Upcycling & DIY – Turning Effervescent Tablet Tubes Into Incense Stick Containers

When I started making incense sticks, the question of how to store them, ideally as affordably as possible, quickly arose.
One good solution I found is empty tubes from effervescent tablets.

Depending on the manufacturer, the tubes come in different lengths and likely also in different diameters.
The ones sold at the German drug store “dm” have an internal height of 14.2cm (5,6″), though around 5mm (0,2″) is lost due to the lid. I therefore try to make sticks that, when dried, are no longer than 13.5cm (5,3″).
The packs from the Doppelherz brand are longer, with an internal height of 16.2cm (6,4″) and a similarly deep lid.

Below, I’ll show you a few simple steps to make these tubes suitable for storing coreless incense sticks (in the Japanese style):

First, we remove the plastic spring inside the lid that prevents the tablets from breaking.

Next, we pry out the paper seal in the centre to empty the silica beads…

…and remove the raised part of the lid that held the beads.
Here, it’s important to hold the blade parallel to the lid’s surface. If the blade is tilted, you might cut too deep, leaving a hole in the lid.

After this, the tubes can be thoroughly washed and left to dry.

Technically, the tubes are now ready to use, but they aren’t very visually appealing. This can easily be changed by covering them with self-adhesive film.
The piece of film should be slightly longer than the area to be covered and a bit wider than the circumference so that the ends overlap when wrapped around the tube.
For the dm tubes, I cut the film to 14.5×10cm (5,7 × 4 inch).

To align the film neatly on the tube, we peel back the backing paper from the long side and fold it so that only a narrow strip of adhesive surface is exposed.
Then, using the still-covered area of the film, we align one of its short sides with the top rim of the tube.
Once we’re sure the positioning is correct, we can secure the film with the exposed strip of the film.

Next, we remove the backing paper entirely and wrap the film completely around the tube.

Finally, we need to trim the excess film.
The first cut won’t be perfectly precise, that’s fine. We guide the blade parallel to the bottom along the edge while slowly rotating the tube towards the blade. It’s possible that some plastic might get scraped off in the process, but this won’t be noticeable later.

This way, the film aligns perfectly with the base.

Depending on the thickness of the sticks and how straight they turn out, a single tube can hold around 70 sticks.

Happy crafting! 😀