What in god's name should I do with these pipes?
December 10, 2021 5:07 PM Subscribe
Los pipes
I am constantly throwing out these aluminum pipe cutoffs from 1' to 8' in length. I have tried and tried to think of something useful or fun or creative to do with them, but I got nothin. Also, I'm pretty lazy. Any suggestions?
Wind chimes?
posted by nickggully at 5:22 PM on December 10, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by nickggully at 5:22 PM on December 10, 2021 [5 favorites]
Attach a wooden stand; sell on Craigslist for the next 13 days as desk-size Festivus poles.
posted by Spathe Cadet at 5:32 PM on December 10, 2021 [19 favorites]
posted by Spathe Cadet at 5:32 PM on December 10, 2021 [19 favorites]
Sell them to a scrap metal yard? Or give them to someone down on their luck to sell to a scrap metal yard?
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:40 PM on December 10, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:40 PM on December 10, 2021 [5 favorites]
Know anyone who goes through a lot of food-safe 5 or 8 gallon buckets? Two buckets and a pipe to length are a nice sub-irrigated planter, manageable starter gardening and very water thrifty to use.
posted by clew at 5:54 PM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by clew at 5:54 PM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
Percussion instrument?
posted by Nerd of the North at 6:05 PM on December 10, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Nerd of the North at 6:05 PM on December 10, 2021 [3 favorites]
I would love a few for some creative succulent plantings, the shorter lengths at least.
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:55 PM on December 10, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:55 PM on December 10, 2021 [2 favorites]
As nickggully says, why not wind chimes? I'd love to get a load of pipe cutoffs to make into wind chimes. From the photo I can't tell the diameter (nor, of course, the type of Al tubing) but it looks so promising. If you're interested I could take a sample and provide specs for various chime tunings.
posted by anadem at 7:33 PM on December 10, 2021
posted by anadem at 7:33 PM on December 10, 2021
Only 1 to 8 inches in length, and about 7cm diameter....
If you glue a couple together they make a pretty decent desk organizer / pen holder sort of thing.
posted by kschang at 8:09 PM on December 10, 2021 [3 favorites]
If you glue a couple together they make a pretty decent desk organizer / pen holder sort of thing.
posted by kschang at 8:09 PM on December 10, 2021 [3 favorites]
A "slap organ" or "End-Struck Plosive Aerophones"
posted by ShooBoo at 8:10 PM on December 10, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by ShooBoo at 8:10 PM on December 10, 2021 [2 favorites]
Ooo
Sock organizer/dispenser
Tennis ball organizer/ dispenser
Glue a whole bunch together, vertically: artistic umbrella stand or planter
posted by Tandem Affinity at 8:55 PM on December 10, 2021
Sock organizer/dispenser
Tennis ball organizer/ dispenser
Glue a whole bunch together, vertically: artistic umbrella stand or planter
posted by Tandem Affinity at 8:55 PM on December 10, 2021
Scrap aluminum is fairly valuable, I'd probably toss them in a bin of some sort until I had enough to make it worth taking to the scrapyard.
But if you're looking for something more worthwhile, I'd donate them to a welding school, or maybe a voc-tech with a welding program. Welding aluminum tubing is a pretty delicate and challenging skill, probably one of the tougher things a beginning welder might attempt (or be required) to do. That tubing looks like it would make great TIG welding practice. They might even come and take it off your hands.
Around me, I think the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union does welding training, so after a voc-tech or community college, that might be where I'd call to get rid of them.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:17 PM on December 10, 2021 [8 favorites]
But if you're looking for something more worthwhile, I'd donate them to a welding school, or maybe a voc-tech with a welding program. Welding aluminum tubing is a pretty delicate and challenging skill, probably one of the tougher things a beginning welder might attempt (or be required) to do. That tubing looks like it would make great TIG welding practice. They might even come and take it off your hands.
Around me, I think the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union does welding training, so after a voc-tech or community college, that might be where I'd call to get rid of them.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:17 PM on December 10, 2021 [8 favorites]
As long as the edges are not sharp you can play a cooperative game with kids where you are trying to work together to route marbles through a series of pipes into a container. Everyone gets a length of pipe and has to hold their section together with neighboring sections to make one continuous pipe for the marble to roll through. Maybe give some to teachers as a rainy day classroom game? It might depend on storage space and how much of a racket the pipes make when they’re dropped. Because pipes get dropped in this game. A lot.
posted by corey flood at 11:03 PM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by corey flood at 11:03 PM on December 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
Yes to slap organs above. I played one in a music store and they are great. There are little paddles you can hit the open pipe ends with.
posted by freecellwizard at 5:55 AM on December 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by freecellwizard at 5:55 AM on December 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
Cut them into short lengths, as legs for small laptop/monitor lifts.
Short lengths can be screwed to garage/basement walls to make tools stand upright.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:17 AM on December 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
Short lengths can be screwed to garage/basement walls to make tools stand upright.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:17 AM on December 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
Wintergatan This rig is really elaborate, but this genius works with aluminum pipes to make music.
posted by effluvia at 6:44 AM on December 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by effluvia at 6:44 AM on December 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
If there are standard end-caps that fit available, perhaps these tubes could be used for shipping and storage of violin/viola/cello/bass bows, which are often valued at thousands of dollars and sometimes have to be safely shipped (for repair / rehair / or just UPSing to a buyer). Check with your local music store/string shop/bow maker.
posted by jabah at 7:05 AM on December 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by jabah at 7:05 AM on December 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
If you know the grade of aluminum being used, these can be substantially more valuable than just "scrap". For a random example, I pay $11 for a 3ft section of 0.375" OD x 0.035" Wall x 0.305" ID Round Tube in 6061-T6-Drawn material (Drawn vs Extruded makes a difference for some uses).
If these are all the same material it could be worth your while to figure out exactly what the dimensions and grade are, and then sell them by the foot to machinists and the like. Around me, some volume shops have "scrap bins" that other people come by to pick through to find odds and ends they need, so the market for this kind of thing already exists.
One word that may help, if you choose to list these somewhere for sale, is "drops" -- the bits of material left over after a material is cut to length is generally referred to as drops (as in "got any drops I can buy?").
posted by aramaic at 10:11 AM on December 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
If these are all the same material it could be worth your while to figure out exactly what the dimensions and grade are, and then sell them by the foot to machinists and the like. Around me, some volume shops have "scrap bins" that other people come by to pick through to find odds and ends they need, so the market for this kind of thing already exists.
One word that may help, if you choose to list these somewhere for sale, is "drops" -- the bits of material left over after a material is cut to length is generally referred to as drops (as in "got any drops I can buy?").
posted by aramaic at 10:11 AM on December 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
Great table legs.
Cut four of them to the same length, affix them to a door from habitat for humanity or wherever. There is a super-easy to to connect them to the table, if you're interested I can give you the lowdown.
Obviously any table size, first one I ever saw was on a regular indoor house door. I made my first one three foot wide, maybe five foot long, cut up an old solid-core door, covered it with formica, bingo.
I'm tall, I cut them to fit me and the chairs I had at the time I built it. You can obviously cut them to whatever length you want, maybe you've always wanted to try a standing desk -- this is your opportunity. Or: a computer table, monitor, puter, keyboard, a couple of printers and/or scanners, blah blah blah
I'm real handy -- a million years in the trades, so I've got skills and tools. But really, this is pretty dang simple, I'd be glad to step you through it, it's fun.
The cylindrical legs I used were/are maybe eight inches diameter, PVC plastic plumbing pipe left over on job-site. I spray painted them black, the formica table top is white, it's really cool, people love it, and they are right to do so.
Table legs!
posted by dancestoblue at 8:50 PM on December 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
Cut four of them to the same length, affix them to a door from habitat for humanity or wherever. There is a super-easy to to connect them to the table, if you're interested I can give you the lowdown.
Obviously any table size, first one I ever saw was on a regular indoor house door. I made my first one three foot wide, maybe five foot long, cut up an old solid-core door, covered it with formica, bingo.
I'm tall, I cut them to fit me and the chairs I had at the time I built it. You can obviously cut them to whatever length you want, maybe you've always wanted to try a standing desk -- this is your opportunity. Or: a computer table, monitor, puter, keyboard, a couple of printers and/or scanners, blah blah blah
I'm real handy -- a million years in the trades, so I've got skills and tools. But really, this is pretty dang simple, I'd be glad to step you through it, it's fun.
The cylindrical legs I used were/are maybe eight inches diameter, PVC plastic plumbing pipe left over on job-site. I spray painted them black, the formica table top is white, it's really cool, people love it, and they are right to do so.
Table legs!
posted by dancestoblue at 8:50 PM on December 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
Oh, I'm envious! 1-8' (feet) long? That's some interesting material! (I'm curious about where it comes from, too.)
Some of the people who hang out in the homebuilders or classifieds section of the recumbent bike forums I frequent would probably be interested. Some of them might even be in your area.
Is there a hackerspace or makerspace near you, or any community organizations that do DIY metalworking, etc.?
If you have really a lot of them you could drive them into the ground to make a fence or planter bed (of course, enterprising scrappers may then try to steal your fence).
Looks like the sort of thing railings are made of - could be good for skate park features? E.g. make a couple wooden tripods to support the ends of a long piece.
posted by sibilatorix at 3:01 PM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
Some of the people who hang out in the homebuilders or classifieds section of the recumbent bike forums I frequent would probably be interested. Some of them might even be in your area.
Is there a hackerspace or makerspace near you, or any community organizations that do DIY metalworking, etc.?
If you have really a lot of them you could drive them into the ground to make a fence or planter bed (of course, enterprising scrappers may then try to steal your fence).
Looks like the sort of thing railings are made of - could be good for skate park features? E.g. make a couple wooden tripods to support the ends of a long piece.
posted by sibilatorix at 3:01 PM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by furnace.heart at 5:12 PM on December 10, 2021 [2 favorites]