Recycling junk

silenthunterstudios

silenthunterstudios

Slipjoint Addict
Joined
Feb 2, 2005
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I was looking for something to carry all of my paracord inner strand. I'm using a Great Value iced tea powder tube. I've been using prescription drug bottles for different things. Soda/water bottle as a funnel. Soda can lanterns, etc. Altoid tins for PSK kits.

What do you use?
 
I have not tried it yet but the bags that come in wine boxes look fantastic for transporting water. They are exceptionally well made ,light and a little wine will just add a bit of flavour and kill some germs.
 
I "recycle" various tobacco tins; the tried and true "PSK-sized" tin, for obvious uses, and the round "cans" with press-in lids for making char cloth. I just found a little 50 gr. tin, half the size of the one famous for PSK use, and made a nice little fire kit from it. Didn't even wait to finish the tobacco from that one.:o The tobacco went into a small, salvaged, hevy-duty zip lock bag resistors came in. Hopefully the resistors were not washed in something that causes cancer.:foot:

Prescription bottles, of course. With what they cost, may as well get some further use from them.

Rubber bands from broccoli. Always call dibs on those before we leave the store.

Steel ("tin") cans for a hobo stove and billy. I found that the Gia Russa chicken stock can is slightly larger in diameter than the standard 4" can - so, the hope is that I can make a nestable kit of them - stove from the chicken stock can and billy from a standard 4" can.

35mm film canisters, which are getting tough to find. I remember the day that they were like plastic shopping bags - you didn't know what to do with all of them.

Various zip-lock bags in which things come. I am always scrounging those from work. I have scored some nice, heavy-duty ones of peculiar sizes that way.

"Snuff" cans make nice little fire kits or tinder boxes but Cope' cans suck for that so I only get the plastic ones when no one has fresh Cope'.

The sacks my Benchmades came in (like I am going to leave a working knife in a cute little sack, HAH!) are home to my change and another for 12' of paracord, a tube of Carmex (Chapstick melts and runs) and a spare AAA for my ARC+P.

Percussion Cap tins. Dixie Gunworks had a "house-brand" they imported from Italy for years that was the best cap I have ever used, especially in revolvers, but the tins were of excellent quality too. I just found an empty one today and plan on stuffing it with char cloth and figuring out how to attach it to my new Mtnfolk neck sheath, which is a super sweet rig, by the way.:thumbup:

OH! Old jeans, dish towels (not terry cloth) and cloth baby diapers for char cloth. Just about forgot that one.

Old bore cleaning rods for pins in handles of knives.

Super Glue tube for single AAA battery storage, machine tool cutter slip tubes for CR123As.

A friend is giving me a Crown Royal sack as a "trinket organizer" for inside my bag, after he saw me getting change out of my Benchmade sack. Incidentally, this has started a rumor that I had my sack out playing with it by the coffee machine. Not a lie but not the conclusion to which most people first jump.:o

Pencil lead containers for needle cases. The ones from when pencils were used for drafting are better than the ones available today. They were round and just longer than duct tape is wide, so a 36" strip of duct tape is about 5/8" diameter when wrapped on one of these. The lids were more secure and water-proof.

Typewriter erasers for cleaning rust spots off of gear and cleaning battery contacts in lights. Now, that one is a stretch. I don't know if they even make those any more.

I would have to dump my bag for more ideas and am not inclined to do that this moment.

Good thread.:thumbup::thumbup:
 
Peanut butter jars.
I grab just about any tin I see. Some to use, some just because they have such cool artwork on them.
 
a few mentioned that i use...

everyone knows to pass off all kinds of tins and odd little containers to me...i have a pile of containers since i can never decide what i want to keep in them, and i am always pulling them apart and switching them around...

i read a good idea in an outdoors magazine once, haven't done it yet but will the next time i have the chance; once you use up the peanut butter, punch a hole in the lid and coil up your paracord. put it all in the peanut butter jar and poke the end out the top...when you need cord just pull a length and cut it!

old files are great for all kinds of things...

scrap pieces of nice wood are good for small knife handles or for other odd little projects.
 
siguy said:
i read a good idea in an outdoors magazine once, haven't done it yet but will the next time i have the chance; once you use up the peanut butter, punch a hole in the lid and coil up your paracord. put it all in the peanut butter jar and poke the end out the top...when you need cord just pull a length and cut it!
Click to expand...

Try this, siguy, you might find it is even more versatile. I don't even tie the sticks together, but rather squeeze the end of the paracord between them, and then start the wrap. The advantages are that sticks are available everywhere, the cord can't unwind on you or roll down the hill. When you want a piece, undo the 2 half hitches (oops - Clove Hitch in this case), unwind and cut off what you want and retie with a couple of half hitches.

thisone-1.jpg


Doc
 
I have so much junk saved up for this project and that project. I have to be careful. I'm young. If I keep going my yard is going to look like sanford and son.
 
DOC-CANADA said:
Try this, siguy, you might find it is even more versatile. I don't even tie the sticks together, but rather squeeze the end of the paracord between them, and then start the wrap. The advantages are that sticks are available everywhere, the cord can't unwind on you or roll down the hill. When you want a piece, undo the 2 half hitches (oops - Clove Hitch in this case), unwind and cut off what you want and retie with a couple of half hitches.

thisone-1.jpg


Doc
Click to expand...


Thanks, Doc! You just tidied up an entire drawer for me! Now I have room for a lot more stuff I can't do without! :thumbup:

(Could be the start of a whole new thread; How many different hanks of paracord or other cordage do we have on hand? :D )

Stitchawl
 
I save all sorts of tins, everything from the ones for pellets, candies, and the usual mints. Also save the scraps of wood from my knife handles to put matching handles on firesteels for my customers.When my nephew stripped the threads on the lamp end of his AA Mini Maglight, he was going to throw it out. I took it, cut it down, made a press in and glued in, teflon end cap for it, and use it for a waterproof match container.

vffoyv.jpg
 
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Stomper said:
I save all sorts of tins, everything from the ones for pellets, candies, and the usual mints. Also save the scraps of wood from my knife handles to put matching handles on firesteels for my customers.When my nephew stripped the threads on the lamp end of his AA Mini Maglight, he was going to throw it out. I took it, cut it down, made a press in and glued in, teflon end cap for it, and use it for a waterproof match container.

vffoyv.jpg
Click to expand...
Aha! Thanks for the idea!
(i have a couple of dead Maglite Solitaires rolling around in my desk drawer)
 
Hey Stomper,

That is an excellent idea. I've thought about using old mini-mags as waterproof containers (since they don't cut it as flashlights :() but I was thinking more along the lines of getting a friend of mine (a tool and die maker) to thread the inside and use another butt cap.

Good thinking! :thumbup:

Doc
 
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