Any use for old tumble dryer?

[Swarm]

Now that sounds interesting....
(Still would hardly have used it this year though. An extractor full of honey......oh well!)

Next year, Poot. Next year.

 

[bobba]

I saw you tube vid where a a guy in the states chopped up the case of an old washing machine to get some steel sheets for making roofs. Not sure the UK style ones would be so good though.

I make a lot of compost and I would rather like a means of heat sterlising it prior to using it for seedlings ... like these people in the USA

You sound like a man with fungus gnat problems!

I have had great success in the past sterilizing small amounts in a microwave. Or freeze-sterilizing in a freezer. And mixed results leaving part filled, sealed bin bags outside over winter. Just don't put too much in, try to keep it so the soil is not more than a few " thick, leave the bag somewhere well exposed, and it should be ok.

Maybe you could adapt your solar wax meter to sterilize some soil? May have to do it in the summer and save for the next year though.

I no longer bother sterilizing soil, it often gets re-infested with gnats anyway, then all the bother is for nothing.

Luckily, I can get various insects from work, so just release 100s of rove beetles (aleochara bilineata). In addition to parasitizing onion fly larvae, they also eat fungus gnats, thrips as well as some other unwanted pests. Its actually better than sterilizing as is does not damage the future rhizosphere development and prevents re-infestation.

Its great in the green house, but am not sure I would advise if you are starting a few trays early on the bedroom window seal. Rove beetles can be purchased from suppliers and are used in commercial greenhouses.

 

[pargyle]

I remember reading a few years ago that someone had converted an old washing machine to be a dedicated syrup maker. Granulated sugar & hot water in + warm wash cycle = syrup out

Finman .. used one of the old style top loaders ... don't try it with a front loader though !

 

[pargyle]

If you're taking it apart and the motor is still good you could use it to motorise an extractor. The high torque the motor generates to spin the dryer drum is perfect for spinning an extractor full of honey.

Much too powerful, too fast revving and they are usually open case motors ... not ideal.

I saw you tube vid where a a guy in the states chopped up the case of an old washing machine to get some steel sheets for making roofs. Not sure the UK style ones would be so good though.




You sound like a man with fungus gnat problems!

I have had great success in the past sterilizing small amounts in a microwave. Or freeze-sterilizing in a freezer. And mixed results leaving part filled, sealed bin bags outside over winter. Just don't put too much in, try to keep it so the soil is not more than a few " thick, leave the bag somewhere well exposed, and it should be ok.

Maybe you could adapt your solar wax meter to sterilize some soil? May have to do it in the summer and save for the next year though.

I no longer bother sterilizing soil, it often gets re-infested with gnats anyway, then all the bother is for nothing.

Luckily, I can get various insects from work, so just release 100s of rove beetles (aleochara bilineata). In addition to parasitizing onion fly larvae, they also eat fungus gnats, thrips as well as some other unwanted pests. Its actually better than sterilizing as is does not damage the future rhizosphere development and prevents re-infestation.

Its great in the green house, but am not sure I would advise if you are starting a few trays early on the bedroom window seal. Rove beetles can be purchased from suppliers and are used in commercial greenhouses.

Interestng... I know small quantities can be sterilised in a microwave ... we have an ageing but functional stainless steel one in the kitchen - the digital display is losing pixels and I'm waiting for the day when 'er indoors loses the plot over it and says it has to go ... I have a place in the garage waiting for it ..

The wax melter would probably heat the soil too much ...

I'm giving up on the tumble drier drum - it's galvanised steel and we have enough tubs and planters and we have a firepit ... so destined for the scrap man along with the casing ...

 

[Garry R]

I have an old upright spin dryer which I used for heather honey . I made a liner around the inside with stainless mesh in the days before open mesh floors were all the rage. The comb was cut from the frames and mashed up in a honey bucket and then poured into a sieve nylon bag which was placed into the drier and spun. With heather honey being thixotropic all this work loosened the honey beautifully and the honey came out almost creamed allowed to settle a bit before jarring. As for tumble driers I can't think of anything to use it for in beekeeping.

 

[deemann1]

Or maybe Dump the fukn thing

 

[Erichalfbee]

Or maybe Dump the fukn thing

I think even Philip agrees with you now

 

[pargyle]

I think even Philip agrees with you now

Yes ... even with my desire to recycle and repurpose there is a limit ... I've looked at all the images of all the re-purposed and recycled tumble drier drums and the problem is ... they are not re-purposed - they are all tumble drier drums and they look like - tumble drier drums ....

Best for the scrap man ... I tried, I imagined, I researched, I failed ... my talents and time can be repurposed and recycled elsewhere ...

 

[Antipodes]

I think it was a spin drier.
He hasn’t been here for a while, PH

Shame PH is not on here any more. He had much knowledge, from what I saw.

 

[pargyle]

Shame PH is not on here any more. He had much knowledge, from what I saw.

Not been seen since July and even his website is not there any more ?

 

[Curly green finger's]

[q

 

[Erichalfbee]

Not been seen since July and even his website is not there any more ?

I messaged his mate Margaret who runs an online Scottish beginners' course with him and he's run off his feet doing that...so he has just moved on to pastures new.

 

[The Poot]

Yes ... even with my desire to recycle and repurpose there is a limit ... I've looked at all the images of all the re-purposed and recycled tumble drier drums and the problem is ... they are not re-purposed - they are all tumble drier drums and they look like - tumble drier drums ....

Best for the scrap man ... I tried, I imagined, I researched, I failed ... my talents and time can be repurposed and recycled elsewhere ...

You’re probably right Philip.
I guess sunk in the ground it could stop my mint travelling everywhere....
Or a rhubarb forcer? But these thoughts mean I’m already compromising, so I’ll need to refocus.

 

[pargyle]

You’re probably right Philip.
I guess sunk in the ground it could stop my mint travelling everywhere....
Or a rhubarb forcer? But these thoughts mean I’m already compromising, so I’ll need to refocus.

I know, from past experience, that as soon as I dispose of something a couple of weeks later the opportunity comes along where it could have been used but ... I also get grief from 'er indoors about the amount of stuff I keep and I have to, occasionally, succumb to the pain of consigning it to the tip. If I do repurpose something then it has to be almost indistinguishable from what it was originally or be a really clever adaptation.

My son is very clever with metal, we have a pretty comprehensive engineering workshop and he also has a 3D printer ...He's just repurposed a metal letter box (the sort you mount on the wall to have your mail delivered into) into a multifunctional electrical enclosure box ... in which he has mounted transformers, plug converters and a whole host of other things he uses in his electrical engineering. A 'proper' enclosure box from an electrical supply house the same size costs £69 ... the mail box, he bought as an Amazon clearance item, £1.00 .. with free delivery on Prime. You would never know the finished article was based on a re-purposed mailbox.

From the tumble drier the digital panel, wiring, PCB's and switches he is going to put into his store of things he will use. I've got the formica panel off the top which I'm going to use either as a base for my new improved uncapping station or as a base for my new foundation press. The motor is going on ebay so I'm not too unhappy that a lot of it will get re-used and the metal parts, after being scrapped, will be making something else in due course. Meets all my desires to make up for the destruction I inflicted on the planet at a time when we did not appreciate fully what we were doing...

 

[The Poot]

“A store of things he’ll use...”
Thats how it all begins Sounds like a chip off the old block to me

 

[pargyle]

I messaged his mate Margaret who runs an online Scottish beginners' course with him and he's run off his feet doing that...so he has just moved on to pastures new.

Well that'[s good news - with Covid and age chasing a lot of us it's a worry when members disappear suddenly with no obvious reason ...

 

[gmonag]

My wife accuses me of never throwing anything away too. It must be a Yorkshire thing.

 

[pargyle]

“A store of things he’ll use...”
Thats how it all begins Sounds like a chip off the old block to me

Yes ... but he doesn't get the earache for keeping things that I get ... different rules for a son as opposed to husband ....

 

[pargyle]

My wife accuses me of never throwing anything away too. It must be a Yorkshire thing.

I think I'm a throwback to previous generations of the first half of the 20th Century who, out of necessity, had to repair and repurpose, the hard times of the years between the two world wars and the hardships of the second world war made that generation thrifty - I don't keep rubbish but I try to repair rather than replace when possible.

Coming from Yorkshire and growing up in the 1950's there was not a lot of money about and I learned the ability to repair and recycle things from my father and grandfather ... and I've always tried to avoid the buy, use, abuse, dispose, replace cycle that was so common as our society hit the relative affluent days of the 70''s, 80.s & 90's ... but I'm not saying that, in those years, I was not totally innocent of participating in the disposable society of the times - but I try harder these days.

 

[Bee Bumble]

Suggestions here:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/gbarrettus/upcycled-dryer-drums/