The repurposing thread

[OccupantRJ]

I previously posted this on my shed thread but thought I'd share it here.
If you have already seen this, just disregard.

Started life as a Menard's Over-The-Range Microwave display they were selling for $5.
I turned it into a bodywork cart.

Classy!

 

[willy3486]

I save any fans I run across like this. I bought one at a yard sale years ago and made a cabinet for it. I fixed it so I could put a air filter on it. I use it as a air cleaner mounted to the ceiling in my woodworking area of my shop. It does just as good as the 200 ones and I have only about 20 bucks in it. I have another one that has two fan wheels mounted on it that is sitting on a cart, I use to blow air in my shop to get fresh air in.

 

[Gmonkee]

I took an old wheelbarrow rim and tire from trash and made an airless semisolid wheel for my old wheelbarrow.

Took three old pants and filled the tire with them to create soft structure. Drilled five holes in the face of the tire and shot them full of expanding foam and let it push the tire onto the rim like a tube would.
It mostly seated the bead.

OK, it gets messy. But it did clean up well enough for a **** wheelbarrow. It acts like a regular air filled tire, even bounces when dropped.

I am not saying it's healthy or going to last forever. But it will be better than the wooden wheel I made to get it into service.
I am not out to fake it's a nice unit, but it's useful enough for beating around my yard hauling grass clippings.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I took an old wheelbarrow rim and tire from trash and made an airless semisolid wheel for my old wheelbarrow.

Took three old pants and filled the tire with them to create soft structure. Drilled five holes in the face of the tire and shot them full of expanding foam and let it push the tire onto the rim like a tube would.
It mostly seated the bead.

OK, it gets messy. But it did clean up well enough for a **** wheelbarrow. It acts like a regular air filled tire, even bounces when dropped.

I am not saying it's healthy or going to last forever. But it will be better than the wooden wheel I made to get it into service.
I am not out to fake it's a nice unit, but it's useful enough for beating around my yard hauling grass clippings.

Pic...

 

[Gmonkee]

It looks standard rim and rubber tire with no valve stem. A badly spray bombed orange rim.

My phone won't resize photos willingly to fit forum standards. The forum won't automatically resize big pics either. Sorry.

 

[Beerhippie]

Repurposed a rear-facing jump seat to a front-facing jump seat:





I even kept the QR feature so the seat comes out when I don't need it:



The entire job is reversible, should I ever want to do so.

 

[WoodsTruck]

The entire job is reversible, should I ever want to do so.

You have a welder. Everything is reversible.

 

[larry4406]

I posted this back in 2013 in this thread. Repurposed a whole house fan into a 2-speed fan for my garage.

The repurposing thread

I don't believe I've seen a thread like this so I thought I'd start one. Show off your repurposed items. Prefer "useful" things versus scrap turned into "art". I'll start with my plasma cart made from an old pressure washer cart. Welded some shaped round stock around various places to hold the...

www.garagejournal.com

I like that.

Is there a slot for the filter to slide into?

 

[OccupantRJ]

Harvested a blower from my old furnace. I repurposed the extension cord, electrical box, and HF cart as well. Only had to buy the switch (which I didn’t really have to use).

Breezy days in the garage now!

I built a similar one about 40 years ago to cool air cooled motorcycles during tuning and such. Two different bulldogs I have had over the last few years both laid claim to it.

 

[M.Brane]

New grate for my repurposed Weber kettle fire pit from rebar salvaged from the horrible planter demolition:



The outer ring is 3 separate pieces bent with my conduit bender. Not perfect, but more robust than the Weber grills that don't last long burning oak on them.

 

[OccupantRJ]

New grate for my repurposed Weber kettle fire pit from rebar salvaged from the horrible planter demolition:



The outer ring is 3 separate pieces bent with my conduit bender. Not perfect, but more robust than the Weber grills that don't last long burning oak on them.

Gnarly, man!

 

[larry4406]

New grate for my repurposed Weber kettle fire pit from rebar salvaged from the horrible planter demolition:



The outer ring is 3 separate pieces bent with my conduit bender. Not perfect, but more robust than the Weber grills that don't last long burning oak on them.

@PugetDude probably gets a hard on at the sound of rebar!

 

[Beerhippie]

New grate for my repurposed Weber kettle fire pit from rebar salvaged from the horrible planter demolition:



The outer ring is 3 separate pieces bent with my conduit bender. Not perfect, but more robust than the Weber grills that don't last long burning oak on them.

What size is that bar? #3?

Should hold up for a while, anyway....

 

[rharman]

I like that.

Is there a slot for the filter to slide into?

No. Just 4 screws on the frame so it was quick to change. A slot would be easily doable though.

After a few years, I decided it was too bulky so put it out on the driveway with a "Take Me" sign. It sure worked well and I kind of miss it. As I recall, I used a stacked Decora rocker switch to control the two speeds.

 

[PugetDude]

@PugetDude probably gets a hard on at the sound of rebar!

Why yes.
Yes I do.
Thank you for noticing.

 

[Old Man Roger]

It’s getting Wierd in here.

 

[PugetDude]

It’s getting Wierd in here.

Is that the opposite of weird?

 

[Old Man Roger]

Werd

 

[harley jim]

Word!

 

[Old Man Roger]

Ya.

 

[OccupantRJ]

I had several modular drawer units with ball bearing drawer guides, so I bolted a stack of 5 together and set them into an angle iron frame dolly that I made for it to create a roll around cabinet. There was a new roll of golf cart floor mat material in the contingency materials building, so a piece got cut for a work surface top. To retain the mat there was a wide piece of aluminum trim from an old storm door on the metal rack, so it got fitted and attached to the upper corner to provide a hold down for the mat and a retainer lip to prevent small pieces from rolling off. This cabinet now gets used next to a tooling storage rollaround in the machining room for small metal drops for various milling machine and lathe projects, and for additional worktop space. The 1/4” rubber mat or an old section of conveyor belt make the best work top surface out of every material I have ever tried. I used mat tops in industrial machining and maintenance for 30 years and they can take the punishment.

 

[Jgaz]

contingency materials building

Love this!

 

[Beerhippie]

Nice coping!

 

[ChefRex]

Nice coping!

You need to learn to cope if you're going to make in this world.

 

[OccupantRJ]

Does copecetic fit into this somehow?

 

[OccupantRJ]

Love this!

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/never-throw-nothing-away.432203/post-8104579

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I had several modular drawer units with ball bearing drawer guides, so I bolted a stack of 5 together and set them into an angle iron frame dolly that I made for it to create a roll around cabinet. There was a new roll of golf cart floor mat material in the contingency materials building, so a piece got cut for a work surface top. To retain the mat there was a wide piece of aluminum trim from an old storm door on the metal rack, so it got fitted and attached to the upper corner to provide a hold down for the mat and a retainer lip to prevent small pieces from rolling off. This cabinet now gets used next to a tooling storage rollaround in the machining room for small metal drops for various milling machine and lathe projects, and for additional worktop space. The 1/4” rubber mat or an old section of conveyor belt make the best work top surface out of every material I have ever tried. I used mat tops in industrial machining and maintenance for 30 years and they can take the punishment.

That aluminum trim also makes a great French cleat.

 

[mikeinri]

Does copecetic fit into this somehow?

Absolutely, and who else remembers this mid-90s gem???

Mike

 

[iagsxr]

Absolutely, and who else remembers this mid-90s gem???

Mike

There's still a Local H song or two that I listen to regularly. (Bound for the Floor not so much)

 

[mikeinri]

I was being sarcastic with the word "gem." I actually hate that song, because of a specific memory. Plus, it's repetitive and annoying...

But, it's the only song I know with "copasetic" in the lyrics, and it immediately popped into my head for that reason!

Mike

 

[PugetDude]

I was being sarcastic with the word "gem." I actually hate that song, because of a specific memory. Plus, it's repetitive and annoying...

But, it's the only song I know with "copasetic" in the lyrics, and it immediately popped into my head for that reason!

Mike

Hopefully "The wheels on the bus go round and round" gets stuck in your head for the rest of the month for posting that link....

 

[22george]

Hopefully "The wheels on the bus go round and round" gets stuck in your head for the rest of the month for posting that link....

Or baby shark

 

[jsaw]

Absolutely, and who else remembers this mid-90s gem???

Mike

I do, actually I did not discover it until 4 or 5 years ago.

 

[mikeinri]

Hopefully "The wheels on the bus go round and round" gets stuck in your head for the rest of the month for posting that link....

Funny, I was just asking my oldest son (now college-aged) if he remembers singing along with a Fisher Price CD of little kids singing nursery rhymes over and over in the house and especially on long trips in the RV. Luckily, neither he nor his younger brother remember that. Unfortunately, my wife and I are still pretty scarred by that, LOL...

As for "Bound For The Floor," I always hated it, but even more so after a local radio DJ started using it at a nightclub, to signal when he would start throwing prizes off the balcony and into the crowd. Watching how people behaved in those 4 minutes every week was pretty disturbing. Hard to believe that was 30 years ago!!!

Mike

 

[evildky]

Absolutely, and who else remembers this mid-90s gem???

Mike

You high fiv'n motherf@#ker

 

[willy3486]

Here is a few new ideas I have made, repurposed. The first is a shovel I made from scrap stuff. The handle came off a set of post hole diggers. the handle had broke so I replaced it. I made the digging head from a two inch steel pipe and a piece of a big wooden spools bolt I had saved. I cut the pipe about 18 to 20 inches and the bolt about 12 inches.

I used my plasma cutter and cut a curve down to about half of the pipe then at the tip I curved it to a point like a shovel might have. So the digging area is about 14 inches long and it has about 5 inches of the pipe whole so that I could trim the old post hole wood to go in. I welded the 12 inch bolt piece to the back of the shovel head to step on it and force it down. The only thing not salvaged is the screw through the shovel to hold the wood in. I keep boxes of screws.







The purpose of the shovel is to use to dig a trench for wire, pipes or other stuff to bury. I have a tree spade but it makes a hole about 6 inches or wider. I tried it out this morning to see how it does and it was really easy to dig with as it takes out very little in width. I was able to dig a trench less than 3 inches that would be perfect for underground wire or similar.

I am trying to get everything organized in my shop and I had some scrap thicker steel off cabinets, I save scrap pieces if it is flat. These panels were thicker steel off of rack mounted computer items. I drew out a couple of holders for my weedeater and the extra cutting head I have.






I also made a chainsaw holder out of the metal. I got the ideas off of temu as they have some great holders with measurements. I did change them a little.







I work on computers for a living and old hard drives have some of the best magnets out there. Many ave the magnets lued on a piece of metal with holes in the metal. I used some of these on a support post next to my drill press. Now I have a place for the drill chuck key that doesn't fall all over the place.


.


I have a couple of projects I am just getting started on collecting the parts. My wife and I go to a few Amish and Mennonite villages in our area. One store had a hand cultivator like this I really liked.




So I looked around the scrap I have and found a set of old tiller handles my father in law saved, a old steel wheel and a cultivator head. Now I just need the rain to stop so I can make it.

My camera is old but here is a picture of what I have so far, I have the rest of the metal I need in the scrap pile.






You also see a bowling ball and two rotors I plan to make a welding table with, I also have a jack to use. Here is another picture of it.



Anyway this is a few items I have found ways to reuse them.

 

[OccupantRJ]

Them Carolina boys around my area are at it again!
Is this classified as repurposing?

 

[willy3486]

I worked out in the shop and made the push plow. It all went together good and has good balance. I took it out to the garden and tried it out. It worked good considering it has been raining. I think it will work really good between rows if I use it often. All I have in it is scrap,welding rods and one cotter key.



The other thing I made today was a stove to burn stuff like receipts and personal info. All I had was a woodstove in my shop but its too hot in the summer to start it up. This will come in handy to get rid of stuff like that. It was a old water heater I had originally made into a compost tank. But I wasn't satisfied with it and didn't use it. So today I cut a hole in the top and cut a pipe for a flue. I cut pieces out of the top of the pipe so the the smoke can go out m I will use old tin cans to cover this pipe.




The last picture I didn't make today but I had been meaning to post it for a while. I had a used trailer hitch similar to this one.



The sides could be adjusted to fit the truck. I didn't need one but needed a 3 point trailer hitch. So what I did was unbolt the sides ,moved them to the other side and turned them up. I put a spacer that the top and then welded the sides and spacer in place. After this I welded hitch pins on each side. I also cut holes on the sides so I could put a top link to the top. Now I can use my hitch mounts and this piece to move trailers with my tractor.
Here is the trailer mover I made.


Hopefully you can make it out in this photo. It works really good. Well these are a few things I used to make stuff I needed.

 

[larry4406]

I worked out in the shop and made the push plow. It all went together good and has good balance. I took it out to the garden and tried it out. It worked good considering it has been raining. I think it will work really good between rows if I use it often. All I have in it is scrap,welding rods and one cotter key.



The other thing I made today was a stove to burn stuff like receipts and personal info. All I had was a woodstove in my shop but its too hot in the summer to start it up. This will come in handy to get rid of stuff like that. It was a old water heater I had originally made into a compost tank. But I wasn't satisfied with it and didn't use it. So today I cut a hole in the top and cut a pipe for a flue. I cut pieces out of the top of the pipe so the the smoke can go out m I will use old tin cans to cover this pipe.




The last picture I didn't make today but I had been meaning to post it for a while. I had a used trailer hitch similar to this one.



The sides could be adjusted to fit the truck. I didn't need one but needed a 3 point trailer hitch. So what I did was unbolt the sides ,moved them to the other side and turned them up. I put a spacer that the top and then welded the sides and spacer in place. After this I welded hitch pins on each side. I also cut holes on the sides so I could put a top link to the top. Now I can use my hitch mounts and this piece to move trailers with my tractor.
Here is the trailer mover I made.


Hopefully you can make it out in this photo. It works really good. Well these are a few things I used to make stuff I needed.

How did you bend the flat bar into the cultivator's wheel and create a perfect circle? I have a project in mind that would use 2x3/16" flat bar bent into a ~22.5" hoop.

 

[willy3486]

How did you bend the flat bar into the cultivator's wheel and create a perfect circle? I have a project in mind that would use 2x3/16" flat bar bent into a ~22.5" hoop.

I didn't have to make the curve. The wheel, the handles and the tines were already made. They were stuff I had saved from the scrap pile so to speak. I think the wheel might have been from a antique cultivator or other farm tool. I was really fortunate and after I made the frame that holds the wheels the handles bolted right to the frame and I didn't have to bend them in any way. When my dad passed I was able to save a lot of good scrap like this. When my inlaws both passed away my wife and I was able to buy out her brothers share of about 3 1/2 acres that was around us. On this land was a barn filled with a lot of stuff like this. Both our parents were raised in the depression so they saved all kinds of goodies that has been a wealth of project resources. Only downside is I am running out of stuff to use to make stuff and I am getting ready to retire. So I need to find some honey hole of usable scrap for projects in retirement.

As far as making a curve a lot of the times I use a anvil and just shape it. I would consider myself a novice fabricating so maybe some others here can chime in on how to bend a good curve. I have thought about making one of the homemade rollers when I retire.