Cup, Cup Holder - Simple, Unique and Useful

You know how annoying it is to be sitting in your vehicle (whether driving or riding) and having nowhere to put the cold drink you're holding in your hand? It nearly drives a sane person insane! There never seems to be too many cup holders in a vehicle whether you put drinks in them or something else. If you need another cup holder, this instructables is for you! It is the CUP, CUP HOLDER.

Imagine for a moment that you own an old Land Rover Defender. All its life it has been beaten upon by rough jungle roads. It has spent most of its life either covered in mud or covered in dust. It has survived, but only because it was made tough. Tough and comfort often don't go together, and that is the case with your Land Rover. Although it can do and endure things that most vehicles won't even think about, it wasn't built with comfort in mind. It isn't a Cadillac; it is a rough and tough vehicle, and thus, it has no cup holders (or at least ours didn't)! That is exactly the problem my dad ran into, and this instructables consists of what he did about it.

"Necessity is the mother of invention." - Plato

This cup, cup holder is a simple solution for a need for a cup holder. I know it doesn't look the nicest - you won't find it in a Ferrari -, but hey, it does its job. So if you need a cheap, simple, effective, unique, and somewhat funny looking cup holder, read on!

Note: This instructables contains the use of tools that could potentially hurt you, so be careful. I am not responsible in any way.

And of coarse, I would love your vote for the Glove Compartment Contest; it is for anything around vehicles. Please vote if you like this. Thanks! :)

This cup holder was made from whatever was at hand at the time. What was used to make it is:

A cup - obviously one of the most important parts. I used an old plastic cup with the handle broken off. I would recommend plastic cups if you want something easy to work with. Metal would probably work, but would be harder to work with. Make sure the cup shape is what you want and will fit what you want to put in it.

A piece of three inch PVC pipe - all you need is a small piece about eight inches long.

A small piece of sheet metal - this is optional; I will explain later.

Two rivets and a riveting gun - this is somewhat optional; it could be replaced by two small nuts and bolts.

Two screws and of course, a screw driver

Small pieces of rubber - possibly - I used them as spacers.

Also, you will need: a drill, a hack saw, razor knife, and possibly tin snips.

Once you have that, it is time to move on.

The cup is, obviously, the main part of this build, but it needs a little modifying.

The cup that I used originally had a handle on the side of it, but it was already broken off. I would have taken it off anyway. So, take off any handle your cup may have.

The next thing to do is to make a notch down one side. Although this wouldn't be absolutely necessary, it allows you to access the screws easier that are inside the cup. The main reason for the notch on my cup was to fit my dad's all important coffee mug. That coffee mug has to go on any early morning drive so the cup cup holder has to be able to fit it! I would recommend cutting a notch just so you can fit cups in it that have handles on them.

I just made some marks to guide me, and used a hack saw to cut it. Unfortunately, the cup I was using was old and brittle so I ended up breaking off a little more than I wanted to.

The pipe provides a good solid support to mount the cup holder with. It was cut out of a three inch pvc pipe.

I first marked off a 3 inch by 4 1/2 inch piece from the pipe as you can see in the picture.

The next step would be to use a hack saw to cut it out, but since I was simply redoing the cup holder, I used the back from the old cup holder (the previous cup had broken).

After that is all cut out, the edges can be rounded and sanded a bit.

The original cup holder that I was remaking, broke at the bottom of the notch. I added a piece of sheet metal to hopefully give it more strength.

The band, about an inch wide, was cut out a piece of sheet metal with a pair of tin snips. I measure it around the cup and cut it to the right length taking into account a little overlap.

Now that we have about everything, it is time to start to put them all together.

The piece of pvc that you cut out of the pipe is marked at four places for the two screws and two rivets. The picture contains the approximate dimensions. Starting from the top, 1 and 1/2 in. down is the first hole, then 1/2 is the next hole and 1/2 inches below that is the next, the forth hole is 1 and 1/2 in. below the third hole.

All the marks were then drilled making sure they were big enough for the rivets and screws.

The cup is now fitted to the PVC piece, and marks are made on the cup of where to drill holes into the cup. The bottom three holes are the ones that need to go through the cup.

Now that you have all the holes drilled into the PVC piece, it is time to attach the cup to it.

I used two rivets to attach it, but a small bolt and nut would also work. The rivets proved troublesome for me, but they are probably the best option.

Two rivets are riveted through the two holes that are separated one inch apart with a hole in the middle of them. You can see what I mean in the pictures.

Before the bottom rivet is riveted, the sheet metal band is put around the cup and glued. The holes in the band is then lined up, and the rivet is put through them.

Like I said, the rivets proved troublesome for me, cracking my brittle cup. The riveting gun that I used doesn't quite work the way it should, and I think it put more pressure on the rivet than it should have.

Anyway, it is coming together.

Like I said, this cup holder is especially for the unique and special vehicle. It so happened that our old Land Rover has a wooden box between the seats that is covered with vinyl and is a handy storage compartment. The cup holder was mounted onto this.

Two screws were simply inserted through the two extra holes and screwed into the wooden box. A couple of pieces of rubber served as spacers to put it in a more upright position. It is a firm and good mount for it.

Now, I know not everyone will have a vehicle with a wooden box between the seats, but there has to be somewhere you can mount it with a screw or two. Just be a little creative!

That is it! Now we have it - a homemade and cheap cup holder that will solve your lack of cup holder woes. You never have to worry about a cup holder space again. :)

I know it doesn't look the prettiest, but it works - and that is what our Land Rover does, it works. The cup holder faithfully holds bottles of water, cans of coke, and most importantly, my dads coffee mug. It is deep enough that you don't have to worry about your drink falling out on the bumpy trails of the jungle.

You might not be in the same situation that my dad was in or have the same vehicle, but this instructables hopefully gave you an idea for any cup holder needs you may have.

I hope you enjoyed it!

Until I appear again,

th3_jungle_inv3ntor