I’m bringing my laptop on the trip and I’ve been looking for a compact protective bag for it to travel in. The other night I hit on the idea of making one out of rubber from an old tractor trailer inner tube.

I collected the bits and pieces:

  • An anti-static bag from the folks in I.T. at work
  • Some mini-cell foam left over from outfitting my kayak
  • An old inner tube I got from an unmarked tire shop in South Mills River
  • Rubber cement from Ace Hardware

An on Tuesday night I couldn’t sleep, so I got out the scissors and made this:

Lap-top bag 1

Lap top bag 2

The result is kind of like leather, tough, impact and water resistant and ugly in a way I really like. It’s layered up with the anti-static bag as the inner layer, mini cell glued to the bag and the inner tube rubber cemented as the outside layer. I used an old flat mountain bike tube to go around the edges and opening and cover the transition of all layers. The rubber from the MTB tube is thinner and more pliable.

I’m going to try and make a tool roll out of the inner-tube and I’ll try and document the process better.

Maybe.