Junk lawnmower make-over
Thomas Edison famously said, "to invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk!" I always sing along with Muppet Oscar-the-grouch's theme song "I love trash." Last summer one of our neighbors sold his house and made a big mound of everything that didn't move during his yard sale. There was some great stuff in that pile! I tried to exercise restraint, but ended up bringing home three loads using my wife's red, Radio Flyer wagon. Most of my haul was nice sized pieces of high-grade plywood, but there was a vintage Sears electric lawn mower and a stack of heavy, interlocking plastic strips. I recognized those plastic strips from a TV ad that promoted them as a way to firm up a sagging couch or mattress. When I brought all this stuff home, I didn't have a project idea for any of it. Here is a brief accounting of what became of some of this junk.
Our small yard produces an amazing amount of small sticks. The usual method to get rid of them involves cutting them and making a bread-box sized bundle that the garbage man finds acceptable. One bundle counts the same as a bag of trash. We also have curb-side yard waste collection, but they don't collect sticks in any form. One day I was making a new stick pile and while wishing I had a wood chipper, I noticed that old lawn mower. I thought if I kept the blade very sharp and fed sticks slowly, it might work to reduce my sticks to usable wood chips. I bolted some of the plywood I brought home to the bottom of the lawn mower, cut a hole and started to feed in small branches. It worked very well, sending small wood chips flying out the discharge chute. Then I found an old seed bag tied around the chute would collect the chips nicely. My wife had the good idea of making a video of this project, which is posted on youtube. So far, that video has been viewed a few thousand times and generated just over $10 in ad revenue. It's better than getting poked in the eye with a bundle of tied sticks!
The plastic strips have been useful for several projects. Another project that became a DIY video was repairing a couple of sea kayak seats. Two friends of ours each had broken kayak seat backs and both had tried to repair the hinges with duct tape. The duct tape was messy and didn't really hold the seat back in place. It was an easy matter to cut the plastic into exact replacement size and rivet them in place. Usually the hard part is finding the right plastic for this sort of job. Thanks, junk pile! I also cut a 1-1/2" disk from the plastic to improve the steering on that same red wagon by adding a slippery plastic washer.
The plywood has been useful in several other jobs around our house. One piece was cut into a bench holder that allowed me to hold and rotate a giant stainless-steel pipe that was the core of our new sailboat rudder. The bench holder saved lots of time on that job and let me spin the big blade during the fiberglass work. One of the bigger plywood pieces is now the work surface for Lisa's new gardening bench.
Not all of my junk collecting has been this productive, but I enjoy the opportunity to exercise my imagination. Any good ideas for a couple of old toilets that became unemployed when we switched to new, low flow units?
Copyright 2013 Paul Larsen
Our small yard produces an amazing amount of small sticks. The usual method to get rid of them involves cutting them and making a bread-box sized bundle that the garbage man finds acceptable. One bundle counts the same as a bag of trash. We also have curb-side yard waste collection, but they don't collect sticks in any form. One day I was making a new stick pile and while wishing I had a wood chipper, I noticed that old lawn mower. I thought if I kept the blade very sharp and fed sticks slowly, it might work to reduce my sticks to usable wood chips. I bolted some of the plywood I brought home to the bottom of the lawn mower, cut a hole and started to feed in small branches. It worked very well, sending small wood chips flying out the discharge chute. Then I found an old seed bag tied around the chute would collect the chips nicely. My wife had the good idea of making a video of this project, which is posted on youtube. So far, that video has been viewed a few thousand times and generated just over $10 in ad revenue. It's better than getting poked in the eye with a bundle of tied sticks!
The plywood has been useful in several other jobs around our house. One piece was cut into a bench holder that allowed me to hold and rotate a giant stainless-steel pipe that was the core of our new sailboat rudder. The bench holder saved lots of time on that job and let me spin the big blade during the fiberglass work. One of the bigger plywood pieces is now the work surface for Lisa's new gardening bench.
Not all of my junk collecting has been this productive, but I enjoy the opportunity to exercise my imagination. Any good ideas for a couple of old toilets that became unemployed when we switched to new, low flow units?
Copyright 2013 Paul Larsen
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