D.I.Y. Crazy
I am a D.I.Y. freak really. My philosophy is "why buy if you can make?". I apply that to almost everything. I like to recycle things and find novel solutions to problems. That's what this site is about. Sharing ideas on how to make things and especially how to save money and recycle.
My special interests are Recycling, Electronics, gardening, Home D.I.Y. and photography and they often get combined as in my eco friendly birdbath garden fountain which I have photographed.
I have put two of my recent projects on here and will add more over the coming months. I hope they will interest and inspire you.
I will keep details to a minimum because you wouldn't be here if you were not an inventive type of person and you will hopefully be inspired to develop your own solutions to problems. However please feel free to e-mail me if you want to ask questions about the projects:- sirkituk@yahoo.co.uk
SOLAR POWERED FOUNTAIN
The fountain was bought at a reduced price in an end of season sale. It was made in USA and I found that it only worked well in completely clear skies, middle of the year and around middle of the day. Obviously designed for southern states of USA. I measured output voltage and found it was 6 volts. I measured output of solar panel on a cheap LED garden light and found it was 2 volts. I cut out 3 panels and soldered them together in series to give 6 volts. These are joined in parallel across the existing panel. Now it runs from April to October and, in mid summer from 9 am to 4pm and will tolerate a few passing clouds. A great improvement.
BIKE STAND
This project was for a person with two bikes who lives in an upstairs flat (apartment) and had only 42 inches (1.05m) by 24 inches (0.6m) of floor space outside the door.
This project has been included as I believe that many people who live in flats may have problems storing their bikes safely and securely. When left outside they rust and are at greater risk of being stolen.
The bikes were measured and ramps were constructed to fit the wheels. The base size is designed to fit the available space on the landing outside an upstairs flat. Three wing nuts can be removed to collapse the device for easy transportation as flat dwellers tend to move more frequently than others.
90% of the wood used in this project came from a house floor which I rescued from a skip (dumpster), after asking permission from the owner.
In case you are wondering what happened to the remainder of the floor, here are 2 more of the uses I found for old floorboards.
The bird box is roofed with a scrap of left over roofing felt. The 8 foot section of fence was designed to match the fence on the right of the photo. It has a section of scrap rainwater gutter along the top to help reduce rot. I still have some floorboards waiting for the next suitable project.
GREENHOUSE
This project recycled all the glass from my old windows when I had replacement windows fitted. (You have to ask the man nicely or he will smash all the windows as he removes them!!)
NOTE in the background you can see one of my 8 water butts which are recycled juice barrels bought for £10 each and very serviceable. The tap (fawcett) is a recycled kitchen tap. The jumper that holds the tap washer is araldited in, because of the low water pressure in a butt, so that it is lifted as you open the tap. The butts stand on heat store blocks from my old storage heaters, and the butts are joined together with pieces of old garden hose that had become too rigid with age to use as a garden hose any longer.
My garden shed to the left in the photo is made from ex USAAF tent floorboard sections bought from a scrap yard with windows reclaimed from a skip.
WINDMILL
I built this windmill to deter birds from eating newly sown seed. The CDs (free in weekend newspapers) flash as they move round.
Tell me what you think of my site. e-mail comments to sirkituk@yahoo.co.uk
LINK TO - DIY MOWER REPAIRS PAGE
| Recycle your old household batteries. |
| Most council waste disposal centres in this country are now able to collect old household batteries of any type and send them to be processed to recycle many of the materials in them. |
Links to interesting sites
http://groups.msn.com/Electronicsisfun
http://groups.msn.com/TheVirtualGarden
