Car Coin Catcher

We Americans face a problem. Drive-throughs are great, but with them come the awkward problem of coin change. Either you are financially responsible enough try to pay with exact change or you end up with spare change. This spare change that ends up either where your CDs should go or on the floor mats to hunt for later.

I propose a simple solution. Introducing the Car Coin Catcher! This is a simple solution to our coin problems. If you have one hour, some simple supplies and a will to install a cool, helpful gadget into your vehicle, this instructable is for you!

Supplies you will need:

1. Craft Sticks (roughly twenty)

2. Some old (but clean!) socks (four total)

3. Elmer's Glue

Additional supplies needed:

1. Scissors

2. An old leather belt to attach the Car Coin Catcher to the driver's seat of your vehicle (the very last step!)

Time to begin! We are going to prep some craft sticks. First, break five craft sticks roughly in half. I find that when you break these sticks with your hands, they naturally separate into one larger piece and one smaller. This works out well for our project. Once split, place these sticks to the side.

Before we get into constructing the frame of craft sticks, do take the time to put down a protective layer to prevent any glue from getting onto your beautiful future. Your spouse will thank you for this!

For the frame, place the five longer split pieces about one stick length apart. On top of and below of these sticks, place regular sticks. Very simple step!

Time to begin gluing. Exciting stuff! We are going to start by placing glue on the five short vertical sticks. Make sure to get some glue on the sticks directly above and below. Once your glue is on, place one regular stick on each glue line. Push each stick down firmly for at least ten seconds. Once the sticks are on, go back through and snap each stick to match the length of the existing frame. The picture with my hand helps to show how snap these sticks without popping them off the frame. Place one finger on each corner of the stick and snap the stick with your other hand, taking care to keep the stick on the glue line.

You've been wondering what we will be doing with the short sticks, yes? Here's the step! Glue on the short sticks halfway in between each square. Please note the first picture for this step. You will notice you only have five sticks to glue, but you will need eight total. Crack in half two more sticks to finish out this step.

Once your frame looks like the first picture, lay down lines of glue on the top and bottom of your frame and carefully place four sticks on the top and bottom. After doing so, take a moment to place some glue drops on each of the spaces between the sticks. This extra glue will take a few minutes to dry, so grab a drink and reassure your spouse that this newest project is a simple, non-messy one.

Look out now, this step jumps the difficulty level up from 2 to 4. Crack your knuckles and buckle down. Take a look at the first picture. We are going to be adding craft sticks to the bottom, but notice, these three sticks are going to be added vertically to the bottom. You may have to hold each piece a bit to make sure they stay.

Once these pieces have dried on, go ahead and and glue one one final layer of craft sticks to the top and bottom rows.

Sock time! Or "Catch Containers" if you want to be politically correct. Remember, use Clean socks. My beautiful socks are straight from the hospital. I never use them as they remind me of my surgeries. Good times. Not.

In order to prep your Catch Containers, lay them out and cut them roughly three inches from the bottom. Simple.

For this all important step, you will be gluing craft sticks to your Coin Catchers. You want to follow how your sock naturally folds on this step. Your sock will naturally have two sides. Your sticks will be glued perpendicular to these sides. For this step, take a craft stick and place a line of glue on both sides of it. Quickly, before the glue drips, wrap the top section of your sock around the stick. You'll have to hold this in place for a while. Once the sock holds to the stick, proceed to the next side. New stick, new glue, new wrap. After this is complete, your Coin Catcher should look similar to the second picture.

For extra reinforcement, we'll glue on another stick on each side. This is another step that will require you to hold the sticks for a bit. The extra few seconds are worth it.

Where you added the vertical sticks in the middle of the frame, go ahead and glue on five sticks with an added horizontal stick at the bottom of these. Sounds a bit confusing, but just use the above picture as reference. I found that I was able to complete this step when I rested these new sticks directly on the protective paper I had laid down at the beginning. As always, make sure you wait until the glue is dry before moving.

It's time to put everything together and call this project done! Go ahead and place the coin catcher containers into the support frame. Just like that, your Car Coin Catcher is ready to install on the left side of your driver's seat. As noted in the intro, you will need a leather belt to attach your Car Coin Catcher. Run the leather belt from whereever you can on the side of the seat. I used the metal bar in front of the seat and the car recliner lever on the side. However creative way you need to attach your Car Coin Catcher to the side of your seat, go for it!

Then, voila! You have a Car Coin Catcher made from simple leather, wood, cloth and glue that will fix the problem of spare change in your car. Now, when you receive coins back from your favorite drive through, you can immediately separate and place your change in your Car Coin Catcher. So next time you need some change, you've got it quickly at your fingertips. Hope this instructable solves this everyday problem with ease and flair!

Now it's time to test out your Car Coin Catcher. Go to your favorite food/drink establishment and pay exact change from the change ready in your Car Coin Catcher, or, equally easily, place the returned change into the respective catcher containers to use later!