Certainly not an original idea, but I did go pretty nuts and had a LOT of fun with this set of cat scratchers:
With banana for scale, courtesy of my wife:
Fun details:
- Colors are based on original colors of Tetrominos (yes that’s what tetris blocks are technically called
). - Cardboard is all with the corrugation facing the same way so the cats can actually scratch things:
- Cardboard is basically a few months worth of pandemic cardboard (including some excellent double-walled stuff I got with the workbench I got for the GF). It’s part of why it’s a bit smaller than what I was originally thinking - with the blocks at 3.25x3.25, I was able to use a ton of side flaps from assorted boxes I otherwise would have just recycled.
- Most of the cardboard is single-piece, but I did wind up with a few pieces (especially the Z’s) where I wound up splitting parts into two pieces. Interspersing single-piece cuts made it work way better.
- Bolts are just some 3 1/2" x 1/4" bolts I got from Ace.
- Translucent acrylic from E Street Plastics - I had initially wanted to put the carved side facing in to protect it, but on several colors (especially the green and purple) it was just too dark.
- I think altogether I spent less than I would have for the Katris one (which is bigger), but certainly not if you count labor
- I’ll have to post photos of the cats using them once I actually convince them I’m not gonna be mad if they touch this thing I’ve been working on for weeks.
