The repurposing thread

[atch]

I suppose this is repurposing. At least the scrap materials got repurposed. I built this skill saw guide over 50 years ago and it's still functioning perfectly. I took these pix yesterday 'cause I had it out using it. It was built specifically for the saw in the pic. It's just a couple of scraps of thin plywood glued together. iirc one edge of the black piece was the factory edge and I ran it through a table saw to get the other side straight and parallel with the first side. The unpainted piece was larger on both sides and then I used this saw to rip off the waste. The two sides (thin and wide) are so it can be used with either side of the saw. Just clamp it on your board to be cut with the edge right on the cut line and cut away. Perfect cuts every time.

Yes, I know you can buy factory made units that do the same thing, but 50 years ago I couldn't have afforded to buy one even if it was available.

I was getting tired of planing this 12" x 2" x 10' piece of walnut. That thing was heavy. Or at least it seemed so as it had been 25 years since the last time I picked it up. I was going to cut it in half after planing anyway so I went ahead and cut it to make it easier to handle.

o-b-t-w; don't laugh at the patched power cord. I bet some of you have cords that look just like this.

 

[atch]

A couple of things I didn't mention:

1. I made this 4' long so I can use it on plywood, OSB, etc.
2. The hole is to hang it up on the wall on a nail.

fwiw: here's the walnut after planing, gluing, squaring, etc. This will be a coffee table for the daughter. After planing the walnut turned out 1 1/2" thick.

 

[Beerhippie]

Another old repurpose:



I built this years ago for descaling the big Rinnai 199s that are the heart of our 1,200 gallon brewery water heating system. Our water has a lot of carbonate hardness and I can't convince the Powers That Be to install a nanofiltration system, so I have to descale the heaters about every two weeks.

The pump is a Chugger pump, moving about ten GPM at low pressure. The heat is usually provided by the propane-powered Rinnais, but today I'm using it to descale a Ready Hot under-counter hot water dispenser for the pub and it uses an electrical immersion element--not good to run that in an acid environment:



I think you'll see several other repurposed devices there. The 90-year-old Clayton Lambert white gasoline torch is doing a nice job of keeping the sulfomic acid solution warm.

 

[Loud Lyle]

A couple of repurposed items in this picture. The outdoor cooking table is made from two stainless steel wrapped elevator doors with legs made from elevator buffer stands. The wall cabinet to store my cooking items is an old elevator controller cabinet.

 

[PugetDude]

Your repurposed elevator parts take DIY to new heights.

 

[Loud Lyle]

Your repurposed elevator parts take DIY to new heights.

Thanks I have a few more that yall might like. I’ll post pictures as I find them.

 

[atch]

Your repurposed elevator parts take DIY to new heights.

ha ha ha...

 

[Loud Lyle]

Being an elevator mechanic has its ups and downs.



We got that out of the way

 

[Loud Lyle]

Here’s a table I made for my wife. It is entirely made of parts from a 1940s era Westinghouse elevator. The top is the ring gear from the hoist motor. The legs are the hoist rope shackles and bottom shelf is the car operating panel push buttons

 

[Old Man Roger]

That things awesome, but what’s the story with the zebra rug? I mean talk about repurposing.lol

 

[Loud Lyle]

That things awesome, but what’s the story with the zebra rug? I mean talk about repurposing.lol

It’s a Sam’s Club cowhide rug with zebra print. My wife loves some Sam’s

 

[Old Man Roger]

It’s a Sam’s Club cowhide rug with zebra print. My wife loves some Sam’s

I’m disappointed, I was hoping for some crazy African adventure. Still love the table though.lol

 

[BlueBomber]

Bought 233 hubcaps in 5 lots for $550, sold the valuable ones on Ebay for$570, kept 170. Built six triangular frames, strung them with salvaged trampoline safety netting, connected three sets of two with surplus and salvaged door hinges. Built wire hangers for the hubcaps from surplus garden hangers. Garland is made from license plates mostly collected during military assignment moves to seven different states. Resulting hubcap Christmas tree is 9.5 ft tall and about 7 ft across at the base.

 

[mikeinri]

My wife would make me live inside of that (like a teepee), LOL...

Mike

 

[white6589]

Neat!

Nice Chevy, show us more of her.

 

[Old Man Roger]

I used to work for a place called the hubcap warehouse, I remember when those cadi and lincoln wire hubcaps would sell for big money.lol

 

[Beerhippie]

I'm imagining people pulling up in their old American iron to look for their 'caps.

 

[y'sguy]

Love the hubcap tree, curious about the 56-57 bird top that hangs from the ceiling?

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

I used to work for a place called the hubcap warehouse, I remember when those cadi and lincoln wire hubcaps would sell for big money.lol

I’ve got a set of 4 interested?

 

[Old Man Roger]

I’ve got a set of 4 interested?

No need, but I think he should have used the Chrysler star at the top. Maybe cut out two centers and put hem back to back?

 

[BlueBomber]

No need, but I think he should have used the Chrysler star at the top. Maybe cut out two centers and put hem back to back?

I did think of a Chrysler pentastar for the tree topper, but didn't think it was big enough. I may make one for next year (out of surplus sheet metal, of course!).

 

[BlueBomber]

Nice Chevy, show us more of her.

Bought her in 2019. LS-swapped her in 2022.

Love the hubcap tree, curious about the 56-57 bird top that hangs from the ceiling?

What are you curious about? It goes with a T-bird.

 

[white6589]

^^^ Thanks, They're both nice lookers. ^^^

 

[y'sguy]

Bought her in 2019. LS-swapped her in 2022.


What are you curious about? It goes with a T-bird.

We used to have a 60 chey that was white. with red and white interior. I alsways liked that car. Dad bought it knew.

I asked about the top hanging there 'cause I hoped there was a bird nearby that I hadn't seen. I've had several over my lifetime and still have the first one I ever bought in 1967. It's a black 55.

 

[elmer]

This roof would look great on the junk yard office.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

This roof would look great on the junk yard office.

That's awesome. If you used stainless nails when face nailing it would last forever.

 

[housewolf]

Scrap copper repurposed:
Decorative cross(es)


Hummingbird feeder hangers

 

[BMW Rider]

I've been wanting to make a power drive for my benchtop milling machine to raise and lower the head on the column since the bench I have it on makes it a bit of a reach to get to the manual crank wheel. I finally found the perfect donor motor and controls from a broken paper shredder. The cutters has stripped on the shaft so it wouldn't shred properly any more, but the motor ran just fine still. I had to add a few new parts to adapt it to the new purpose. It works very well, but is a bit slow so I plan to swap out the lower chain sprocket to increase the drive speed. There are no modifications to the actual machine so it could easily be returned to original form.

 

[zanyad]

I've been wanting to make a power drive for my benchtop milling machine to raise and lower the head on the column since the bench I have it on makes it a bit of a reach to get to the manual crank wheel. I finally found the perfect donor motor and controls from a broken paper shredder. The cutters has stripped on the shaft so it wouldn't shred properly any more, but the motor ran just fine still. I had to add a few new parts to adapt it to the new purpose. It works very well, but is a bit slow so I plan to swap out the lower chain sprocket to increase the drive speed. There are no modifications to the actual machine so it could easily be returned to original form.

Well done, clean install!

 

[Jgaz]

Neighbor was scrapping a very well built, but beat up, corner desk. They carried it down from an upstairs bedroom in pieces.
I salvaged some excellent hardwood plywood and quire a bit of poplar stock.

I took one of the file cabinet pedestals and substituted two shallower drawers and slides for one of the file drawers.


Cut salvaged trim for the top using my picture frame jig to be applied to the cut down top.


Pedestal was finished very dark so I primed it with two coats of Kilz and applied two coats of left over white trim paint to match the master bedroom closet

 

[atch]

Neighbor was scrapping a very well built, but beat up, corner desk. They carried it down from an upstairs bedroom in pieces.
I salvaged some excellent hardwood plywood and quire a bit of poplar stock.

I took one of the file cabinet pedestals and substituted two shallower drawers and slides for one of the file drawers.

Cut salvaged trim for the top using my picture frame jig to be applied to the cut down top.

Pedestal was finished very dark so I primed it with two coats of Kilz and applied two coats of left over white trim paint to match the master bedroom closet

That reminds me of the drill press stand I made a couple of years ago. A base cabinet with drawers and a cut down countertop. Both from the restore. (please keep electrical comments to yourself)

 

[Josh Dekubber]

Vintage desk cut and refinished into nightstands

 

[mikeinri]

I've been wanting to make a power drive for my benchtop milling machine to raise and lower the head on the column since the bench I have it on makes it a bit of a reach to get to the manual crank wheel. I finally found the perfect donor motor and controls from a broken paper shredder. The cutters has stripped on the shaft so it wouldn't shred properly any more, but the motor ran just fine still. I had to add a few new parts to adapt it to the new purpose. It works very well, but is a bit slow so I plan to swap out the lower chain sprocket to increase the drive speed. There are no modifications to the actual machine so it could easily be returned to original form.

Wow, I had no idea paper shredder motors were that strong!

Mike

 

[atch]

That reminds me of the drill press stand I made a couple of years ago. A base cabinet with drawers and a cut down countertop. Both from the restore. (please keep electrical comments to yourself)

b-t-w; I should have mentioned that the drawers now hold all of my drill bits, drill press vises, center punches, etc., etc. Before, when the drill press sat on an old table saw (bad motor) all that stuff was just strewn about. fwiw; This drill press is used ONLY for metal. There is another just like it about 10' away that's used ONLY for wood. That blue thing to the left is actually a factory-made parts washer (filled with Stoddard Solvent) that works beautifully, even if it is ugly. You could say it is repurposed. I bought it for a song because the tank was leaking. I fixed the tank and have been using it for nigh on 20 years now.

 

[BMW Rider]

Wow, I had no idea paper shredder motors were that strong!

Mike

I wasn't entirely sure either until I got it up and running. It does have pretty high gear reduction on it and it was a higher capacity shredder. The effort required to crank it manually wasn't really that high, it was just the reach to get to it.

 

[gahrajmahal]

One 3/4” pine wood shelf and about two hours labor to make the flower trug. Then it took another four hours messing with various computer programs (Canva and Microsoft Word) to print the logo onto the sides. Mirror image with inkjet printer on wax paper, then squeegee wet ink onto boards. Coat with polyurethane.

 

[willy3486]

I am trying to organize my workshop and making holders for stuff. I made a couple of things today. The first item was a scrap wood holder. I had a old commercial dish holder that I saved from the dumpster. I have had it a few years and tried to figure a use for it. I needed a cart to hold scrap wood and thought it would be perfect. I added 4 pieces of wood on each side and it worked out great.




The next piece I made was a grinder holder. I save decent type of scrap pieces and I had some aluminum sides to servers. I drilled out a hole using a hole cutter then cut out the sides with a grinder and cutting blade. I then bent the piece using a homemade bender I made years ago. I heated the bend area with a propane torch to make it softer. It warped the end up but I flattened it out with a hammer.




I then added some carriage bolts to hold the tools to remove the grinder wheels.




Then I drilled some holes to hold it to the wall with screws. This is it after installing ot the wall. The end bolts hold some wheels ready to use. I slightly bent the bolts up so the wheels wouldn't slide off.

 

[WordMan]

Bought her in 2019. LS-swapped her in 2022.

Nice!

Back in the 80s we had a '60 Convertible. It was used in a music video for a regional band.

Currently my dad has a '59 we built (last car we built together as he can't work on 'em anymore due to age and dementia).

 

[willy3486]

I went out to my workshop to take pictures of some items and took a few more. The first one is of my miter saw. I made a stand for it and I like to reuse stuff. I had a blue metal drawer from a old refrigerator. I made wooden channel that the lip of the drawer can slide on. I use it to house blades and tools for the saw.




The next is my workbench. After my dad passed I cleaned up my parents place some. My mom wanted stuff tossed so I tried to help her out. I found some shipping frames that were used to ship something that I have no idea what was shipped. He could find the oddest stuff. So I took the angle iron frame and turned it upside down. I added a metal angle piece across the bottom and wheels so it could roll. I then made some drawers for it. I found a piece made of oak that my dad had made. It was made of 4 inch by 22 inch pieces he use to buy from a factory as they were culls and scraps. It was about 6 feet long by 2 feet wide and 4 inches thick. I cut it in half to 2 inches thick then glued it to make a top for the bench. I found a woodworking vice and a pipe vice there at their place so I put these on top. Its been a great bench.







I suspect whatever was shipped in this frame probably slid on to these angle pieces like I made the drawers do. This is the side of the bench and I just left the pieces in. I have a second frame I use to set logs on to cut them into boards with my chainsaw sawmill attachment.

 

[Skyman]

Nice!

Back in the 80s we had a '60 Convertible. It was used in a music video for a regional band.

Currently my dad has a '59 we built (last car we built together as he can't work on 'em anymore due to age and dementia).

Wow. Harbison, Bond and Goddard, on 99.1 FM WHFS. I'd never seen the video - thanks for posting it!

I have a custom-mix CD of Friday songs, and H, B & G's TGIF is the featured tune, that always stirred life into myself and my co-workers every Friday afternoon at the miserable place we worked back in the early 2000s.

Beautiful '60 and '59.