Spinny Winny Recycley Thingy Scrap Metal Art

I absolutely hate people chucking perfectly good stuff away, I am a junk magnet (much to my wifes chagrin) but what must be done, must be done.

I am going to try to do this using tools most people will have, so no welding, lathes etc ( I have access to most of these things but not everyone does)

I was on the way in to work one morning and I saw this poor, forlorn, abandoned light fitting at the side of the road, I ignored it and carried on to my dentist appointment but an hour later it was still there!

It was fate, the stars coming into alignment or someother such rubbish -- so into the back of the car it went!!

It is made of stainless steel so I should be able to use it for something.

Good Question!

Initially I had no idea, I was thinking a water feature or something, but really was open to ideas and I would sleep on it (looks uncomfortable!)

I got it home and took all the unnecessary bits off of it.

This was all the glass shades, light bulbs and wiring.

So I have ended up with a bunch of 12v bulbs and a 240/12v transformer which I am sure that I will use at some point in the future.

I tightened up all the internal bolts and nuts etc and am ready to transform it.

I had a root around in the scrap bin at my wifes work and found a bunch of stainless steel sheet offcuts so I cut out some equilateral triangles from it.

I nipped the sharp points off as I am clumsy and would probably stab myself.

Now I could have cut these out with a hacksaw or jigsaw, but as I had use of a guillotine I used that.

I also bought some bearings, these would have been about $5 each in NZ but I found a chinese seller on ebay and bought the via the UK at 57 pence each.

Each one of these was centered in one of the truncated triangles

The first picture shows the process of attaching the bearings to the triangles

1. Centre bearing on triangle

2.Drill a hole and cut 6 slots

3.Bend slots out a bit

4.Locate piece of cut off gas pipe at rear

5. Press in bearing

6. Rear view of pressed in bearing

I used a jigsaw to cut the 6 slots, originally I used a hacksaw but this was a bit time consuming as you had to dismount the blade for each one.

I used a small adjustable spanner to start bending the tabs out in order to accurately locate the back "gaspipe" section

I then used the vice to press in the bearing into the hole and locate the tabs and bearing inside the pipe

All ready for the next stage.

Back to the stainless steel sheets, I am going to make propellors (and hopefully the will spin as opposed to clatter off each other!)

First I made a template out of plywood, a little smaller than the finished size I want, this is so I get consistency(ish) of size

Once made I clamped the template to a piece of stainless

Now these could be cut out using a handsaw, jigsaw or even a bandsaw, but because

a) I am lazy

b) it makes a lot of noise and my neighbour is peeing me off with his drumkit

and c) because I have one

I used my nibbler

one done 29 to go!

Using the vice I put a couple of bends in the blades so that when all assembled they will (hopefully) catch the wind and rotate

I drilled and bolted each spinner to 3 blades (once I know if it works I will probably change the bolts for pop rivets) and put the first one onto the light fitting base

9 more to make (or 27 blades if you prefer)

I made a whole bunch more (same as above, I actually used my Jigsaw with a metal cutting blade as I broke the nibbler!!)

They were then assembled on each arm, I still have 2 to make but ran out of stainless steel so back in the skip I go)

We also had a 4 day power cut due to a Cat 2 Hurricane passing through, so as I had no access to electricity I decided to make the mounting stand as I could do that with hand and battery tools.

I cut out a circular base to fit inside the Stainless steel base and a square table for it tho mount on, I also used an old fence post as the upright, these were all planed and sanded an give a coat of preservative (decking oil)

Unfortunately one of the internal fittings broke while I was bolting it all together, but "panic ye not", I removed all of the internals and bought a piece of threaded bar that would fit down the centre and using several nuts bolted everything together.

I then dug a hole with my post hole borer and mounted it in the ground.

Once it was all tamped down I cut off the excess threaded bar.

And so there it is.

Total cost was Five pounds 70 pence for the 10 bearings (about NZ$10) and NZ$16 for the stainless threaded bar,

It spins, it whirrs and it will probably mince a chicken if one decides to fly through, and as a bonus it also acts as a bird scarer near my vegetable beds.

I have entered it in the Trash to Treasure contest and would appreciate your votes (I fancy a big ass TV I can see from outer space!! ;-) )