Pikey Tech Tree (UK) - How to build shit from anything (UK)

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Doctor Love

kiwifarms.net
Joined
Nov 12, 2023
Since there is naturally a lot of tool use involved in making shit, this is a thread to make your own workstations and learn how to recycle effectively.

I, for one, have been using paraffin wax to help build my own metal and plastic workbench using nothing but a heat gun and recycled parts. This is how you get ahead - learn to use what you have on-hand.

Electronic recycling is part of this - I am still getting to grips with it, but I've made the operating parts of a lathe so far - and right now I'm building and centering the base.
 
Would living among the pikeys be like Lewis and Clark living with the natives during their journey westward? Would the pikeys teach me how to break a caravan lock and hook it up to my stolen vehicle?
 
Pallets are a great source of free wood especially if you can get your hands on the nice ones. A lot of businesses just leave them outside for anyone to take. I've seen some super cool builds using nothing but pallets.
 
Would living among the pikeys be like Lewis and Clark living with the natives during their journey westward? Would the pikeys teach me how to break a caravan lock and hook it up to my stolen vehicle?
No, they'd literally enslave you.

Many of them are not very nice.
Pallets are a great source of free wood especially if you can get your hands on the nice ones. A lot of businesses just leave them outside for anyone to take. I've seen some super cool builds using nothing but pallets.
Those are cool - but we really wanna get into the advanced tech. I'm talking smelters.
 
Those are cool - but we really wanna get into the advanced tech. I'm talking smelters.
You don't need much to make a mini smelter. All you need is a metal can, some plaster of paris, some sand and a torch.
 
Pallets are a great source of free wood especially if you can get your hands on the nice ones. A lot of businesses just leave them outside for anyone to take. I've seen some super cool builds using nothing but pallets.
Just don’t build any lawn chairs, stalker child.
 
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You don't need much to make a mini smelter. All you need is a metal can, some plaster of paris, some sand and a torch.
How much mileage am I going to get out of this?

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Best advice I can think of is learn how to mix concrete and set bricks, opens up a world of possibilities for building small structures for things like workstations or rain collectors etc.

I'm not a professional and I've only ever done DIY with it, but a good ratio for general use concrete is a 1-2-3 ratio mix of cement, sand, and gravel together with water added in incrementally. You don't need a mixer, I've always used a board and a shovel, but if you value your time and your back then it might be worth getting a mixer.
 
Could you describe what exactly you mean by work station? What exactly are you using paraffin wax for? Having a hard time picturing this.
 
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You can DIY recycle some semi-hard plastics, like milk bottles, and then work the resulting blob like wood. This is a good video explain how it works but the gist of it is that these particular plastics melt into malleable blobs, but don't burn or give off excessive fumes, at 180C (350F) which is cooking temperature and can easily be achieved at home as long as whatever your'e using stays at a stable temperature. Just make sure whatever you melt them in is old and won't be used to cook food in again.

 
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Just make sure whatever you melt them in is old and won't be used to cook food in again.
Aluminium cans and foil have exceptional heat conductivity. Cans have impurities, but you can manage this easily with a few layers of foil too.

Foil can be used for most things up to a few hundred degrees, but it's not suitable for metals.
 
I'm talking smelters.
Look up 'devils toilet', a friend of mine made one out of an old sink, steel chair, and hair drier. Worked alright. you can smelt in a firepit on a windy day if you don't mind losing your eyebrows.
Could you describe what exactly you mean by work station? What exactly are you using paraffin wax for? Having a hard time picturing this.
I imagine he's working on top of a 2000lb slab of wax like the lord of paraffin
 
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Interesting. Do you have pictures or a plan for it?
Lol not at all, just using clamps and a bench power supply right now.

I want to make it more portable, but I don't want to use store-bought parts because that kinda defeats the purpose. The whole thing is made of random shit, and the gypsum is probably too delicate - although it'd be handy for decoration.
 
There are multiple ways you can do that, so it will depend on what metals you are trying to melt, what fuel you plan to use, etc
The previous post about plaster of paris and sand is fairly common, but it's not a great refractory material and it will degrade probably quite quickly especially at higher temperatures. Usually you see that sort of thing used for aluminium can casting.
the gypsum
What does gypsum have to do with a lathe though?
 
What does gypsum have to do with a lathe though?
Well I have the lathe chuck build from a recycled motor, and I've been trying to figure out how best to make it into a compact "desk version" with a 50mm diameter. But, because of how I made it, it would need to have a lot of support since it's front-heavy. The gypsum would be able to hold it, but it might shake loose over time. Concrete would work, too, if I "backed it up" arse-first and wired it in - but that would make it pretty bulky. It's oddly shaped, and I want to make it easy to disassemble.
 
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