magilla with a pair of rubber bands. then i move the outside edges of the ribbons to the marks that i had made, and staple them down. after that is done, flip it over and pull the ribbons over to the marks, making sure that the ribbon is tight, and staple the ends down to the opposite edge from the other side (staple the one set of ends to what would be considered the top, and the other set to what would be considered the bottom), you can see this in the one pic, the stapled ends are pointing to the back, and the ones to be stapled towards the front. now that the horizontal ribbons are in place, you need to lay out the x, making sure to keep the edges of the x to the inside edges of the horizontal ribbons.
 

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  • 002 positioning horizontal ribbons.jpg
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  • 003 securing the blank halves.jpg
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  • 004 first ends stapled.jpg
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  • 005 other side for stapling.jpg
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  • 006 laying out the x.jpg
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ok, here's where we pick back up with the fun again. to keep the x from moving around too much, i like to secure it with a bit of blue tape (which will be used as quality control later on), then stapling the ends of the x to the parts that are opposite the horizontal ribbons (if you staple the x to the same side as the horizontal ribbons, you may as well start the next one, and come back to this one later, damhik). now that we have all of the ends of the x correctly stapled in place, we can open up the device, and here we see that our handy blue tape has found its way under the x, but if we open it up the other way, it makes removing the tape so much easier (told you the blue tape would show up again). now with the ends trimmed up nice and somewhat neat, we have the completed magic dollar device, and on to the pile of the others waiting to be sold.
 

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  • 010 easier to remove tape this way.jpg
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  • 009 x stapled in place.jpg
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  • 008 first side of x stapled.jpg
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  • 007 keeping the x from moving.jpg
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  • 012 on the pile with the rest of the run.jpg
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