ScrapHappy July 2019:High(er) and Dry(er)

Take one broken clothes dryer…

Some time ago, there was a crash and the shelves I had put up in the kitchen collapsed in a heap of plaster, wood and cookery books. In my defence, I had put them up a decade before, so I felt that I was not entirely to blame for their succumbing to gravity. However, as I had just kept putting cookery books on the top (book) shelf, I may have had a role in the whole noisy, dusty and dryer-mangling affair.

The clothes dryer, at that time folded up neatly as the manufacturer intended, took the full force of half a hundredweight of books and cooking utensils (only some of which were breakable) and, being designed to take the weight of a small quantity of wet clothes, promptly bent and broke.

It sat, as forlorn as any clothes dryer might look, for a while, swathed only in some wire, left from abandoned attempts at a fix. Then, one day, the Snail said “Take that old dryer apart and we will use some of the bits for the squashes to climb up!” and I did just that because a) it is a really good idea and b) who wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to make the Snail’s dream come true?

Careful with that axe, hacksaw, Eugene, er, Mr Snail

 

Sometimes, you need something a little more powerful that a hand tool, even if you have no idea how to use it safely*

All the bits that go into a clothes dryer

The rivets were easily cut through with a jigsaw – they were just too tough for a hacksaw.

A new lease of life as a squash climbing frame

There were some bits left over that made a ScrapHappy logo (and are now in the place where those useful bits go that haven’t let you know what they will be useful for yet).

oOo

* I learnt everything I know about DIY from Reg Prescott

These ScrapHappy posts are curated by Kate, who provides links to other (mostly sewing) ScrapHappy bloggers at Tall Tales from Chiconia on the fifteenth of every month. I have sneaked a non-fabric-based ScrapHappy in when no one was looking!

Lots of other happy scrappers contribute too, so check them out: Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Karen,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Johanna,
Joanne, Jon (me), Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie and Bekki

Tank(ard)s for the memory

Lurking at the back of the now newly-endoored* kitchen cupboard (see here for details) was this commemorative pint glass from the excitingly named Brewing Congress of the Americas. Back in 1992, I had a real job and just this once was allowed to go further afield than Yorkshire.

It was the first time I had ever flown in an aircraft – I flew from Heathrow to O’Hare, Chicago and then took another flight an hour later to St Louis. Fortunately, it turned out I quite liked flying, even when the landing at St Louis rearranged my coccyx somewhat.

I hadn’t really thought about that trip for years until this tankard emerged from the cupboard. Sadly, the severely cracked glass has had to be recycled but it lives on, in blog form, here.

oOo

• To endoor – to put a door on. Not to be confused with endear, which is the bit at the base of your earlobe.

ScrapHappy June 2019: Love Triangle

You can keep your Bermuda, your isosceles and your musical varieties – my warning triangle is the best. Unfortunately, like a lovelorn triangular heart, it broke. I think it lurked around in the boot of the car and was squished by either some luggage, a dog or a person. What it needed was some scrap – chiefly, three bits of old computer.

I just happened to have this old PC lying around…

The metal braces were once the covers to be found on the back of desktop-flavoured PCs, to stop small fingers and the wet noses of dogs intruding whilst allowing for extra gizmos to be added. Removable, handy pieces of metal once the PC has reached the end of its life – in this case, due to a combination of software obsolescence and reluctance of the power supply to start up first thing in the day (that I can relate to!).

Some strong glue, tins of coconut milk for a bit of pressure on the braces while the glue was drying et voila! One triangle as opposed to six straight lines. Add an old knitting needle in the case to stop the whole thing bending quite so readily when sat on, and the job was done!

Hopefully, I’ll never need to use it!

oOo

These ScrapHappy posts are curated by Kate, who provides links to other (mostly sewing) ScrapHappy bloggers at Tall Tales from Chiconia on the fifteenth of every month. I have sneaked a non-fabric-based ScrapHappy in when no one was looking!

Lots of other happy scrappers contribute too, so check them out: Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Karen,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Johanna,
Joanne, Jon (me), Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie and Bekki

 

ScrapHappy May 2019: Heap O’ Scrap

Believe me, the pictures in this blog don’t get any more exciting than this

So where so you acquire your scrap from then? I guess soft scrappers end up with lots of leftovers – certainly, the Snail does. For us hard scrappers, well, we find our bits and pieces in a variety of places – often on the road or in skips, but often just around the house.

This is a light fitting. It holds the bulb in place while magic fairies sit in the glass envelope lighting cigarettes. Probably. Annoyingly, when a tiny piece of plastic breaks off it, usually because the fitting is only 30 years old and has become brittle from the heat of all those fairies’ nicotine-induced behaviour, it renders the whole thing unusable, presumably because the magic fairies are all lopsided and keep dropping their ciggies so leave for more horizontal climes. Or it may just be that the bulb doesn’t sit straight in the fitting.

This is what one has inside it (a light fitting, not a magic fairy. A picture of that would be disturbing.):

The insides of a light fitting. I know, contain yourselves, it really is SO thrilling

So what can you do with these bits? Well, the springs and metal pins are useful for all kinds of things, including mending other light fittings where they have corroded but the plastic bit is still OK. The plastic bits can be used for, well, I have no idea so they may well end up in the recycling, but you never know. The connector things can be reused as connector things. Even the plastic box the replacement came in can be used as a housing for a Raspberry Pi project.

So, a small repair job has yielded a small heap o’ scrap that may, in time, go towards helping to keep the fairies in another light bulb happy.

Or simply live a peaceful existence along with all the other bits of scrap around the place.

oOo

These ScrapHappy posts are curated by Kate, who provides links to other (mostly sewing) ScrapHappy bloggers at Tall Tales from Chiconia on the fifteenth of every month. I have sneaked a non-fabric-based ScrapHappy in when no one was looking!

Lots of other happy scrappers contribute too, so check them out: Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Karen,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Johanna,
Joanne, Jon (me), Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie and Bekki

P.S. Couldn’t think what to use for the banner picture, so I used an egg I drew on to try to make it look like a Stormtrooper for May 4th. Sorry for the obvious distress this will cause, but it was that, or the one of the egg that is supposed to be Princess Leia, or Princess Lay-an-egg, as I called it.

ScrapHappy April 2019: Better late than never (possibly)

The patient (1)

Sorry for the lateness of this ScrapHappy post but life has been wonderfully distracting. Patient 1 is the waterbutt stand I built a long time ago out of new wood but have then “improved” with distinctly old wood ever since. It has only ever collapsed twice, the first time when the pre-made deck on which the waterbutt sits, failed, sending a full butt of water (200 litres, no less) all over the path. That time, pallets provided the material for the fix.

The second collapse wasn’t quite as total, and there was no water loss. I would like to say that this happened last week and I was on the case in a flash – sadly, it actually happened three months plus ago and I have been on the sofa watching Dr Who and eating chocolate for most of the intervening time. That is very much how I roll. Mmm… chocolate rolls…

I digress (plus I’m getting chocolate roll in the keyboard). It turned out that woodlice had eaten some of one of the deck supports (clearly that is their equivalent of chocolate). Not having another chunky piece of wood, I found an offcut (that I have no idea what it is an offcut from, but I cut it off because the cut is as straight as a die in a Universe where a die is the wobbliest thing ever).

 

That screw should be horizontal, and the bit that goes through the upright is. Oh dear.

The culprit. It appears to be a trilobite.

Support your local crosspiece

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excitingly (for me only), I was able to use my clamp. I bought a couple ages ago but have never had the opportunity to actually use them in anger, so to speak.

Some long screws and a minimal amount of swearing later, and the job was done.

Waterbutt standing proud

As all my tools were now outside in the Good Friday sunshine, I decided to do a quick repair on that old favourite, PalletGate. One of the nifty things that hold the slidey bit in had shrunk, or moved, or something and wasn’t doing the job anymore.

Patient 2: Oh, slidey keepy-in thing, you had one job…

I used a piece of pallet instead of this bit of our willow (which has gone to the Kelly Kettle to be turned into boiling water for tea). Again, only minimal swearing was required to fix it up.

It’s neither big nor clever, but it does work. For now.

Now, I can return to the sofa. There’s some important chocolate to be eaten and the Doctor is having trouble with Cybermen. Again.

oOo

These ScrapHappy posts are curated by Kate, who provides links to other (mostly sewing) ScrapHappy bloggers at Tall Tales from Chiconia on the fifteenth of every month. I have sneaked a non-fabric-based Scraphappy in when no one was looking!