Upcycled/repurposed projects (MANY)

Joel_BC

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http://inhabitat.com/index.php?s=upcycled

I was searching the Web trying to find good repurposing & upcycling sites. I found this one, above, that has some real interesting ideas.

Here's an interesting page about the re-purposing of containers to make shelter:
http://inhabitat.com/stacked-shippi...alaysia/malaysian-container-home-10/?extend=1

This site goes more in the direction of art, decorative, and craft. Very imaginative:
http://www.recyclart.org/
Scroll down the page about 3/4 of the way and you get the option to see many more examples on pages 2, 3, 4, etc.

On the lighter side, here's some meaty design and repurposing - toward the goal of a functional "bridging machine" that can be moved into place and put a 16-foot temporary bridge across a chasm, such as a creek. "Serious" in terms of something that will work, but entertaining in presentation, as it's a contest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pso_ijy-h9A

On mchine is moorized, the other human-powered. This is about a 45-minute vid. It's from a TV show called Scrapheap Challenge, from the UK. It's interesting and enjoyable to watch, maybe especially if you like British-style fun and documentary! But if you want to "cut to the chase", you'll find the whole end result of the design and building processes in the last nine minutes. (If you liked, you could download the vid, set it for replay after its first go-through, advance the playback redline, and then turn up the sound just for the last portion.)


There's a lot of junk around in the world, as we all know. Re-purposing and upcycling make a lot of sense. I know a lot of people here at SS re-purpose as a matter of course.

Got any good Web sites to share? Got some pics to post?
 

~gd

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It might be just me but I gave up on that first post. Read 3 lines and click on <read more> gets old in a hurry for me. Just one opinion.
 

Joel_BC

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~gd said:
It might be just me but I gave up on that first post. Read 3 lines and click on <read more> gets old in a hurry for me. Just one opinion.
I almost always make a practice of scrolling down a page. :) There's nothing interesting to me in the first few sentences on that page... but those sentences are not why I posted the link for the site. ;)

Not sure what your perimeter of interests encompasses, ~gd, but I do feel there is interesting and useful stuff on the site.

Did you check out the second link I gave?
 

Joel_BC

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This is a water containment cabinet I built for my wife. She's a sculptor who works in glass and bronze. And since these can generate a lot of unhealthy dust, she works with water-cooled tools that dampen the dust, making a slurry and keeping the dust out of the air. Some of the processes utilize smallish power tools, and this containment contraption - fundamental to which is a sort of basin - acts as a sink for the slurry and then routes the liquid into a drain system we built in her studio.

4407_shower_surround_water_cabinet.jpg


I built the basin and back-splash by cutting down a prefabbed fiberglass shower surround. Got it for half price from a plumbing-supply dealer. It had been damaged during shipping, though the damage was superficial and wasn't going to be a problem for our purpose. I cut it down by a bit more than one third it's original height.

This is a closer view of the portion of the shower surround that I retained as a sink/backsplash...

4407_shower_surround_close-up.jpg


I put the portion of the shower surround that normally gets sealed down to a bathroom floor up onto a five-legged wooden framework made of 2x4's and 2x6's, using lag screws as fasteners. I determined the height of the framework when we decided what height the basin should be. That height has to allow for sitting and working, comfortably, for hours at a time. We used an old shower curtain to enable enclosure, if desired, while working at the cabinet.
 

Jeremy_31

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Joel_BC - That's really considerate of you to build that for your wife. It's really quite clever!
 

Joel_BC

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Jeremy_31 said:
Joel_BC - That's really considerate of you to build that for your wife. It's really quite clever!
Thanks. Well, I'm a guy who is inclined toward cooperation. And if a guy can't do things for his wife, what sort of husband is he? :lol:
 

SSDreamin

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Great idea for the wet cabinet, Joel!

I want one of those Bonsai trees! Those are awesome!
 

Jeremy_31

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Joel_BC said:
Jeremy_31 said:
Joel_BC - That's really considerate of you to build that for your wife. It's really quite clever!
Thanks. Well, I'm a guy who is inclined toward cooperation. And if a guy can't do things for his wife, what sort of husband is he? :lol:
Divorced? :lol:
 

Denim Deb

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Jeremy_31 said:
Joel_BC said:
Jeremy_31 said:
Joel_BC - That's really considerate of you to build that for your wife. It's really quite clever!
Thanks. Well, I'm a guy who is inclined toward cooperation. And if a guy can't do things for his wife, what sort of husband is he? :lol:
Divorced? :lol:
:lol:
 

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