The repurposing thread

[Monza Harry]

@Hephaestus29, I'm thinking his concern is oxidation and contamination (dissimilar metal [or other] dust) from the shop atmosphere. Those would be my concerns anyway. OP nice work around! Harry

 

[Steve from Socal]

Harry is correct, the dust/dirt settles on the wire. The dust then gets moist and corrodes the wire. I don't weld every day or even every week so the situation can get bad. This time of year when it is warm/cold days condensation forms on metal easily.

 

[Fix Until Broke]

The bow broke off my glasses the other day at work (while sitting at my desk no less...)

Got a blue adhesive lined crimp connector from the shop, pushed the crimp part out of the center and slid the tube over the bow and frame. Carefully heated it up and it's holding well for over a week now. Actually more solid/stable than it ever was - if you wear glasses, you know how annoying loose frames can be. New frames should be here next week...

 

[WoodsTruck]

I get a reaction to the metal temple pieces if they sit on the side of my face. I had to use black shrink tube to cover those sections. Crude but it worked.

 

[moorett]

10 years later, I did the same thing with the same cabinet!

$10 @ Habitat for a steel cabinet

I've had one of those for 20 years. Yours has inspired me to do the same. Thx.

 

[TurnipTruck]

Garage door panels make great garage doors!
I have been saving a couple bent 16’ garage door panels for a dozen years, and finally used them on my little mower shed/pump house behind the house.



The nastiness I started with:

 

[no704]

Optigrab!

 

[larry4406]

Optigrab!

 

[Fix Until Broke]

Optigrab - From the movie "The Jerk"

 

[Outlander]

I just went back 20 pages and reviewed a couple of years worth of posts. Great stuff!

 

[Steve from Socal]

Here is a medical instrument cart that needed a couple front wheels and a bit of modification(remove the instrument brackets) now my plasma cart. The plasma cutter never had its own cart and place to keep the kit assembled. This litte cart is not heavy duty but just about perfect for the plasma cutter.

 

[moorett]

Here is a medical instrument cart that needed a couple front wheels and a bit of modification(remove the instrument brackets) now my plasma cart. The plasma cutter never had its own cart and place to keep the kit assembled. This litte cart is not heavy duty but just about perfect for the plasma cutter.

Great repurpose Steve!

 

[cpttuna]

This started as 2 bike locks purchased from the clearance section of Walmart for $3 each. Add a couple pieces of scrap stainless and I built a double lock for my security chain to protect my zero turn while parked in the garage. I color coded things to make locking and unlocking easier and added some shoe goo for good measure.

 

[bugnut]

Had plenty of gas cans and needed a diesel can. So I paid 5 bucks at an auction for a good metal gas can and cleaned it up, wire wheeled and converted it to diesel. Sticker bought and added.

 

[Jgaz]

About 20 years ago I replaced this deep drawer from my tool box with 3 shallow drawers.
The deep drawer was too good to get rid of.

I used some new slides and two pieces of aluminum angle to reuse it on the bottom shelf of our new flat top grill.


The finished installation. The old drawer couldn’t have been a more perfect fit in the existing space.

 

[larry4406]

Used cargo carrier to hold spray rig

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Broke the end off my snow brush awhile back. Been meaning to fix it. Today I was cutting up an old ladder for scrap aluminum. Noticed the rung was close to the same shape as the body of the brush. Cut a piece to fit and screwed it back together.

 

[cpttuna]

I am allowed access to the chain cut link box at the hardware store. Grabbed a couple links, add a couple key rings, Put the links in a vise and weld. A key chain for yourself or a gift to someone.

 

[engineer2]

I just replaced my garage door opener. The old one worked fine and was the conventional 1/2 HP chain-type that ran down the middle of the ceiling. Any ideas for re-purposing it?

 

[FullRaceMerc]

I just replaced my garage door opener. The old one worked fine and was the conventional 1/2 HP chain-type that ran down the middle of the ceiling. Any ideas for re-purposing it?

I used one once in a halloween haunted house to look like a train. Long ago without much automation available. It was in a section of a maze where you were on your hands & knees.

We made tracks that you crawled across. They got closer together toward the beginning point, so as the light shone over them it looked like they started far away. I built an angled stand for the opener, so the far end was close to the ground & the close end was higher than your head. We used dark colored screen material to keep people separated from the equipment. Looking thru the screen everything seemed a little out of focus, almost like the train was coming out of a fog. In the dark you couldn't see the screen.

I mounted an outdoor flood light to the trolley, so when the opener was run the light would travel closer & higher. It gave you the feeling that the train was coming fast from far away. The light was attached to a dimmer that the operator used to make it start dim & get brighter as it came closer to the victim.

I recorded a diesel train effect multiple times on a cassette tape, so it could be stopped & started several times without having to rewind. And then one steam locomotive effect at the end so the operator would know when to flip the tape.

Both sound effects sounded like the train was coming toward you, but to heighten the effect we set up 2 speakers. The left speaker down behind the light, & the right was across the tracks, just behind the screen. The operator would move the balance from left to right to bring the sound progressively closer as the light came toward you.

As the light came close & seemed like it was going to run over you, the operator turned off the light so it seemed like it passed over head. The sound continued to run as if the train travelled on. Almost as if it was a ghost train that didn't touch you, but passed thru where you were.

All in all it worked very well in the dark setting. It gave a good effect. The noise of the opener added to the train sounds. The one drawback was that it seemed real enough that it scared a little kid pretty badly. That wasn't our goal. We wanted everyone to have fun. After that we had a lookout before the train to let the operator know when the kids looked too young to enjoy it. Then they'd just go over the tracks with no train.

So, not very useful in regular life. But it made for a great effect & we had a lot of fun doing it.

 

[CoogarXR]

I'm still working on my late father-in-law's house. My wife painted his bedroom and closet. But there was a big hole cut in the back of the closet where his ex-wife had cut access into the roof/attic to hide her Home Shopping Club purchases, lol. Her clothes hung on that rod in front of it; he had no idea it was back there!

I made a little door out of scrap 1x4s, a scrap piece of 3/4 plywood, 2 hinges and a magnet catch I had in my parts bins. $0 total invested. Here's the before and after:

 

[Bears Fan]

I'm still working on my late father-in-law's house. My wife painted his bedroom and closet. But there was a big hole cut in the back of the closet where his ex-wife had cut access into the roof/attic to hide her Home Shopping Club purchases, lol. Her clothes hung on that rod in front of it; he had no idea it was back there!

I made a little door out of scrap 1x4s, a scrap piece of 3/4 plywood, 2 hinges and a magnet catch I had in my parts bins. $0 total invested. Here's the before and after:

That's a funny story!!! I see it was his ex-wife, maybe she had maxed out all his credit cards

 

[FarmerWill]

Upcycled pallet wood turned into a pipe stand for my cob pipes…

 

[atch]

Upcycled pallet wood turned into a pipe stand for my cob pipes…

It's not a sure thing but pipes likely came from here.

Good job on the pipe stand.

 

[FarmerWill]

It's not a sure thing but pipes likely came from here.

Good job on the pipe stand.

As a matter of fact, they did.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

Used cargo carrier to hold spray rig

I was just about to do something like that as a means to watering some fruit trees several hundred feet from our house, but I ended up getting a 500' roll of 3/4" poly tubing and running that along the edge of the yard.

 

[CoogarXR]

Another one from the "fixing up father-in-law's house" file... The pond has a lot of algae and **** around the edge. We looked into getting a pond rake, but they are like $200. After looking at pictures of pond rakes, I thought "heck, I probably have enough junk in my CPVC parts drawers to make a makeshift pond rake". Turns out, I did. I just have to go buy some 1/2" caps for the ends so it doesn't take on water. The CPVC handle is just a placeholder to get the angle right. He has a big aluminum handle for a chimney brush that I am going to use when I get to the property. Here's my junk-drawer masterpiece, lol:

 

[gleman]

Another one from the "fixing up father-in-law's house" file... The pond has a lot of algae and **** around the edge. We looked into getting a pond rake, but they are like $200. After looking at pictures of pond rakes, I thought "heck, I probably have enough junk in my CPVC parts drawers to make a makeshift pond rake". Turns out, I did. I just have to go buy some 1/2" caps for the ends so it doesn't take on water. The CPVC handle is just a placeholder to get the angle right. He has a big aluminum handle for a chimney brush that I am going to use when I get to the property. Here's my junk-drawer masterpiece, lol:

I refuse to buy the lake rake too! I'll have to look into my collection of hillbilly modified rakes and see if i can get a good picture.

 

[ChefRex]

Another one from the "fixing up father-in-law's house" file... The pond has a lot of algae and **** around the edge. We looked into getting a pond rake, but they are like $200. After looking at pictures of pond rakes, I thought "heck, I probably have enough junk in my CPVC parts drawers to make a makeshift pond rake". Turns out, I did. I just have to go buy some 1/2" caps for the ends so it doesn't take on water. The CPVC handle is just a placeholder to get the angle right. He has a big aluminum handle for a chimney brush that I am going to use when I get to the property. Here's my junk-drawer masterpiece, lol:

Here I was thinking you were making a manifold to run air lines in the shop.

 

[acer66]

Just picked up a jack and will turn into a side table, plant stand etc..


Edit: Need to clean the bed.

 

[cpttuna]

This log cabin bottle ran out of syrup. A little modification and now its a scoop for ice melt.

 

[jives]

Storage cases for sawzall blades are expensive, and I've had a hard time finding one to fit my 12" pruning blades. I resorted to using the paintbrush case below. Purchased 3 for about $9. Works great. Similar cases and tool rolls are available for knitting needles as well.

 

[larry4406]

I saw this on the net somewhere so I stole it.

I used the plastic handles on the box my new smoker came in. Turned them into holders for the temp probes.

 

[atch]

Storage cases for sawzall blades are expensive, and I've had a hard time finding one to fit my 12' pruning blades. I resorted to using the paintbrush case below. Purchased 3 for about $9. Works great. Similar cases and tool rolls are available for knitting needles as well.

Thanx man. All of my long Sawzall blades just lay loose on a shelf in a seldom used cabinet. When I finish up hambing here I'll be heading over to Amazon to look for these.

 

[cpttuna]

had extra shotgun shell bandolier handy so I thought I would try and see if M1 Garand clips would fit on it.

 

[inphx]

I repurposed old steelcase office cabinets with yellow tractor paint:

 

[PugetDude]

I repurposed old steelcase office cabinets with yellow tractor paint:

Fantastic job, inphx. Great workspace.
What are you using for countertops?

 

[don long]

Some of you may have seen this over on my garage thread but I think it fits on here as well
I found this old truck grille shell at a swap meet a couple of years ago thinking it would make a good display case do I brought it home with me


At this point I've welded in a piece at the top and removed some of the bracing and welded in a plate to close up the opening at the bottom.



Then I built a couple of fenders and attached them to the shell



Next I added a couple of side panels for mounting the shelf runners and a bottom shelf to clean up the interior



The bottom needed a little work to get it to sit straight.




A little primer to clean it up



A splash of paint and a back to support a mirror before adding the shelves



Added a couple of headlights and some cars for the shelves and we can call this one done

 

[mikeinri]

That's certainly impressive (and creative), Don!

Mike

 

[royce]

Some of you may have seen this over on my garage thread but I think it fits on here as well
I found this old truck grille shell at a swap meet a couple of years ago thinking it would make a good display case do I brought it home with me


At this point I've welded in a piece at the top and removed some of the bracing and welded in a plate to close up the opening at the bottom.



Then I built a couple of fenders and attached them to the shell



Next I added a couple of side panels for mounting the shelf runners and a bottom shelf to clean up the interior



The bottom needed a little work to get it to sit straight.




A little primer to clean it up



A splash of paint and a back to support a mirror before adding the shelves



Added a couple of headlights and some cars for the shelves and we can call this one done

Wonderful Don