Hopefully new raised beds soon!

[HeyWayne]

For a while now I've toyed with the idea of making raised beds from some of the scrap metal our company throws into a skip to be recycled.

Anyway, I finally got out to the skip before it had been emptied and here's what I managed to get hold of.

They're about a metre long (or there abouts) and as you can see they have "lipped" edges, which should make them easy to slot together to form longer lengths.

Amazing what you can salvage innit!?

What else do you reckon I could do with them?

[beefy]

Bolt them together to make trays /staging for a greenhouse / shed

[smallblueplanet]

Wow! Dermuid Gavin would think you were dead trendy!

[Peter]

Cut yourself quite badly I reckon.

A realistic use, armour plate your allotment shed.


Seriously Wayne, I would use them lengthways and finish bending over the lip on the edge out of the ground to give a nice safe rounded edge to put your hands on.

Are they bare steel or zinc plated?
Think about rust protection if it is thin metal.

Given the price of scrap metal, - a local fire station had its jaws of life stolen and they were rcovered from an aborted burgulary of metal fencing, - be prepared to find your beds wall-less.

[seasprout]

You could make a Suspension bridge..? Mr Sausage fingers.

[HeyWayne]

They are actually a consituent part of some concrete reinforcement that we manufacture, so they're zinc plated. However, they will have cut edges so I will treat them myself - probably with something to make them look less like metal, maybe a bit of "street" camouflage!

If I were allowed a shed, God knows I'd have plenty to actually build one from scratch, but alas no permanent erections allowed on the site. I could make a bench though...

Peter, I do intend on bending the lips right over as they do have quite burred edges and need gloves to be handled. I will probably have to "flatten" one of the edges to help it bed into the ground too.

Hey, Diremud will have nothing on me SBP!

you noticed then seasprout!?

[Snadger]

Nice engineering project for you Heywayne! Take some piccies when you're finished to make us all jealous, won't you.

[Sirius]

I honestly don't have a clue what else you could do with them!! But when I saw the post it reminded me of a great link that was passed on to me last night.

The Freecycle Network

It's a site where ordinary folk all over the country advertise or ask for anything and everything that can be passed on and reused. Having had a look at it, I'm quite impressed with the goodies that are to be had and the stuff I can give away because I no longer have any use for it but don't want to just throw out. I may be a bit late in finding the link, you might all know about it already, but I just thought it was worth sharing since HeyWayne was imaginative enough to put some scrap metal to good use!

[SarzWix]

Re the title of this thread, does Bes not object to being raised? And isn't he gettin on a bit now? Not sure I'd call him new...

[HeyWayne]

I honestly don't have a clue what else you could do with them!! But when I saw the post it reminded me of a great link that was passed on to me last night.

The Freecycle Network

It's a site where ordinary folk all over the country advertise or ask for anything and everything that can be passed on and reused. Having had a look at it, I'm quite impressed with the goodies that are to be had and the stuff I can give away because I no longer have any use for it but don't want to just throw out. I may be a bit late in finding the link, you might all know about it already, but I just thought it was worth sharing since HeyWayne was imaginative enough to put some scrap metal to good use!

Thanks Sirius.

I think I'm right in saying that quite a few people on here use freecycle, it seems that greenhouses are the most popular item to be had. I personally obtained a regular source of horse manure using the site, and will use it again in the future no doubt.

I'd suggest you have your settings set so you don't receive thousands of emails from people getting rid of CD cases though.

[HeyWayne]

Nice engineering project for you Heywayne! Take some piccies when you're finished to make us all jealous, won't you.

Doubt I'll make anyone jealous, but I'll be sure to take piccies as I go along.

Re the title of this thread, does Bes not object to being raised? And isn't he gettin on a bit now? Not sure I'd call him new...

[Sirius]

I'd suggest you have your settings set so you don't receive thousands of emails from people getting rid of CD cases though.

I didn't realise I could do that and then checked my emails and discovered I'd managed to gain 68 in the space of a couple of hours!!!!! Thanks

[HeyWayne]

Well, I spent a few hours on the plot earlier today and managed to make a couple of raised beds out of the scrap metal acquired from work.

Waddy reckon?

[seasprout]

Very nice.

Coffin sized.

[HeyWayne]

Very nice.

Coffin sized.

Don't joke! There's a graveyard next to our allotment!