Hey just wondering what kind of projects people have been working on or have seen and what they used, where did the materials come from, things like that. I'm looking to build a solar oven as my next project and was hoping to use salvaged materials if I can, rather than buying new. was wondering if people have any ideas or suggestions on stuff to use for this as well as any other projects you think are worthwile. I already salvaged a pane of glass I found in the attic and found a small one from a neighbor I may use to build a trial/small size solar oven to start. I'm wondering what I could salvage that would have shiny reflective metal to use to concertrate the sun. hope to hear your suggestions and your salvage/recycled material projects.
The skins off of old washers, driers and refrigerators work well for sheet metal for roofing and siding. Dead box trucks and school buses are awesome for piecing together a house. Cardboard inside walls for isolation I’ll try to think of a few more A lot of times you can go behind businesses and see what they are throwing out to look for certain things. Like a window company might have old windows from a replacement job the finished. Or washer dryer place might have the old models from replacing ones. A lot of times they take peoples old stuff when doing a replacement job and just store it until they get enough to go to the dump or just put it out to be picked up by the garbage man. It's usually good to go be friendly and ask if you can take stuff most people are cool abut it and like to hear a story about making a house out of their old work junk. I’ve built a few places with all salvaged stuff the only things I would buy was stovepipe, a flu and nails. But I mostly salvaged the stovepipes, wood burning stoves are banned in the city around here so they are always throwing away stovepipe at remodel jobs. You can make nails also, But that one of those things that takes more time then it’s worth to me. I saw a guy make a solar oven out of used potato chip bags with the shinny foil from the inside of them.
I'm crocheting a reusable shopping bag out of my old Walmart plastic bags. I stuffed a throw pillow with several months worth once. If I do well with this bag, I may make some hanging planters out of the same method later. I dumptser dive flowerpots, and am plotting a vermicomposter to put under my apartment sink using old newspaper. Soda bottles get snipped up and also become planters. I quilt from throwaway fabric scraps.
I am actually salvaging a school bus for a home as we speak. A lot of the lumber I've been using is new (just because it looks nicer and it doesn't crack as easy as recycled stuff.) However, I'm trying to use a lot of other recycled fixtures and materials. I find a good resource for this is the Habitat for Humanity ReStore (see if there's one near you.) Another great place to look is FreeCycle or Craigslist. I managed to locate someone who has an old RV that I can strip of appliances!
I've been looking for a nice supply of scrapped out Glass Sliding doors lately on Freecycle with no luck yet, but once I find them the plan is to build a greenhouse figuring that the double pane construction will help hold heat in much better and cut down a great deal on the need for supplemental heat in winter months as compared to conventional types of 4 year plastic & PVC domed varieties. Not to mention if tshtf I wont be sol when it comes time to replace the plastic. And Staggerlee, if ya' have alot of old barn wood to work with I'm confused as to why it's splitting for you like that. Are you pre-drilling undersized holes prior to driving the nail or just going right to the hammer? And much thanks for the link to the ReStore, didn't know they had one. :cheers2: Yer' not such a Mean Mother$#%@er, Nick Cave had you all wrong!
