Anybody have any creative uses for these things? They pile up so flippin fast... there's gotta be something beyond the artsy fartsy crafts and the obvious sorting of small items.
If you're not familiar, here's one with a previously enjoyed beverage can for size reference.
Pot for boiling water, and to hold your stove, fuel, cooking utensils, a smaller can for use as cook/rehydrate pot, tinder, and a whole bunch of other stuff when not in use. Do they come with plastic covers? if Yes, you have a complete set.
Other uses: boat bailer, water carrier - add a wire handle, extra water storage (with the cover) make a water pasteurizer/heater by painting it black, cut off the bottom and fit a few together to make a chimney flue in a pinch using heat tape.
Take off top and bottom, cut along seam and you have sheet metal that you can use for roof shingles, water catching, a bush table top and so much other stuff that I'll leave it up to you to see the possibilities.
Hubby uses all kind of cans for storage in his workshop...they fit wonderfully between the studs and can hold bunches and bunches of items.
I have something similar to this in my dining room...I painted the cans different colors (all greens and oranges-natural tones) and put them on the wall using a single wall anchor and screw per can...I use it to store odds and ends...I use a can opener that takes the end off so it can be put back on so some of them have lids for hidden storage while others are open :thumb:
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They look big enough to grow small to mid sized carrots. There might be other veggies or herbs you can grow in them.
I'm all for container gardening. Better water and soil management. Less small animals to worry about eating your grub. Hang them somewhere or nail/screw them to the side of a house.
You can cut them in half and make gutters maybe. Not sure how you'd seal them. A variety of ways. Or you can just make a tube at the bottom of a gutter to channel water towards a garden. Rubber hoses eventually dry out and crack.
I have seen some marvelous racks for storing nuts, bolts, screws, nails, etc. By stacking cans on their side, at an angle, or slightly off set.
If cut a square shape from the side and keep one side attached, you can put a tea light or even a votive candle in there and you have a lantern with a closable "window" in the side. Take the long, flat bottom of a coat hanger and cut at each end. Shape into a "U" and connect it through some holes in opposite sides of the top of the can and BAM! A candle lantern.
My boyfriend keeps egg cartons. They were taking up valuable real estate in the pantry which is SMALL until I kicked them out. Now they are taking up valuable real estate in a beautiful sunroom which is currently a junk room filled with vitally important dead computers and such that will be very important someday.
Otherwise squash flat, hammer into as flat an object as you can, put in mylar bag with o2 absorber, and keep for such time as eotwowki and you may need to smelt up a plowshare or something.
Ok, I'm not a hoarder... I just wanted to see if anyone had thought of a really good use for them since they are a non-standard shape, and about twice as thick of metal as normal cans.
If things ever come to being so desperate that I need to forge my own steel for a farm plow, tin cans will NOT be the material I use. Wasting the space and preservation materials to save smashed cans is simply foolish. If you're that concerned about needing raw materials, buy yourself some 1/4" steel plate in 12" wide strips and stash it. It will be far more useful than thrice recycled tin cans.
Otherwise squash flat, hammer into as flat an object as you can, put in mylar bag with o2 absorber, and keep for such time as eotwowki and you may need to smelt up a plowshare or something.
cut both ends of cut down the side get too hose clamps have a hole in your exhaust pipe this will fix it!!! how i use too fix load muffler or exhaust pipe!! also works well as a muffler of generators, and motorcylces!!!!!
Och that stuff also is really good for flashing on weatherboard, say you had a pipe hole, you move some plumbing. They used to use the circles from the ends of cans on those.
wasn't accusing you of being a hoarder lol - just my bloody boyfriend. Was SERIOUSLY just considering a thread that goes
'what can I use 150 egg cartons for?' or even 'how do I turn a fifteen-year-old monitor into an aquarium?'
Thing was you already said you'd used them for as many containers as you could use them for - and I think apart from rnc's brilliant wall-shelving ideas, there's nothing left. I myself would get rid of them once I had enough to use.
Well I don't mean to bash your boyfriend... but the egg cartons is insane, unless they are cardboard egg cartons and he's also saved up enough old candles and dryer lint to make 150 dozen firestarters. :thumb:
As for the computer screen aquarium, I've seen it done, but you basically take the plastic housing and put a plexiglass box inside it.. Trying to open up a cathode tube without it shattering is like trying to cut open a balloon without popping it. Not to mention it's got all sorts of nasty chemicals like phosphorus, lead, cadmium, etc, that would kill the fish in the aquarium and/or poison you in the process of removing them.
I wish I still had some of the formula cans from when my son was a baby, they were a good size and I sure could use them now.
Your cans look like a good size to keep packets of powdered flavorings--I have 2 small Rubbermaid boxes filled with all sorts of packets: gravy, tortilla, taco, enchilada, country gravy etc etc etc.. Cans could be filled and then put in a cardboard tray and fit in the pantry with all the other cans.
You could drink another one of those smaller cans and make an alcohol stove. It and a container of fuel would fit inside the bigger can. Make a stand from a coat hanger and you have a nice pot, stove and rack to heat stuff on.
I've.done just about every variation of the alcohol beer can stove... the new heineken cans don't work at all. They are textured on the outside and don't seal. I miss the old keg cans.
aside from all of the good ideas that have been posted... for someone like me that is well versed in improvised explosives... they would work pretty good for that as well...
Spray-painted it black, and put a 12 ounce can of spaghetti-o underneath. I'm glad I remembered to poke a hole in the can of spaghetti-o because it got almost up to boiling in about twenty minutes.
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