Just saved myself $100 from not throwing out old stuff!

[gtaus]

I am not inclined to throw stuff away. I don't consider myself a hoarder, but if something ain't broke, it gets put on a shelf and not in the garbage. If it's broke, I'll first attempt to fix it. If I can't fix it, I'll strip it down for parts for future use.

Yesterday, I had a tool battery that was showing up as defective on my new, fast charger. It was an 8 year old 18v 4Ah lithium-ion battery, and I thought that maybe it just gave up the ghost and finally died. I plugged the battery into another charger, of the same model, and it still showed up as defective. Over the years, I have learned that when the charger reports the battery is defective, it might either be the battery is actually defective with bad cells, or it is so low in charge that the charger cannot charge the battery pack up from that low level. Thinking about the later, I remembered that I had an old, slow, charger from way back when that I put away in one of my shop drawers. I took it out, plugged in the "defective" battery, and lo and behold, it started charging it up. In a couple of hours, I had a fully charged battery.

A new battery to replace the 4Ah pack I have would cost about $100.00 retail. I am not suggesting that my 8 year old battery is still worth $100.00, but that's how much it would cost to replace the battery by itself. Point is, I was able to use my old, slow, outdated charger (that I decided not to throw away) to bring a battery back to life and saved myself a $100.00 replacement bill.

Makes me wonder if some of these new fast chargers are programmed to give up on a battery so you think it needs replacement?

OK, the tie in with the chickens is that I do almost all my own builds by myself, with my DIY tools at home. I built my entire chicken coop by myself with my DIY tools. If I can save $100.00, I think it's worth a shout out on the BYC forums.

 

[Sally PB]

Interesting! Definitely worth the shout.

I am trying to be more selective with my choice of "old stuff" to keep. We have a lot of stuff that hasn't been unpacked or used from when we moved here 27 years ago. Maybe we'll find something good! Or maybe a bunch of old junk.

 

[gtaus]

I am trying to be more selective with my choice of "old stuff" to keep. We have a lot of stuff that hasn't been unpacked or used from when we moved here 27 years ago. Maybe we'll find something good! Or maybe a bunch of old junk.

I guess I'm not at 27 years yet of storing old stuff, but junk does seem to catch up with a person. Dear Wife has no problem throwing out plastic containers, for example, and then the next week buying the same thing. She did not need it at the time but now she does. No big deal for her. I can't do that.

Anyway, I'm glad I saved the old, slow, battery charger because it saved me the cost of replacing this one battery, and maybe more in the future.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I have noticed the newer nickel cad batteries show defective more often than the older types. Especially the Ryobi s.
My husband totally agrees with your post.
We're your same brand? Or were they red or yellow ones?

 

[TJAnonymous]

I am constantly salvaging scrap wood, old tires, empty milk & juice jugs, empty toilet paper & paper towel rolls..... Everything thinks I'm nuts but you'd be surprised at how much I find stuff like that comes in handy! I just like to reuse things as much as possible....

 

[Happy hen lover]

Haha we make THE BEST fire starters for our wood burning stove with empty TP rolls stuffed with used lint and paper towels dipped in wax on both ends. We're not hoarders just resourceful! I'm amazed what all we've made from scrap.
In fact 80% of our coop was made out of scrap wood!

 

[gtaus]

I have noticed the newer nickel cad batteries show defective more often than the older types. Especially the Ryobi s.
My husband totally agrees with your post.
We're your same brand? Or were they red or yellow ones?

I bought into the Ryobi brand almost 15 years ago, back when you could only get the Ni-Cad batteries. My old Ni-Cad batteries wore out years ago and have been replaced with Lithium-Ion batteries. What I like about the Ryobi brand is that all my old Ni-Cad era Ryobi tools work even better with the new Lithium-Ion batteries. And I still use many of those old Ryobi tools from 15 years ago. Ryobi committed to using the same 18v battery format for their tools, and they have a record of 25 years with the same battery platform.

I know Ryobi is not a brand for the professional tradesman, but for my DIY use at home, they have been great. Especially for the lower price. In the 15 years I have been using Ryobi tools and batteries, only 1 battery ever died within the warranty period and Ryobi replaced it with a new one. I only have had 1 Ryobi tool fail within the warranty period (trigger switch went bad) and they repaired that unit. My 15 year blue recip saw is now starting to fail, but it has been used so much for that I suspect it's just worn out. Bottom line, I have been very happy with Ryobi.

I could contrast that to other brand tools that I have sitting on the shelf because I can no longer get a battery for them....

 

[gtaus]

I am constantly salvaging scrap wood, old tires, empty milk & juice jugs, empty toilet paper & paper towel rolls..... Everything thinks I'm nuts but you'd be surprised at how much I find stuff like that comes in handy! I just like to reuse things as much as possible....

I always say I try to live up to the motto of "Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recyle," in that order. I keep looking for a suggestion website of what to do with stuff that might have a second life. For example, I have some large glass bulk pickle jars from WalMart that must be good for something?

FWIW, my wife uses old paper towel rolls in her boots to keep them standing up nice and straight. I guess that's a good thing. Sometimes I will stick a paper towel roll into my winter gloves if they get wet from working outside. That keeps the air flowing into the glove better and allows it to dry out faster. If we don't need any more paper towel rolls for that kind of stuff, then I shred them up for use as litter in the chicken coop.

I built my chicken coop with about 50% of scrap wood and leftover wood from other projects. I don't throw lumber away. Good thing, too, because a 4X8 sheet of plywood costs something like $5,000.00 today!

 

[gtaus]

Haha we make THE BEST fire starters for our wood burning stove with empty TP rolls stuffed with used lint and paper towels dipped in wax on both ends. We're not hoarders just resourceful! I'm amazed what all we've made from scrap.
In fact 80% of our coop was made out of scrap wood!

Sounds like a good use for those empty TP rolls. I would think that a person could probably stuff the TP rolls with used/dirty paper towels which would be a good use of that instead of throwing it into the garbage. I don't have a wood burning stove, but I like your idea.

I estimate I used maybe 50% of scrap and leftover wood when I built my chicken coop. Used all the wood I could from behind the garage storage before I had to buy new lumber. Saved myself about $400 at the time. At today's wood prices, that would maybe be closer to about $20,000.00! Just kidding, of course, but I think you could easily 3X the price of lumber from when I built my coop.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Haha we make THE BEST fire starters for our wood burning stove with empty TP rolls stuffed with used lint and paper towels dipped in wax on both ends. We're not hoarders just resourceful! I'm amazed what all we've made from scrap.
In fact 80% of our coop was made out of scrap wood!

I do the same with the TP rolls. I stuff mine with old newspaper and dryer lint. I have some dipped in wax that I keep in a bug-out bag or for camping. For everyday use, I don't dip them in wax. Thanks to @Kiki I've started stuffing empty paper towel rolls with alfalfa for our pet bunny....

Oh....I also use empty TP rolls to make seed starter cups for the spring garden.