Make an RFID-proof wallet

99luftballon writes "If, like me, you're more than a little concerned about the privacy aspects of RFID there's a useful enthusiast's web page on making your own RFID-blocking wallet. OK, it's never going to win any prizes for beauty or garner fashion awards but should be effective and seems perfectly practical. "

Comments

The Artist's Medium

[eldavojohn]

I used to make duct tape wallets in high school but had a very bad experience with them. Most duct tape has a shiny backside that isn't very cohesive with the sticky substance on the underside. What happens is when these overlap or your design depends on these two surfaces to stick together, you get a mess.

Now, there may be some kind of duct tape out there that avoids this issue, I'm not sure. Maybe these guys would know which brand is best but my wallet nearly destroyed my license at the time. Essentially, you need to look for duct tape that will adequately hold against itself when you need it to. After years of sliding it in and out of my back pocket and sitting on it, the tape started to smear against the shiny part and separate. As a result, the goo (bottom ply) and meshing (middle ply) were slipping out from underneath the shiny part (top ply) and getting goo all over my cards and ID.

Essentially, it comes down to how many mils of adhesive you are working with. A lot of times, the more expensive stuff will have around 12 mils of glue which means that it is ideal for construction. However, this may result in more sliding and more goo seepage in your wallet. I would recommend something in between the range of 7.5 and 12 mils. You're not going to be concerned about tensile strength, just thickness and what the coating is on the back. If the coating is non bonding to the adhesive used, you don't want that tape!

The actual design can be very much up to you although the article does provide a link to a nice standard model. I would suggest to try to use as many whole pieces as possible and when you're thinking about the design, rely on adhesive/adhesive bonds instead of adhesive/polyethylene since the cohesion is vastly different.

So if you venture on this, for the love of god, RESEARCH THE TAPE! Honestly, I estimate the life of these things to be a month unless you want to also pay for a new license often. I think back to my dad's wallet which was this old beat up piece of leather with its seams showing. But he's had it as long as I can remember and that thing has taken a beating. There's a reason why wallets are made from leather.

Remember, if you can't fix something with duct tape and WD-40, you're just not trying hard enough :-).

If it's not stuck and it's supposed to be, duct tape it. If it's stuck and it's not supposed to be, WD-40 it. If it's not broken--keep me away from it!