Mr. McGroovy's Box Rivets

I thought I had written about these fasteners before but I found a note to myself this morning reminding me to try them out before writing about them. I don't think I will get a chance to experiment with them until this summer and thought some of you might try them out in your classrooms now if you knew they existed.

They were reviewed on Cool Tools and I when I saw them I immediately thought of several projects I've done with kids where rivets would have been useful. In the past anytime my students built large structures with cardboard, they used either hot glue or duct tape. Usually, I preferred duct tape because it's easier to tear down a structure and rebuild it if there is a design flaw. And, there is always a design flaw.

The web site gives these five reasons to use their rivets.

1. Easier to Use - big projects go together in a snap
2. Stronger - projects stay together and last longer
3. Faster - more time for creativity and enjoying your project
4. More versatile - build with cardboard in new ways
5. Reusable - construct a new project every week

If they work as advertised, I'd have to agree. I had an activity where my students designed a temporary structure that could easily fit into a trunk and be dropped into disaster areas. They built their models to scale or just drew them on paper. It would have been cool to take it one step further and build a full-size structure out of cardboard?

If anyone has had any experience with these rivets, please comment.

[Image captured from website: Mr. McGroovy's Box Rivets: http://www.mrmcgroovys.com/]