DIY Portion Dispenser

Have you ever given your fish too much food and polluted the water with extra flakes? Do you ever get bored with the plan medicine compartments that you need for daily medicine, have you ever wanted something more fun for your kids? Well, this is how to make an easy but fun portioner/ dispenser out of a paper towel roll.

How it works: Every week, fill the tube with the number of vitamins, fish food, or anything that you need daily portions of. Once you have filled up the dispenser each day you pull the tab that has the day of the week on it to release the proper amount of the item you have placed inside of the tube. Go through the week using this as needed, or daily, and when the week is over refill and repeat.

Step 1: Materials

Paper towel tube, cereal box, and scissors. Optional, magnet, compass, weight, empty tuna can, and anything you need to decorate.

Step 2: Tips

Make sure your slots are the right size, cut them bigger if needed. If in the event your slots are too small this will not support the weight of the item and fall through. You need to also keep this dispenser where it will not fall over since the top can open or is open we don’t want it falling out. Lastly, if children are using this for gummy vitamins or for medicine keep it out of reach so they only take the proper amount.

Step 3: Step 1

To make this paper towel tube dispenser you will need to start off by measuring the width of the inside of your paper towel tube.

Step 4: Step 2

Next, you need to measure out at least seven circles on your open cereal box with that width, don’t cut it out yet. (To be able to make it easier use a compass and make the distance between the lead and the point ½ of the width) After you have drawn these circles make a tab, this example has a ½ by ½ inch tab.

Step 5: Step 3

Now that we have this we can cut out the slots to go into our paper towel tube.

Step 6: Step 5

Now, take your paper towel tube and measure the length, divide that by seven. Use that number and mark the tube with those distances, these will be where you insert the slot and the room that you will have to put items inside.

Step 7: Step 6

Next, take the width of the tube and cut that amount on each of the slots, this will be about ½ of the tube. Insert and fill one slot at a time from the top.

Step 8: Optional Steps:

This example also has a lid made of an extra slot and a magnet for weight, this is not glued to the top so it can flip over and refill.

This example also has a weighted stand. It is made of a cereal box and an empty tuna can, you can use any weight you want to as long as it is able to keep up the tube, glue this to the tube or connect the tube by string to the stand.

Step 9: Decorate!

Now it is optional to decorate this or not, we decorated this with some under the sea colors and paper to look like scales because this was going to be a fish feeder.

Step 10: Finished!

Now that you have made this refill each week and keep creating!