/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>843597
what's upcycling?
is it like recycling?
because you know we already have a word for that
its 'recycling'

>>843600
Yo dawg, i heard you like to google, so i googled this google so you can google your Google while google google google.

>>843600
It's taking something with one purpose and making something of a different purpose with it. So for example, you can take a bike that's used for travel, and turn it into the base for a sink, like the photo.

>>843604
right, so like i recycle some old newspaper and it becomes toilet paper.
the only difference i can see is that 'upcycling' is taking something perfectly functional and useful and turning it into some gaudy useless shit that is fucking retarded?
is that what i'm missing?

the bit i'm struggling with is the 'up', it implies there is some kind of added benefit, the end product is somehow better than what you started with?
this just looks like someone stores their bike under a basin and bangs their shin on the pedal.
but yes, good choice, bicycles are well known for their ability to stand up by themselves, i'm sure it is structurally significant to the basin, especially with the front wheel angled like that.

the truth is this bike hasn't even been re-cycled, it has been wasted.

>>843610
If you don't have anything useful here, then fuck off mate.

>>843616

Pot, come in pot, kettle calling. Fuck the fuck off. The worst part about this is the clear desperation. It's not enough to use something that already exists (for fucking ever) it's how you have to rebrand things in a way that sounds hip to you, so you feel new and totally not your parents. You are not new. And, clearly, not original. Fuck the fuck off.

Jimmies Status: Rustled

>>843616
>anything useful
like that bike?
go fuck off yourself you prick

>this thread.

>>843610
Have to agree with this guy. That's a waste of an awesome looking bike.

Upcycling should be about using something basic to make something better. Using that bike as a sink support is downcycling.

It's like no one can look past the example.

>>843637
There is no cycling of any kind happening here.
Upcycling implies the use of something that would otherwise be thrown away and buried/melted down/pulped/ etc into something that is useful.
e.g. turning a cracked jar into a plant pot, or using yoghurt cups for modular parts storage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-59afi4z94
>>843638
Because OP is an absolute moron.

Here's a watch I made from an old temperature controller.

>>843642
That's cool.

>>843642
Fuck yes

>>843604
So...recycling. Gotcha.

>>843641
>no guard, splitter or riving knife on that table saw
>long, baggy sleeves
Jesus christ

>>843642
I like the clock idea with it
But a watch? It would be better as a little desk clock.

>>843604
That's a neat word and all, but what's the point in re-branding the concept of recycling?

Here's some bicycle panniers I built from the plastic shells of old CRT monitors. There's speakers and sound responsive lights. Batteries are charged from solar panels. Most of the CRT guts went into a Tesla coil.

>>843686
How much does that weigh?

>>843695
It probably looks a lot heavier than it is. Our brains see CRT monitors as heavy fucks because thats what they were. But remember he's stripped the guts out of both of them and replaced the insides with some speakers and LEDs.

>>843664
Everyone knows that flannel is cutproof.

And, i didnt see him make a single cut without pushsticks. Pretty sure he knows what he's doing...

>>843717
Well the lead filled glass is the heaviest part.

>>843686
So now your bike is 3 feet wide, and you can't park it and lock it to a bicycle stand or else someone will probably steal that electronic shit. Congratulations, you just made your bicycle less useful.

>>843597
do you have to keep those tires inflated?

>>843616
> I cannot rebut what he's saying, so I'll make a swear and get hostile. Never fails me in the playground at school.

>>843641
Upcycling is a fucking buzzword. Everything you just described is recycling.

>>843685
Duh, for the same reasoning hackerspace fags now call themselves "makers". Branding, pure and simple. Recycling has an association with trash. Artfags aren't interested in trash unless it has brand, hence, upcycling. It's the same shit, different shovel.

Now, if someone can explain how recycling (taking something of no value (trash) and reusing it as raw materials for something of greater value than trash) is different from upcycling (resuse discarded materials (trash) to create something of greater value than trash) then we will happily leave you idiots alone to your little circlefuck of buzzwords. Otherwise you can fuck off back to whichever clique of pretentiousness you faggots came from.

>>843686
This is upcycling. Those panniers are worth now than they were as out-of-date CRTs.

>>843775
I think upcycling implies that you are changing the item's function whereas recycling is reusing it for the same function.

>>843779
> worth *more* now
To whom? I'm sure guys in Cuba who have been living under a tech embargo for years would see much more value in them as functional monitors than as some outrageously over-engineered panniers designed to attract chemheads and people impressed by flashing lights. You experience =/= everyone's experience. Meanwhile, as pointed out, if anything this has decreased the function and practicality of the bike.


>>843780
I see no such implication, but I see the point you're making. Still doesn't ring true though. I smelt aluminum cans into various components for robotic and other projects, which is what the recycling industry has been doing for years (converting waste into usable materials). I still do not see how this is different to reusing discarded materials/objects to create something of greater value that the raw material/object itself. Again, *value* is objective, but a bag of cans is certainly less useful than a DC motor mount (though, if you know how to RECYCLE them in a useful manner, then they are infinitely useful as they technically have infinite uses)

>>843783
>converting waste into usable materials
Oops, to complete that sentence "converting waste into usable materials, even if just melting steel to ingots to remove impurities like paint and plastic layering for further manufacture"

>>843717
..and added a stanking big SLA battery, which would likely put the total added weight back into the ballpark weight of a CRT.

>>843768
I removed the original glass tubes. The "screens" are plexiglass solar panels now.

>>843769
It takes five minutes to take the panniers off and on. They're for fun party bicycle rides, not daily use.

>>843793
Dude that's sexy. Do you think you can post more pictures of the craft of it? I might end up doing something similar for when I move.

>>843793
P.S. What bike group is that?

>>843835

>>843838
So not my skill level.

>>843610

You have perfectly captured the spirit of upcycling, and the whole wave of neo-diyers brought on by shit like pinterest.

A huge influx of reddit-tier "rustic/recycled/upcycled" projects on instructables embodies the gaudy look you described.

It's like these people take 2 perfectly working items, and juryrig them into some psuedo "diy" pos made speciel by the fact they were "hurr made by me".

This sink holds no purpose other than the creator now has the ability to say "hey look at this, I made this", which is usually fine to say, but not when it's this half-assed and borderline retarded. Sure it looks cool, but it in no way is "upcycled"

>>843840
>>843840
LED projects don't require that much electronics skill anymore. You could build something like this with an arduino and addressable LED strips instead of designing and building everything from scratch.

>>843664
>>no guard, splitter or riving knife on that table saw
Those three things are complete crap for anyone doing more than just the most basic cuts on a saw. They prevent bevels, rabbits, and dados, I don't want a saw that can't do those things. As for the long sleeves, if you can't keep your hands away from the spinning blade with push sticks, your arms are simply doomed bare or dressed, please just stay away from saws. I'm not about to cut wood in my unheated, northern climate garage without sleeves. Sometimes, I wear gloves. The trick is never put flesh close enough to get cut.

This thread had so much potential.

If only OP had said recycle and not pissed off the summerfags

>>843775
Yes, recycling implies at some point creation of prime matter, like an ingot of some kind. Upcycling is a form of recycling that keeps the object as it is but just re-purposes it. But you're right, it's a mere buzzword to describe a very niche use of trash.

>>843597
that picture is literally cancer.

>>843996
>OP posts retarded hipster-tier project made solely for hoarding likes (which he didnt even do himself)
>asks others to hand him ideas without contributing anything
>people calling him out on his pretentiousness are somehow summer

Fuck off, faggot.

>>843600
>>843610
A better word I've seen used is "re-purpose," which is basically using something that you would otherwise throw away/recycle. Like I go through a lot of cottage cheese and yogurt so I keep the containers to use as cheap plant starting containers, I keep the old laundry detergent buckets to do things like haul gravel or pickup dog shit, and I keep junkmail/magazines to make x-bow targets or shred for compost/bedding.

OP was asking more specifically for creative and fun ways other people have done this, probably not as obvious as mine. Probably something like making a small-scale model of a city with old PC boards or making ghostbuster packs out of vacuum cleaners.

>>843637
I'm with this guy. Leave the "upcycling" of perfectly good things like turning bikes into sink supports to dumbtwat artists. This is /diy/ and we have standards... I don't wanna hear about how innovative you are for forcing your nephew to sit crouched under the corner of a table as a replacement leg when he could be working the fields/mines or in a textile/apple factory or something.

>>843841
The actual purpose is to take things that would otherwise be disposed of in a landfill and make something truly useful or imaginative out of them. Like most other things, you can't define it by what the hipsters do to it... sure, as a whole, the whole upcycling movement was shit pretty much right as it left the gate (because of the hipsters and 'artists') but at its base it's still a valid thing I think.

Sort of like how some scientists got together and thought "hmmm maybe the earth is getting warmer and maybe it's because of this thing we'll call greenhouse gases?" and then Al Gore ran around the room screaming in everyones faces about how they owed him money for ruining all his shit.

Taking a perfectly good thing and doing something dumb with it (i.e. bike > sink stand) is fucking dumb. Taking a broken down piece of shit that's gonna sit in a landfill anyways and doing something cool/useful with it (i.e. rotted porch lumber > chicken coop) is not dumb.

>>843838
where did you get the solar panels?

>>844079
I got some class A mono-crystalline cells from Evergreen Solar , then tabbed and soldered them together onto plexiglass. Evergreen Solar went bankrupt in 2011 and had to liquidate everything, so I got 1000 of these for $30. Here's the backside of different panel.

>>844031
Nah it's all that edge bro. You get here (or any community really) and get pissy when people do stupid shit. Once you get settled in, you let the stupid shit slide. Not worth it.

>>843990
Please stop spreading terrible and irresponsible safety advice on a forum full of newbies and amateurs that might be considering the purchase of their first table saw.

Yes, a capable semi-professional can dispense with portions of recommended practice (as is true in all fields), but someone that reads this and heads out to menards tonight is liable to wake up tomorrow one finger short.

>>843600
just ignore him, he is a hipster faggot thats here because of school being out, here in a few months hell be gone again.

>>844162

Let's fucking assume they're fucking somewhat capable, jesus. Safety patrol my ass, if that post causes any harm to anyone, then it's there fault in the first place. Let's not be ridiculous

>>844579
> Assume someone who has never seen a table saw and may not know about the dangers of kickbacks and other risks associated with the tool, knows about the inherent dangers and risks of the tool.

If ever there was a need for persistent post ID's, it is now. You are the most irresponsible cunt I have seen on this board for a long time, and your words do not deserve sharing. I hope you treat your own welfare as flippantly as you do that of others and bleed yourself out with a power tool.

>>843838
Moar picts of this masterpiece please. Are you a wizard?
Nice build. This gets my vote for coolest shit I've seen on DIY so far..

>>844155
Yeah, bad safety advice should just slide on by. The ER doesn't have enough practice with missing digits and limbs anyway!

>>844579
>Let's fucking assume they're fucking somewhat capable, jesus.
How about we not and never again simply assume someone is educated about shit 1 out of 20 people knows how to properly fucking use anymore? These tools can and will take limbs off. If you were this idiotic about guns I'd kick you off the range.

>>843775
Upcycling preserves the original physical form, at least partially, from what I can tell from reading this thread at least.. Recycling does not.

>>843610
>'upcycling' is taking something perfectly functional and useful and turning it into some gaudy useless shit that is fucking retarded?
bingo.

>>843780
So like all metal casting is upcycling, unless I'm casting it into the same item again. Like Cast a Bronze Sword from Bronze Sword Fragments.

Unless I'm melting down working lathes or bronze artwork to make stuff of less value.

What the fuck is with the grumpy hostility the last few days?
It's getting fucking obnoxious. Fuck off to /soc/ or something til you can calm down.
Christ.

>>844828
I haven't seem much outside of this thread. Look at OP's first response to a question on his thread. it all goes downhill from there.

>>844828
/diy/ is probably one of the oldest boards on average.

Also this devolved into a semantics discussion over what upcycling and recycling is when both are (or were, in the case of recycling) obnoxious buzzwords with less-than-definite meanings.

>>844757

>>845283
looks sick

possible 'up-cycle'?
took a bunch of toilet paper tubes and some extra scrap cardboard, a Coke box, a Mt. Dew box, and a breakfast cereal box, a hot glue gun and made these 'google goggles' for the kids to play spy/adventure/camping with.
so took materials that were destined for the garbage or recycling bin and made something kids can play with. maybe they are even worth a couple dollar$ if sold at some crafty fair? who knows.

>>846024
this is arts and crafts anon.
we already agreed there is no such thing as upcycling, even if there was this isn't it.
nice detail, where did you get the smaller tube from?

>>843685
Because "upcycling" is a word used by stores selling refinished stuff or purses made from old pairs of jeans to fucking idiot hipster trash with more money than brains.

Seriously. I can "upcycle" pallets into headboards in this city and sell them for $500 apiece. Without doing a goddamn thing other than filling in the gaps with other pallet boards and giving it a 120 grit sanding, slapping cheap stain on it, and dunking it in some varnish.

So not kidding.

>>843597
So you call it "Upcycling" cause you fucked up that bicycle?

Bump. And I'm with op, instead of arguing about shit you post something you've actually done.

>>846833
yeah c'mon guys, post more upcycling. pic related.

>>846032
smaller tube is from the grocery store; the core from a roll of those bags ya use for fresh veggies n fruits.

Recycling, by definition, is turning a material into a previous state. Some people use it to mean something else, but that's what it means when used in the context of recycling bin and program. It is a destructive process.

They melt the plastic down into a more refined state which can then be used to make plastic products.

So you children need to stop trying to argue over semantics so you can look cool.

Upcycling is stupid buzzword, but so are meme, blog, buzzword, cloud, and just about every other made up word we use everyday.

OP was looking to make a thread of re-purposing items that no longer have any value to the owner into items that do have value. Now, if you want to call it upcycling, re-purposing, hacking, or jury rigging. It doesn't make a difference.

>>847039
this.
all day long. this.

and here is a (fill in yer own buzzword) table someone in a town near me is trying to sell for $75. nice simple re-use of otherwise junk. is it *worth* $75. not to me and prolly not to most but is it worth doing? sure. this would be perfect for someone's college apartment or even early post college apartment.

>>847067
what a fucking piece of shit
$75?
go to a charity shop and buy an actually nice looking table for like $10
>hurr durr college apartment everything has to be breezeblock and driftwood shelves.

this cost how much to make? literally nothing, probably hauled the paint out of a skip too because lets be honest you wouldn't choose that colour would you? i bet its not even fucking sanded down before its painted.

>otherwise junk
right, because these perfectly functional pallets couldn't have been put to any better use than bring treated timber into your house for your pets to gnaw on because i bet you have some fashionable bag-dog or some shit.

I have seen people "fixing up" furniture by painting over varnish without any surface prep. takes a few coats and its all lumpy and horrible texture and flakes off at the drop of a hat but hey, it adds 'character' apparently. its incredible what idiots will pay for ruined furniture.

>>843597
You could have sold that bike and bought a sink that doesn't look like shit(everything about it sucks, not just the retarded bike stand), or rode the bike to work and saved enough in gas to afford a sink that doesn't look terrible. Then you'd still have a bike.

I like to think that the original sink and basin that were there are now out in the yard being used as an ugly planter or bird bath.

>>847067
That's the ugliest fucking "table" I've ever seen. And why the he'll would you even want a table that can't hold shit?

If you set something small enough down in a goofy or haphazardly way it might fall through a gap

>>847117
Because while /diy/ is a bunch of trend followers who are into "mah hardwood" there are a bunch of trend followers who into "mah pallets" or "mah eco-friendly". I personally think pallets are a stupid choice for furniture but people like it, so I guess we can fuck right off.

There is a factory by me that makes pallets, I talked to the manager there. He said that he gets orders from furniture makers to deliver brand new pallets to them for use in furniture building. They save money by buying the pallets versus making them.

>>847115
OP didn't make the bike sink. I personally think it looks cool, and so would more people than not. The people who would have something like that in their house have more money than sense.

>>847067
This but with 50% bigger glass section cost me £2.50 and maybe 3 hours finishing up (and I'm dead fussy about little nicks/scratches), who the fuck buys this shit?

>>847146
People who like the look of it. The interesting thing about aesthetics is that they vary between cultures and people. Some people like art deco, some like art and crafts, some like shabby chic, some like steampunk, some like southwestern.

Pretty hard concept to grasp, huh?

>>847080
>what a fucking piece of shit
>$75?
I work for a grocery store company and people come in asking for [smaller] pallets all the time.
,,,,,
often the stores will get small displays, maybe 2 feet square or 18 inches square, that comes already built on a mini wooden pallet. The normal pallets get re-used but these little ones don't. When the display gets taken down, the cardboard displays get baled+recycled but the little wooden pallets just get thrown away. So people take the little wooden pallets and make stuff from them.

another thing that surprised me: in *upscale* areas----people will come in and ask for produce crates and boxes, to decorate kitchens with.... the un-shucked corn ears come in flimsy wooden crates that are poorly stapled together from thin crooked wood, and a lot of other produce comes in waxed cardboard boxes with pictures of fruit and evocative names on the sides. And it all gets thrown away anyway.... Apparently a lot of rich people love to have this shit sitting around in their kitchens.

>>847154
Home depot sells little wooden crates. Those things fly off the shelves. I was looking at them. They're shitty, flimsy, each bar is held on with a single brad nail at each end. Best part is they are made in America. ONLY BUY 'MURICAN GUYS! IT'S GREAT QUALITY!

>>843685
It's not rebranded, it's upcycled.

>>847146
but i hate midcentury style.

>>846847
what am I looking at here?

>>847156
I rarely go in there to actually buy anything anymore, I just go to get ideas from their shitty built overpriced shit so I can make well built stuff from decent material at a decent price.

I was actually there two days ago looking at those little wooden crates thinking "who the fuck would actually buy something like that?" Every fucking shitty thing on it sticks out like a sore thumb to me. The wood is thin as fuck and unfinished, and those single brad nail joints just what the fuck I don't even.

>>847208
Some brony ruined a hundred year old rifle. I don't know what kind. Maybe the bullety kind.

would be even better if some doors are put on the front.

who doesn't have a bunch of keys lying around that they no longer know what lock or door they open?

I know I have a bunch of old wood chairs that are all wobbly and every attempt to make them solid and sturdy has failed. guess its bench time!

thinking of doing one of these for my entry hall.

upcycle! yeah!

hi! I'm a little upcycled green thingy!

what a WASTE of good wrenches hurr durr durr
could have used the wrenches to get a job and fix things hurr durr durr

TRASHFORMERS!

http://www.fyi.tv/shows/trashformers

>>847772
the guitar from airplane body parts was pretty cool actually.... in a 'steampunk'-ish kind of way.

seriously need to do something with all the old school 'entertainment centers'. it has gotten so bad that re-sale or even some goodwill shops won't even take them anymore. no one wants them.... even for free.

>>847765
I did something very similar. I found tool boxes of someone's grandfather's tools on the side of the road a few years ago. Then I found a dresser that fits perfectly in my closet under my hanging clothes, also free on the side of the road. Really good shape, other than the handles. So I picked three old wrenches, two are brands no longer made and one is a "s" obstruction wrench. One wrench wasn't made past 1927. Anyway, I welded threaded rod in two place on each wrench, slipped a steel tube on as a spacer, and bolted them to my drawers. Best looking dresser I've ever owned, with those wrench handles.

a lot of these old baby cribs are not even supposed to used (as a baby crib) anymore according to Safety Pup.

>>847785
nice! also good you knew how to weld. that comes in very handy.

I took an old tall wood dresser from a re-sale shop (think I paid maybe $15) it was missing one of the bottom drawers. no worries. I cut it down and used the top half (with the top three drawers) as a built-in in a small closet in my child's room. painted it white. fancied up the drawer faces and pull handles. looks great works great. and I still have the bottom half and one drawer left over to work into some other project.

>>847794
Welding was something I just picked up this year, for these kind of projects. The dresser also had a mirror. I tossed the outer wood frame that held the tilting inner wood frame and mirror, then welded up brackets to mount the mirror above my sink in the bathroom I just finished renovating, keeping the tilting action. I like buying tools, and I have to convince the wife the money was well spent. I'm winning, but she doesn't think I'll be able to take a pair of matching bike frames I got for free and build a tandem. I'll show her.