Recycled Materials to Scroll Saw Art

[Travis]

I came across this etsy seller today and I thought it was really cool. He uses old skateboards and uses his scroll saw to cut out shapes for keychains and pendants. I thought it was a really clever way to make some really cool products with recycled material. So it got me wondering, what have you recycled into scroll saw art? If you haven't tried it, perhaps we can brainstorm on some recycled materials that could be used for our scroll saw art. Lets really think outside the box on this one. Get outrageous! Throw out ideas! Heck, Earth Day is coming up on April 22. This your time to think green!

 

And just to spice things up, I'll pony up some cheap SSV swag to be drawn at random. I'll do a drawing on May 1st from all those who participated in this thread. Lets get creative!

[cdrover]

I am a teacher and just the other day I was working with a grade 7 class, the students were assigned the task of brainstorming the idea of recycling things that are not normally recycled. Amoung the many suggestions offered one student suggested that broken hockey sticks would be a good item. When asked, What could you do with a broken hockey stick? One suggestion was, where hockey sticks are made of hardwood they would be good for crafts or made into toys. Then of course I had to explain that I made things out of hardwood as a hobby and that I now had a new source of material. What a wonderful idea and what a coincidence that you should post such a question..

[pjl83]

This door plaque was made from an old toy car garage. It was on top of the rubbish bags waiting for collection when I went round to visit my friends. The child has simply grown out of that paticular toy. He's into dinosaurs now, which is why I made him this.

 

I find myself walking around boot sales now and looking at things I never used to. Like old toys, tables and furniture. They're cheap because they look dated and some are damaged, but once sanded back there's lots of very usable wood.

[Travis]

I'll throw out a couple obvious ones: Christmas cards and calenders made into puzzles.

 

Here's a few other ideas:

[*:2i63sz3s]Spoons. Pound them flat and cut a design in them. I bet they'd make really cool wind-chimes.
 
[*:2i63sz3s]Golf balls. Maybe some sort of 3d design or a 3d simple puzzle? Great item for craft shows. Everybody knows a golfer and would make a unique gift.
 
[*:2i63sz3s]License plates. cut a silhouette from them. They'd make really cool rustic art for the wall or to hang and blow in the breeze.
 
[*:2i63sz3s]Thick leather. Again, silhouettes cut from them. You could easily turn them into keychains or pendants. Or use Steve Good's keychain program and make personalized leather keychains. Don't know where to find thick enough leather....maybe old boots?

[wood-n-things]

I use all types of greeting cards. Christmas, graduation, Birthday, condolences, get well etc, for puzzles. They are a hot item at shows.

 

I re-cycle pallets.

[Clayton717]

I have used old,broken hockey sticks for a hockeye themed project I did for a friend. And have made a lot of things from old pallets. some pallets have some nice wood on them.

[qlty]

I have used a lot of wood wine boxes that a local liquor stores throws out,if the wood has French,Italian,or Spanish.writing or images on one side I leave it on the back of the project for a cool look.I have used mahogany wood from an old dresser,oak and maple from old torn up flooring,cedar from an old fence for different cuttings.Did I mention I'm a bit frugal?? John aka qlty

[grampa]

Tree's you can get some great wood from recycled tree's ......vinyl records are good for word art and you dont have to frame them just use the hole in the middle to hang them................Paul .

[Leola Bogan]

Go to your local cabinet shop and ask if you can have the scrap or end cuts they throw away. All of my scroll pictures and all the carving I do is on wood I get free from the cabinet shop dumpster. I also get a lot of wood from commercial remodeling projects, I built my bathroom vanity from oak that was hadrails in a bank at one time.

[Travis]

I have used a lot of wood wine boxes that a local liquor stores throws out,if the wood has French,Italian,or Spanish.writing or images on one side I leave it on the back of the project for a cool look....

 

This would be cool on the front of the project too!

 

Here's some more ideas:

[*:3gpi624n]Printed Circut boards.
[*:3gpi624n]DVD/CD's for sun catchers.
[*:3gpi624n]VHS or DVD sleeves would make great puzzles.
[*:3gpi624n]Altoids/mint tins would make really cool jewelry. Cut out simple shapes and add the appropriate hardware.
[*:3gpi624n]Old oil cans that have the vintage illustrations/logos.
[*:3gpi624n]Old textbooks/encyclopedia illustrations would make great embelishments or projects.

[Travis]

Here are some more ideas:

 

[*:wenhuhrt]Apple Crates - do they still make those wooden ones still?
[*:wenhuhrt]Cigar Boxes
[*:wenhuhrt]Beer Caps - These would make great zipper pulls or jewelry.
[*:wenhuhrt]Soda/Beer cans mounted to wood then cut

 

Kinda fun once you get going. Anybody got a few brainstorms to share?

[tugbtr1]

i know that some pallets are made from oak and pine and you can usually find them in different sizes they are good for all kinds of projects and you can get them for Free

marc

[greasemonkeyredneck]

About ninety percent of the wood used on my projects is recycled. It is wood panels they reject from a local company. They put them on the lot for anyone to get. Most people use it for firewood, but I use it for my projects. The kicker is that the company I get it from is a casket company.

[scrollsaw22]

I use dead hard drives to make clocks out of. Not much scrolling on most, more engraving than anything, but sometimes I get a little creative like on this clock. It has 2 platters, so I engraved the numbers in the bottom platter and used the scrollsaw to cut cutouts. Also used the scrollsaw to cut the center design out of a piece of copper.