The Armadillo Breadbox retracts its carapace

The Armadillo Breadbox is expensive for a bread receptacle, but the retractable plates of its mold-guarding carapace make me want to spend the $90 for it anyway.

Armadillo Breadbox [Where Did You Buy That? via Gizmodo]

1. [Anonymous]

   Jonathon, if it’s as leaky as it looks in the picture, it would indeed be dead easy. Here’s a tutorial for the basic design, just leave off the fans from the cop:

   http://www.armourarchive.org/essays/gundo_articulated_armour/

   Note, though, if it’s constructed like top-quality knee armor (which should not have any “gap-osis” at all) you’ll need mad metal dishing skillz to pull this off… the hidden lip of each lame must be raised to match exactly the dishing of the next lame or cop, through the full range of motion. It’s extremely difficult to do this perfectly, so the vast majority of armorers settle for slight gapping at both ends of the range (fully folded and fully collapsed) and pay no attention to any larger transient gaps that appear during motion. Even doing it that way requires significant skill and experience with the sand-bag and ball-peen hammer!

   I guess for a breadbox, though, you could just glue in some sort of robust rubbery liner and let the gaps fall where they may….

   –Charlie

2. [stratosfyr]

   @2: Or possibly to keep the moisture in so it doesn’t get dry or stale. The top slice of a sandwhich that we left sitting out yesterday was dry after two hours.

   More likely, though, to keep mice or bugs out.

3. [technogeek]

   Looks more pillbug than armadillo to me… but that’s OK; I think pillbugs are cute little critters.

   I believe the goal is indeed to keep critters out of the bread and to reduce moisture loss. If you refrigerate bread, it goes stale faster; I’m not sure whether that’s a chemical reaction or the fact that the fridge is generally a lower humidity evironment. (I freeze bread, which doesn’t have that problem but does make quickly grabbing a sandwich a bit of a pain.)

4. [Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator]

   A breadbox keeps the critters out, is a mildly efficacious way to keep moisture in, and gives you a tidy place to store the loaf. Before there was plastic there were waxed paper bags, and before that it was paper or nothing. Leaving the bread out was an invitation to mice.

   This armadillo design is clever and charming, but it’s way too permeable.

5. [geekd]

   Well, what we have here in San Diego (with the windows open all the time) is *dust*.

   No one likes dusty bread.

   I don’t have a breadbox, I use a paper bag.

   That thing is pretty cool, though.

6. [Takuan]

   Stanley Tweedle would never use it.

7. [Halloween Jack]

   It’s an important antique measurement standard (see also: hogshead).

8. [nobrainerdeals]

   “I don’t have a breadbox, I use a paper bag.”

   Me to.

9. [things]

   paint it yellow and you’ve got a protoss reaver, awesome!

10. [MarlboroTestMonkey7]

    Pretty useless for bread actually, now, for presenting a cooked armadillo…

11. [jonathon212]

    This is begging for a DIY instructable! So easy.

12. [Itsumishi]

    If you refrigerate bread, it goes stale faster

    That’s certainly not true where I come from (at least in summer). A loaf of bread left out on a bench (in a paper bag or not) will dry out and go stale pretty quickly in 35 degree heat (Celsius, 95 Fahrenheit). Put that loaf in the fridge (preferably in a plastic bag) and you’ll be fine.

    However a proper bread box would be your best option. Or a large ceramic pot with a good solid lid.

13. [pork musket]

    Can someone explain the point of a breadbox to me? Is it to keep moisture out so the bread doesn’t mold? We don’t have this thing you call “humidity” here in Colorado.