The repurposing thread

[The Bean]

^^ thanks for that idea!

 

[DGersic]

Edit- Figured it out. I had blocked the op so I wasn’t able to see this whole thread. Weird that it didn’t just block his posts, instead of the whole thread.

I did that once. It blocks all threads started by, in addition to all posts by.

 

[Old Man Roger]

I did that once. It blocks all threads started by, in addition to all posts by.

I can't believe I didnt notice for so long, I love this thread.lol

 

[Old Man Roger]

He hasnt posted since 2020, dont even remember blocking him. Maybe it was recently, but his recent content was removed?

 

[DGersic]

.

 

[Sweetcorn]

He hasnt posted since 2020, dont even remember blocking him. Maybe it was recently, but his recent content was removed?

It's fairly easy to do when browsing on a phone. I've done it to posters accidentally before.

 

[Old Man Roger]

It's fairly easy to do when browsing on a phone. I've done it to posters accidentally before.

Ya, I probably hit it by mistake.

 

[Burn1]

Repurposed an art deco cast iron wall sconce light into a benchtop gooseneck adjustable table top work light.
Removed the pressed in swivel ceramic socket within the cast iron wall sconce base.

Drilled casting center hole to accept 1/2 dia pipe with 1/8ips internal threads for attaching the gooseneck threads and locking everything up tight.
Added a new 24” chrome gooseneck adjustable post & wired up new ceramic socket, on/off toggle switch, installed a NOS vintage metal light blub reflector.

 

[zanyad]

Repurposed an art deco cast iron wall sconce light into a benchtop gooseneck adjustable table top work light.

That's brilliant (and beautiful)!

 

[Burn1]

That's brilliant (and beautiful)!

Much appreciated. Proof of concept worked, got another one to go..

 

[Jayman17]

Repurposed an art deco cast iron wall sconce light into a benchtop gooseneck adjustable table top work light.
Removed the pressed in swivel ceramic socket within the cast iron wall sconce base.

Drilled casting center hole to accept 1/2 dia pipe with 1/8ips internal threads for attaching the gooseneck threads and locking everything up tight.
Added a new 24” chrome gooseneck adjustable post & wired up new ceramic socket, on/off toggle switch, installed a NOS vintage metal light blub reflector.

Winner, winner! Great job on this project!

 

[Burn1]

Haha thanks man. Waiting on a few parts to show up next week and I’ll have the pair finished and post.

 

[cody1325]

As my grandmother was cleaning the upstairs closet out, she found a furniture dolly my Granddad bought at Tractor Supply ages ago as one of those "gray bin" cheap tools. It never got used, EVER.

The shop's Flexzilla hose burst at the end connector last year for some reason, and decent replacements are pricey. However, in a cabinet, I found a Harbor Freight air hose w/reel that was still new in the box after 20 years. But, I have no decent place to bolt it. The walls of my shop are stone, and my workbench and shelving just wouldn't work.

So, I bolted the reel to the furniture dolly back then, and used the 20-foot hose off the seldom-used basement air compressor as a pigtail to connect the two. Works pretty darn good. I have a quick release on it so I can use the short hose for smaller quick jobs.

 

[cpttuna]

Stand-by refrig/cooler; Back in 1985 Pepsi put in a new pop machine at work. the old machine, which was a chest type were you put the money in and slid the bottles over to the end of the row and lifted them out. basically, you could buy grape, orange and root beer. The guy cleaned out the machine and did not seem to be thrilled about lugging the old machine to Toledo. I asked if I could have it and he said yes. I have had it for 40 years now. it works great. Cleaned out the guts, put new springs on the lid, painted it, and put a wood cover over the motor to protect it.

 

[OccupantRJ]

The restaurant (might want to spell it right in for the link) supply tip is great--we order a fair amount of stuff from them for the pub kitchen.

I find the 1/2 and 3/4" the most useful for projects, but the 1" would be good to have on hand.

Here's a piece of 1/2" used as a spacer for a drive nut:



3/4" would have been perfect, but I didn't have any so added a piece of 1/4" Al plate.

1/2” thick solid surface countertop material works great for various things. The cutouts from sinks can sometimes be acquired cheaply at countertop fabricator shops. It cuts and sands great. At one time I had 1/4” polypropylene from work as bench tops in my previous workshop. Pieces can also be found on FB marketplace.

 

[PugetDude]

Stand-by refrig/cooler; Back in 1985 Pepsi put in a new pop machine at work. the old machine, which was a chest type were you put the money in and slid the bottles over to the end of the row and lifted them out. basically, you could buy grape, orange and root beer. The guy cleaned out the machine and did not seem to be thrilled about lugging the old machine to Toledo. I asked if I could have it and he said yes. I have had it for 40 years now. it works great. Cleaned out the guts, put new springs on the lid, painted it, and put a wood cover over the motor to protect it.

Friend of mine said that back in the 1950's he and his brothers used a church key to open the bottles at the local gas station while they were still in the locked slots and drink the sodas with a straw...

 

[Jgaz]

Friend of mine said that back in the 1950's he and his brothers used a church key to open the bottles at the local gas station while they were still in the locked slots and drink the sodas with a straw...

Yes sir.
The laundromat near my home when I was growing up had a coke machine where the bottles were displayed and stored horizontally.
A church key and a cup would allow a young knucklehead to get a soda for free…..allegedly

 

[555]

A neighbor had a large chest type Coke refrigerator. It was about 6 feet long and had been in his grandparents store. The bottles just sat in it. Lift the top, pull out a bottle, pay the grocer. His wife was always after him to get rid of it so he took it to his farm. One hot summer afternoon he plugged in the Coke box and after a bit climbed inside where it was nice and cool. His wife came looking for him and when he raised up out of the box she nearly had a heart attack. The box went to Coke collector the next week.

 

[lolaetype]

I had a riding mower engine flywheel I didn't need, a pole off of a dead oscillating fan and an LED light crying for support. I cleaned up the flywheel and bondoed the voids to make it symmetrical. I slit a length of 1/4" fuel hose lengthwise and worked it over the ring gear (superglued the ends together). I drilled holes in the flywheel and screwed the fan pole to it. I made two telescoping extensions out of EMT and other pipe I had laying around. I then painted the whole thing (except the rubber tubing) Mazda Red Fire Metallic from a spray can I had made up years ago when I had a car that color. The base is heavy, this is not going to tip over.

 

[cody1325]

I had a riding mower engine flywheel I didn't need, a pole off of a dead oscillating fan and an LED light crying for support. I cleaned up the flywheel and bondoed the voids to make it symmetrical. I slit a length of 1/4" fuel hose lengthwise and worked it over the ring gear (superglued the ends together). I drilled holes in the flywheel and screwed the fan pole to it. I made two telescoping extensions out of EMT and other pipe I had laying around. I then painted the whole thing (except the rubber tubing) Mazda Red Fire Metallic from a spray can I had made up years ago when I had a car that color. The base is heavy, this is not going to tip over.

That looks great!

I've got some old brake rotors, as well as weights off a bench I threw out--exactly for jobs like this.

Need to figure out how to replace the ballast in my desk lamp. I accidentally knocked it over some months back, only to find it was just a chunk of cement.

 

[Beerhippie]

I had to deploy this miserable SOB the other day:



A ten (or more) year old HF power drain snake (orange frame). Whoever built it never had to lug it around. There is no practical way to carry it.

I decided it needed wheels, so I put it on wheels.

I originally built the cart to hold a large brewery pump. We retired that one, so I later repurposed it to carry a digital scale. The brewers managed to kill the scale and it's been just sitting in the boneyard waiting for another use. I found a use.

So that's a twice-repurposed piece of equipment.

 

[FullRaceMerc]

I took an old monitor (speaker, not computer) stand...



drilled a couple of holes...


& it became an adjustable height stand for my HF chainsaw sharpener.


I love/hate this sharpener. I like the design. It's fast & simple to use. The handbrake clamp is a real time saver. But it's so cheaply made I'm afraid I'll overtighten a knob & break the dumb thing. I'd like to find a better made one with a similar design.

 

[Beerhippie]

I took an old monitor (speaker, not computer) stand...



drilled a couple of holes...


& it became an adjustable height stand for my HF chainsaw sharpener.


I love/hate this sharpener. I like the design. It's fast & simple to use. The handbrake clamp it a real time saver. But it's so cheaply made I'm afraid I'll overtighten a knob & break the dumb thing. I'd like to find a better made one with a similar design.

Oregon makes (or made) an excellent one. If you want to get all fancy, they even made with with auto-advance. Every time you lift the grinder, it advances one tooth. A PITA to set up for your particular chain pitch, but once set, you can sharpen the same size chain really fast.

 

[cpttuna]

Bumper Jacks: real nice if you own a vehicle from the 60's. Also nice in my case. I have a 5'X8' utility trailer that i keep in the driveway when not in use. I keep it raised so that the rain water will empty out the back. i worry, however, that the neighborhood kids will play in it and possibly tip it backwards. the jacks under the back secure this from happening.

PS the jacks also work well in lifting the front of my ZERO-TURN so I can remove the blades.

 

[Beerhippie]

@jawstight accidentally came up with this idea. I have short piece of RR rail I use as a bench anvil, but it's rounded on top. I needed to flatten out some sheet metal today and I needed a flat anvil that over-hung the edge of the working surface. RR anvil to the rescue:



I whaled away pretty well on that. The rail never moved and it did a good enough job. A little heat and a planishing hammer would have let me get it really flat, but I don't need that.

Now to put it all back together....

 

[Jgaz]

The neighbor had this bench on his porch. It was a mess of twisted, cracked, and one broken slats.


I should have taken a before picture but the repurposed part was my use of discarded bed slats to replace the seat boards.

He claims he’s going to repaint the whole thing (wink, wink) so he didn’t want to pay me to replace the wood on the backrest.

 

[larry4406]

The neighbor had this bench on his porch. It was a mess of twisted, cracked, and one broken slats.


I should have taken a before picture but the repurposed part was my use of discarded bed slats to replace the seat boards.

He claims he’s going to repaint the whole thing (wink, wink) so he didn’t want to pay me to replace the wood on the backrest.

I have this same project waiting for one day. Not sure what to use for the slats as it stays outdoors.

 

[Beerhippie]

I have this same project waiting for one day. Not sure what to use for the slats as it stays outdoors.

Poplar is an excellent non-ground-contact outdoor wood. Big plus is that it doesn't make slivers.

If you don't feel like sanding and refinishing every few months, it also silvers very much like teak.

If you are using a sealing finish, be sure to cover 100%--not just all six sides, but screw holes, etc. This applies to any outdoor wood.

 

[willy3486]

About 25 years ago I worked at a corporate HQ repairing computer hardware. They would let us have old stuff and when I saw equipment stands I got them. A lot of them were copier stands. I had a stand and I needed a cart for my arko mills and similar cabinets. I came up with a way to hold them.

I took this old cart and put a board on top to make it more sturdy.




I then made a top for that and put rollers on it. I also put a bolt through it and drilled a center hole on the cart. After I got this piece made I then flipped it over and inserted the bolt into the carts top where I had drilled a hole.





To keep the rolling stand on top from tipping over I put a nut,plit washer and another nut on it and tightened it so it will not come loose.




Overlook the mess as my electronics shop is 12x13 and I just bought a lot of parts I have in there. Anyway I made a center piece and mounted it to the lazy Susan type piece I made. The cabinets will screw into this piece to stabilize them. This is the center piece.





I then alternated my cabinet bins and screwed them to the center piece. I have hundreds of small electronic parts in these cabinets. Once I get a spot cleaned out in the shop I can just spin to the part I need and get it. The wood was even salvaged. I bought a bunch of plywood boards from a factory that sells them. They were shipping boxes. I have less than ten bucks in the cart not counting parts or bins.

 

[Modagger]

Greetings!

My wife and I had been searching for a few short sections of vintage wrought iron fence for a few years. It was the Goldilocks syndrome over and over. “That one’s the perfect pattern but too high”. On and on went the search.

Then back in February as I was mindlessly wandering around FB Marketplace, I saw an ad for two leg sections from an antique Singer sewing machine. It was the way they were displayed that made me say, “hmmnn”. They were separate from the machine, leaning up against a garage door side by side. I showed them to my wife and asked what she thought about making the fence from a few of them.

She thought about it and said it certainly would be something that no one else around would have. “Do it!”.

We bought four machines over the course of a few months, came up with a design, poured some footings, lagged two 8’ 4”x6” ‘s on and started fabrication.

I just finished it this morning around 6. Wanted to get out before the close to 100 degree temp and humidity arrived.

Be well
Jeff

 

[Beerhippie]

Greetings!

My wife and I had been searching for a few short sections of vintage wrought iron fence for a few years. It was the Goldilocks syndrome over and over. “That one’s the perfect pattern but too high”. On and on went the search.

Then back in February as I was mindlessly wandering around FB Marketplace, I saw an ad for two leg sections from an antique Singer sewing machine. It was the way they were displayed that made me say, “hmmnn”. They were separate from the machine, leaning up against a garage door side by side. I showed them to my wife and asked what she thought about making the fence from a few of them.

She thought about it and said it certainly would be something that no one else around would have. “Do it!”.

We bought four machines over the course of a few months, came up with a design, poured some footings, lagged two 8’ 4”x6” ‘s on and started fabrication.

I just finished it this morning around 6. Wanted to get out before the close to 100 degree temp and humidity arrived.

Be well
Jeff

I'm sure there's a Singer treadle-machine collector out there crying in his beer, but I think it looks GREAT--especially the way you integrated the treadles and flywheels!

Did you weld it together? Any problems welding the castings?

 

[Toxictom]

Friend of mine said that back in the 1950's he and his brothers used a church key to open the bottles at the local gas station while they were still in the locked slots and drink the sodas with a straw...

The fire station my boy scout troop met at had one too. We'd all bring straws to the scout meetings. They finally started stacking a bunch of heavy stuff on the pop machine so we couldn't get in without a bunch of work. Years later I worked with a guy who was a fireman there. He said they'd curse us kids for doing that but they admired our ingenuity and laughed it off.

 

[Modagger]

I'm sure there's a Singer treadle-machine collector out there crying in his beer, but I think it looks GREAT--especially the way you integrated the treadles and flywheels!

Did you weld it together? Any problems welding the castings?

Thanks Beerhippie!

I had concerns about welding the cast so I drilled and pinned through the legs into the flywheels and “Singer” logo pieces, then set the pins with JB Weld. Ground them flush and voila! Then I used JB Steel Stik to fill in the uneven areas where the pieces met. Filed and sanded smooth.

It took a bit of ponderin’ to come up with a way to fasten the legs to the 4x6. Finally found some aluminum baluster mounts for railing on Scamazon, made a jig to hold the legs plumb, and filled the mounts with West System slow set epoxy. They ain’t going anywhere.

Glad you approve

Jeff

 

[Beerhippie]

A very simple salvage/repurpose (sort of) today.

I was asked to break down a half-dozen of these chairs today:



I needed to get the cushions into the dumpster and the metal parts cut down and into the scrap bin.

As I was taking them apart (largely through the use of a BFH), I noticed one had a perfectly good seat cushion.

Well, I picked this up a couple of weeks ago:



It's a Cosco Cinesium knock-off of the one your gram had. The seat cushion is about three layers of paper towel, and I have little personal padding down there these days. It's also a little small even for my skinny ****.

I bought a seat cushion from the Jungle:



But it has no way to secure it to the seat and I cannot figure out how it's supposed to be comfortable. It was sold as good for folks who have sciatica--as I do--but with the raised edges pushing against the backs of my thighs, it's painful in the extreme. The "memory foam" gives me that feeling I have just after realizing "that wasn't a fart". I'll leave it in the guest chair in the shop.

But:



I drilled five holes--two front, three back--and used 10 X 1" wood screws to secure it. It's comfy enough to sit as long as I usually want to and gives me an inch or so boost to better fit my workbench.

I'm not sure if using an old seat cushion as a seat cushion is repurposing....

I'd planned to re-use some of the square tube from the old chairs, but it turned out to be about as thick as tinfoil. Into the scrap bin.

 

[Beerhippie]

Another simple project for the cooler part of the day:

I made this years ago to make acid cleaning the three Rinnai C199s we use to heat the brewery water easier. They get used heavily and need to be descaled about ever two weeks.



Problem is, I don't have a drain of any kind in the shop/physical plant so have to move the whole shebang about twenty-five feet into the brewhouse to drain and clean it--with ten gallons of sulfomic acid solution inside. It's on casters, but obviously a little top-heavy. It needs a handle placed fairly low.

I made this gadget a couple of decades ago when we were exporting our beer to Japan and Hawaii. We used one-way kegs made of PET, for obvious reasons. Those kegs have absolutely nothing to use to lift them, so I made this to slip over the "neck" of the keg for lifting:



Here's an example of the kegs:



We haven't exported a keg or used one-way kegs for at least a decade, so may as well put it to a new use:



A minute with the MIG and it's done. Works great--just what I needed. I used three hard tacks to secure it, as it's a fair bet that if I hard-welded it, we'd start filling one-way kegs again.

 

[WoodsTruck]

I bought a sink faucet handle puller a while back. Primarily to pull the wiper arms off my Bronco. I've used it for other small pulling duties.
It got called up again today when I was trying to pry the plastic darts that hold the formed foam in the back of the kids Subaru. I wasn't getting anywhere with any levering type tools. Snug this thing down under the head and give it a quick pull and out they come.

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

Maybe not a repurpose item but definitely saved from the dump. When we built our cabin I saved much of what would have been hauled to the dump. Lumber if too short I split for the neighbour for firewood. One item was the Trex pieces from 2’ and up. When the garage was built one bag of white lag screws and 1 1/2 bags of green for the tin siding. Lots of other building materials still to find a use for but I have some ideas.
I used the Trex for the 4x4 supports for our deck, I was going to use some of the tin left behind but I like the Trex better. Gives the 4x4s a little more mass. The white lags almost did the project the neighbour has 8 green for his viewing pleasure. I still have a number of pieces of Trex left but they too will be useful for something.

 

[atch]

I wanted to check the spark plug conditions in Clarence before leaving tomorrow for a 4-day road trip. The boots on these plugs are really really really tough to pull off of the plugs. I have one of those factory made boot pullers somewhere but can't find it. Here's my solution. 7/16" wrench heated and bent 90*. A bolt and some nuts from the hardware drawer and bang! Plug puller tool. Probably was easier to make the tool than to fight with the boots by hand. Took a second or two to pull each boot. b-t-w; the wrench is an oddball that's not part of a set. It's the only wrench of that brand that I have. I may (or may not) heat and bend the box end to be perpendicular to the shaft. Probably isn't worth the effort.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I wanted to check the spark plug conditions in Clarence before leaving tomorrow for a 4-day road trip. The boots on these plugs are really really really tough to pull off of the plugs. I have one of those factory made boot pullers somewhere but can't find it. Here's my solution. 7/16" wrench heated and bent 90*. A bolt and some nuts from the hardware drawer and bang! Plug puller tool. Probably was easier to make the tool than to fight with the boots by hand. Took a second or two to pull each boot. b-t-w; the wrench is an oddball that's not part of a set. It's the only wrench of that brand that I have. I may (or may not) heat and bend the box end to be perpendicular to the shaft. Probably isn't worth the effort.

Or put the small nuts on the side closest to the open end.

 

[cody1325]

I started dismantling my old air hockey table, as A: it was warped and already didn't work well, B: it was kind of mediocre as a table/work space due to the wide "frame" around the play surface, C: it took a large portion of the entire floor space in the basement, and D: mildewed and moisture-damaged to holy heck. Also, it hadn't been used for its original purpose in a decade.

I figure the two currently unused 4-foot folding tables pushed up against the wall should give me even more working room than what it offered, while opening up a much wider passageway on the side of the basement where the table once was.

First thing I removed was the blower unit, and I must say, as a cooling fan, it's great. Quite a bit of power for something so small! It even plugs right into an outlet, as there's an internal extension cord that goes to the control board.

It's an XFAN RCH-2048S2-C--80CFM according to the documentation on the manufacturer site.

Does need a base, however. I'll figure that out in due time.