Upcycled/repurposed projects (MANY)

[Joel_BC]

Here's another example of "necessity being the mother of invention" from the developing world. "Third World resourcefulness" you could say. Experimenting. Making things that do the job... in this case, in India.

http://places.designobserver.com/feature/frugal-innovation/37595/

And here is a little video about the same topic:

http://video.pbs.org/video/1938684614/

Personally, my focus is more on what we can or could do in North America if we need/needed to. We have more, to begin with - but, again and again, I have to admit how ingenious some people in the poorer countries are!

 

[nelson castro]

Indeed we need to repurposed / recycle the things that can be found in our garages. As it can give us a lot of benefits. It can give the old things a new purpose.

 

[Joel_BC]

This guy has taken the rocket stove general principle and design and adapted it to an outdoor grill. No need for fuels like propane or charcoal, it can burn wood (and he says twigs, wood chips, and other stuff, too). The design uses repurposed and salvaged components and materials...

Here's the site where he takes you, step-by-step, through the process of making one:
http://youdidit.org/en/articles/15

 

[Joel_BC]

Now this is pretty amazing. While it's comical in a way, it's hard to find examples of home-built that are as resourceful and ingenious as this. And what you can find (at least online) are examples from tranditionally very cash-strapped nations like India, Mexico, Poland, and so on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULQ6196Tfds
I like how he uses the smaller (internal-combusion) engine to start the big one (a steam engine) - then he shuts off the small one.

Using the kind of parts he has, and the general approach he's used, you could make utility vehicles useful on a small farm. Not that they need to turn out exactly as this one has, but this machine exemplifies the principle of using repurposed parts, know-how, ingenuity, and will power. There are no substitutes for know-how, ingenuity, and will power.

 

[cheepo]

I want to build a bottle house...that is so cool...
thanks 4 posting such neet repurposing projects..

 

[Joel_BC]

Steve Ramsay's pallet-wood potting bench. Here's a clever guy showing, in detail, how to build a very nice gardener's potting bench from pallets. He's got a Youtube channel under his name, and I can recommend it. He built and outfitted the bench nearly for free, and calls it "a limited tool project" - that is, you need only a small number of common hand (power & non-powered) tools to do it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvHjDyPNKhk

There are a lot of illustrations online about making things out of pallets, usually brief mentions plus pics. They're good as far as they go. But a lot of people will like this because it's carefully explained - step-by-step. Makes it easy.

 

[Wannabefree]

That's pretty cool Joel I have seen a lot of pics of these, but none with detailed instructions like here.

 

[Marianne]

That's a great project.

Joel, I just watched the youtube about the school built with sand filled water bottles. Truly amazing. You're right, it looks so good after the plastering.

 

[Emerald]

This shows and discusses a chicken-watering system developed by Rebecca Nickols.
http://communitychickens.blogspot.ca/2012/07/product-review-chicken-fountain.html#.UHBsVhiQw7B

This set-up is intended to use water efficiently (important especially in drought-stricken regions) while providing poultry with clean, cool water. The DIY'er can make a water container/distributor device by repurposing available plumbing components.

Most of these components are readily available PVC parts (white pipes, etc.). Looks to me like they are the kind of parts used for under-floor toilet plumbing - lengths of pipe, Y-connector, end caps, etc. In addition, "drip heads" (also called "poultry drippers") - available from farm-supply outlets - are employed to keep the water easily available to the birds. Almost all of the plumbing parts serve, together, as a fairly sizable water reservoir.

This is the post that made me buy the chicken nipples in the first place so thanks! I may go to a bigger system like this but the .99cent bucket with 4 nipples on the bottom works beautiful! I'm going to add another bucket for later this summer when the heat hits as i think they may squabble a bit.

 

[Joel_BC]

Here's a pretty simple home project for making an electro-chemical bath for dissolving rust off of steel or iron objects, parts, or what have you. The guy who devised it says, "Ive used it on mechanisms so corroded that you couldnt even make out their outlines, and after treatment the individual parts were easily disassembled with hand tools."

The chemical bath is water with old-fashoned "washing soda" (sodium carbonate), commonly available in most localities.

This set-up repurposes a 5-gallon plastic bucket, four steel or carbon welding rods, rain-gutter leaf-guard mesh, an ordinary small battery charger, zip ties, etc.

http://blog.makezine.com/projects/make-17/remove-anything-from-metal/

Scroll down about one-third of the page to Project Steps, on the left. Click "All" (on the little grey oval), the scroll down to #5 "Use Chemcal Methods" . This is where the project description begins.