Reusing Old Electronics

If you are like me and often take apart used, broken, or even just useless electronic devices, then you probably wonder "Well... what should I do with all this cool stuff." or if you're like my mom, you wonder "What are you gonna use all this junk for !?" Answering these questions, there are many things to do with old electronics. In this instructable I will show you how to reuse those old electronic components or circuit boards by converting them into sculptures!

Of course you can use those old electronics for new projects, but what do you do with the circuit board and other components extracted that were not used? Store them until you need them for another project? Throw them out? No. Make some cool sculptures!

Gathering The Materials
There are a few things you need for sculpting, Wire cutters, Hot glue, and a Screwdriver. These will aid you in the demolition of your device along with the sculpting of your electronic figure.

When collecting materials for a sculpture, it is important to have a clear idea of what you want to make. Try to find a large number of smaller circuit boards for arms, legs, feet, and other things depending on what creature you are making. Buttons, Speakers, Gears, Jacks, and small metal pieces make great fillers that tie together the whole sculpture. When finding you pieces, try to envision what you are going to use the piece for. It is important to gather many pieces since, most of the time the pieces do not workout how you had planned.

Building Tips
- I like to start by making the base/torso then building off of that (Picture #1)
- Build Arms, Legs, Head, and other parts prior to connecting to the base
- Wrap wires around a leg or arm to attain a robotic feel (Pic 2,3)
- Buttons and LED's make great eyes (Pic 4)
- Batteries make great back items for a robotic sculpture
- Gears, Buttons, Speakers, LED's, Fuses, and Capacitors are great fillers (Pic 5)
- Use all pieces of your electronic device such as Metal, Gears, or Casing
- Speakers make great mouths
- Metal rods are great legs/arms
- If a circuit board has character (lots of components) use it to your advantage, don't screw it up (Pic 6)
- Showcase that one cool piece you find (Pic 4)

You are only limited to your imagination! This is a gallery of some of my sculptures.