The OFFICIAL Scrounging.." I can make something with this" thread.

I tried to make chicken salad outta chicken poop once. Turns out no matter how hard you try, sometimes you just can’t.

sorry, no pics
 
While I'm on a 'meeting' I'll post what I've scrounged the last couple days.

I'm lucky to live next to a river.. there is always something down there. especially after big rains and high flow.
I was actually doing a little fishing and came across some roofing material... Copper ! roof materials. Whoot.

My wife has been wanting me to make another lighted "bird house" so this will work out great for the roof.

Here's my shopping isle.

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the bounty..

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first original 'Birdhouse" it's not actually... it's closed up and is lighted.
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The wife's Grandfather lived on a curvy road. His mailbox was in the apex of one of the curves and was ran over several times. We found his old address marker in his shop after he passed. The wife used it for the roof of a mailbox for her Mom for Christmas. Its not quite plumb, square or level but she's learning. She dug the wrenches out of my "round to it pile".
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When Copart bought and remodeled the auction in Mocksville we did the demo and interior remodel. All the old countertops from the front office I saved from the dumpster. Turned this one in to a work bench. I’m gonna finish it off with some plain plywood doors when I get a few scrap pieces large enough.E5474330-7D38-4F3D-8049-1B08D703D3A1.jpg
 
Went to an estate sale where a guy had an old wood shop. While digging through his supply, I found this 2 1/2" piece of rough cut ( I initially thought it was cedar but it didn't smell that way when I worked it). About the same time my Dad spots an old Singer sewing machine base and asked of I was interested. So, I move about fifty-leven other pieces of schtuff and 6 inches of rat poop and pull it out.
I wire wheeled and painted the base, planed and routered the board and polyed it. Put them together as a table for Mom for Christmas.
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Scrounging some more..

Found a nice red maple tree. Cut a couple logs off and walked them out on my pack.

These will be a couple large candle holders. Hope to get them on the lathe tomorrow. I’m not worried about them not being dry. I hope they twist/bow and crack/ split. I want a rustic look.

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There’s still some more down there, try and get it tomorrow.

AND ... as a bonus!

A rough sawn oak beam.

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I’ll throw this up in the attic over the summer to dry out. Then maybe make a small side table top.
 
I hit up the junk pile at home depot for wood

I dont have any pics of cool 'free' projects, sorry.
But I love the idea of this thread!!!!
 
My company disposes of returns for a couple large retailers. Electronics are plentiful but they cut the wires on them, which is an easy fix. I'll never buy a fan, vaccum, coffee maker, toaster oven, microwave, among other things.
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A vagina fan, cool.
 
Figured out what to do with railroad spikes. They replaced all the ties in this area so there are tens of thousands available. Have to make a bunch more

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If you want to try your hand at knifemaking it's a decent material to learn with as well. Not terribly high carbon content so they won't get hard enough to really retain a great edge, but it's an easy material to work and pretty forgiving in heat treat parameters.
 
My company disposes of returns for a couple large retailers. Electronics are plentiful but they cut the wires on them, which is an easy fix. I'll never buy a fan, vaccum, coffee maker, toaster oven, microwave, among other things.
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I'd give you $20 bucks for one of those without the wires... :D
 
I'll preface this post with-
Not everything used was scrounged, but either repurposed or leftovers from other projects. So far, I haven't spent any "new" money, lol.

My latest, the chicken house.

Main/largest repurposed item was an outside work table I put together. I stole the top, a wire bakery shelf that was cut in half and put to use over the firebowl in order to cook. (Might have a picture in the firebowl thread)

Four 4x4 posts left over with the outer braces holding it together. I replaced some rotten braces first, taking some treated boards from a gate I removed from the fence around the yard.

First version, later revised. Closest picture from the beginning of the project.
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Next, I added some rough cut pecan left in the barn by the previous owner of our house.
Removed the "wings" from the top, added a nesting box on the end.
Started framing the roosting level up too- my grandson was here last weekend and was helping. I got some very valuable quality time with him.
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Then in no certain order, I closed the front and made a door for it.
Closed the hole in the floor as I revised the plan (no lower level for now).
Today spent about 4 hours closing the back side, wrapped nesting box in T11, made the main entrance on the opposite end of the coop and wrapped it in T11.
Made the chicken stairs and landing.
Called it a day after that as I was expecting rain.

Upper level/roof is still yet to be done, as is wrapping the door and back in T11.

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I hoard so much stuff. As mentioned before, I love random pieces of wood that may, or may not, get used later.
But just random stuff.
When I worked at Home Depot I acquired many random things, sometimes you'd find stuff on the floor that you didnt sell in store or something.

Once I had this lady, Pam (I forget which department she was in), who said, "I found these, you want them?" "YES!"
Well that was a few years ago. I still have them in a box. Dont know what they are or what I'll do with them, but I keep them around just in case

one is large than the other
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Bought the hardware I needed to finish the coop. $65 and aside from the hinges I'll have many deck screws left over for other projects.
Last week I found 2 pieces of plywood hiding in a corner of the barn; dragged one out, broomed it off and lo and behold, it's the perfect size w/o having to cut it.
Screwed it down and stapled the wrap- next comes shingles.
3 doors, vents and roosting perch remaining. Almost chicken time...

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I hoard so much stuff. As mentioned before, I love random pieces of wood that may, or may not, get used later.
But just random stuff.
When I worked at Home Depot I acquired many random things, sometimes you'd find stuff on the floor that you didnt sell in store or something.

Once I had this lady, Pam (I forget which department she was in), who said, "I found these, you want them?" "YES!"
Well that was a few years ago. I still have them in a box. Dont know what they are or what I'll do with them, but I keep them around just in case

one is large than the other

Those are very handy tools to have at the ready. They’re missing the handle (imagine a T with the longer vertical leg threaded down into that hole). You would jam that tapered end down into a broken PVC sprinkler riser and twist it out of the threaded fitting. The different sizes accommodate various pipe sizes. Orbit is a supplier of sprinkler components.

Think of an EZ Out for sprinkler pipe. ;)

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Oh. I know what works in this thread.

Dad brought me an old termite infested door from an old outbuilding, or something. I also had a temporary doghouse made with cinder blocks.

I turned them both into a decent sized table for my small grill and griddle. For several years, they were sitting on a glass patio type table. There wasn't room to do anything but cook. Now, I have plenty of room to set down trays, plates, etc.

I'll use a few more blocks and some shelving board to set up my tanks below.

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Bought the hardware I needed to finish the coop. $65 and aside from the hinges I'll have many deck screws left over for other projects.
Last week I found 2 pieces of plywood hiding in a corner of the barn; dragged one out, broomed it off and lo and behold, it's the perfect size w/o having to cut it.
Screwed it down and stapled the wrap- next comes shingles.
3 doors, vents and roosting perch remaining. Almost chicken time...

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Got shingles? I got about half a pack if you need.
 
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Got shingles? I got about half a pack if you need.
Lol, actually I do. Something else that the previous owner left in the barn. Should be enough, I'll ping you if it's not enough.


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Those are very handy tools to have at the ready. They’re missing the handle (imagine a T with the longer vertical leg threaded down into that hole). You would jam that tapered end down into a broken PVC sprinkler riser and twist it out of the threaded fitting. The different sizes accommodate various pipe sizes. Orbit is a supplier of sprinkler components.

Think of an EZ Out for sprinkler pipe. ;)

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Wow, great job, thanks for the information!
 
Couple of things I have made for the cabin out of scrap/ reused wood I had around:

A cabinet to go beside the murphy bed. Needed to be able for mom to sit things when bed is down, but able to get past it to fold up bed.
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And a gun rack that kind of fit in with decor:

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I have some old log tobacco barns on my farm, and I converted one into storage. I used a chainsaw to cut a door opening, and my brother-in-law and I built a heavy oak door from some leftover trailer decking.

My scrap bin yielded almost all of the material for the locking mechanism. The crank handle is an axle from an old manure spreader. The only thing that I had to buy to build the door was the hardware - ie hinges, fasteners, springs and a pulley.

Here is the outside of the door:

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Here is the inside with the locking mechanism closed.

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And here is the inside with the locking mechanism open.

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The locking mechanism took me a few hours to design. In addition to the locking pins on the side, since the door opens onto a ramp there is a trap door at the bottom that has to lift up before the door can be swung inward.

It was a fun project, that did not cost much in the way of $.
 
New project.. halt all others!

Closet conversion into run-off pantry.
Couple years ago the Const crew doing a remodel at work tossed a full sheet of birch plywood in to the dumpster. (If I recollect correctly, there were a few pieces. )
Was part of s shipping crate.

So, I need to make some shelves.
This sheet is chewed up pretty good from them using the backhoe on it.

Got all my pieces cut. And filled the chips and gouges. Luckily the top side is real nice.

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