How to make useful things out of an old washing machine

Dismantling the machine

The design of this household appliance is quite complex. If you carefully remove the components, they can be used to create new mechanisms and useful household items. What kind of spare parts might be useful?

1. The heart of a washing machine is the engine; if it is in working order, it can become the basis for various new appliances for the home.
2. Drum - manufacturers make it from high-quality stainless steel, because the main load during washing falls on it. We disconnect all the pipes and wires, pull the tank out of the car and remove the drum from it.
3. The loading hatch is a very useful thing; we carefully dismantle it and place it on a rack in the garage.
4. We also don’t throw away small parts - they will come in handy around the house.
5. Compact and heavy counterweights and powerful springs - there is always a use for them, which we will discuss below.
6. The case itself will also come in handy, so we put the walls and lid in place.

If you are knowledgeable about electronic devices, then the analog board will also be useful - there are many different components needed for repairing electrical appliances in the house.

Now let’s look in more detail at what useful mechanisms and things can be made from an outdated automatic washing machine.

How to make a simple feather removal machine for home use from a washing machine with your own hands

The time of slaughtering a bird is a troublesome stage. This is usually done in the fall, when the ducks and broilers have reached the desired weight, and it is no longer profitable to keep them in the winter. You need to pluck several dozen or even hundreds of carcasses very quickly. You can get rid of hard labor with the help of a feather removal machine, and it’s easy to do everything from the same parts of the washing machine.

The only thing that can cause difficulties is the search for rubber fingers with threads - beaters. You will have to order them, so keep in mind that you need to think about making the machine long before slaughter

The device does not require disassembling the washing machine. It is especially convenient to use machines with vertical loading. You just need to fix the beats in the drum so that they point inward. Before plucking, the chicken carcass must be scalded with boiling water and then simply thrown into a rotating drum. Here's what happens:

Important! To prevent water from getting on the engine of the feather removal machine, you need to protect it with a plastic casing.

And the last point - the feather removal device must be firmly fixed, since the vibration when loading the carcass will be very strong.

Useful mechanisms

First of all, you can use spare parts from an old washing machine to make useful mechanisms for the household.

Grinding and cutting machine

Giving a second life to the electric motor of household appliances is quite simple - its power is quite enough to make a sharpening machine. There are no particular difficulties for the home craftsman: attach the motor housing to a strong wooden base (a piece of board will do), connect the start and stop button, make an adapter attachment on the shaft where the grinding or cutting wheel will be attached. You can see other homemade products made from a washing machine engine here.

Smokehouse

Many people dream of having their own smokehouse to surprise friends with smoked meats, but in a city apartment there is no place to install it. We offer a mobile analogue - it is made from the drum of a top-loading washing machine. We fix a thin sheet of steel in a circle so that the smoke does not escape through the perforations, and insert a special grate in the middle where fish and meat will be laid out for smoking.

A hole is made on top for the pipe, where the smoke will come out; under the grate we lay out wood blocks or chips from oak, alder, cherry or apple tree. The main task is not to overdo it, the volume of the smokehouse turned out to be small, so you don’t need to put a lot. It is better to find out the norm in advance using an empirical method, from smallest to largest. Experts in this field assure that five small bars or dry branches are quite enough.

Feather removal machine

For those who are engaged in breeding poultry for subsequent sale in city markets, this improvement will be to their liking. We mean assembling the feather removal machine on your own. It works in the same way as the factory analogue, only it looks less aesthetically pleasing, but is many times cheaper.

The operating principle is not particularly complicated:

1. The fairly capacious tank is studded with special rubber pins (beaters) with a threaded connection at the end for a tight and reliable connection to the body.
2. The bottom rotates at high speed and is also studded with rubber beaters.
3. A poultry carcass scalded with boiling water is placed in the tank: chicken, goose, duck or broiler.
4. When turned on, the bottom rotates, the beaters force the carcass to quickly move throughout the entire internal space, as a result of which the feathers fly off in different directions.
5. In 2 minutes the carcass is cleaned, leaving only minor residues in the area of ​​the inside of the wings, tail and paws.

Using the example of some farms, up to 30 carcasses can be plucked in this way in an hour.

Amateurs believe that mechanical plucking causes damage to carcasses, but in practice their presentation is 100% preserved.

The tank is positioned horizontally and water is supplied as shown in the photograph. An outlet is made at the bottom to remove water and feathers, so the bottom is slightly smaller than the diameter of the drum. The supply of water has a beneficial effect on the entire process of mechanical plucking.

The most expensive part is the purchase of pins made of durable rubber: the cost of one is at least 1.5 dollars, and you need at least 120 of them, but the costs will quickly pay off.

Concrete mixer

This is a rather complex device that must ensure both concrete mixing and unloading. The easiest way to make a concrete mixer out of a barrel washer is to replace the standard activator with two U-shaped blades . They can be made from steel strip 4-5 mm thick. To do this, you need to cut two pieces of strip of the required size, bend them and place them perpendicular to each other. Then the blades must be welded to the shaft, passed through the hole for the remote activator.

Each barrel washer has a drain hole. When making a concrete mixer, it must be plugged . What happens next depends on the volume of concrete that needs to be mixed. If this volume does not exceed one bucket, then you can leave the old single-phase motor from the machine in the concrete mixer.

If you plan to mix a larger volume of concrete, then instead of the old engine you will have to use a more powerful one (0.8-1.5 kW) and with low speeds (1300-1500 rpm). In addition, the original belt drive must be replaced with a gearbox that reduces engine speed to 25-30 rpm .
It should also be noted that for better mixing of concrete, the option is more suitable when it is not the shaft with the activator that rotates, but the body of the concrete mixer with blades fixedly fixed in it.

Interior details

We have not listed everything that can be made from a washing machine if you have a lot of imagination and certain skills. If you don’t need a lathe, then there are many ideas for using parts from an old washing machine in the interior of an apartment or private house - all you have to do is choose the most suitable one.

Sealed door

The loading hatch door from a front-loading machine can be adapted to fit a window in a wooden frame - it looks unique and is actually practical. To do this, you just need to cut out the door along with part of the front panel of the household appliance - an original porthole is ready that fits into almost any interior.

If you live in the private sector in your own house, and there is a shaggy guard in the yard, then you can insert a machine door into his booth, through which in severe frosts he will see everything, but be in a warmer room. With the help of such a homemade product, you can isolate the formidable watchman when guests arrive - he sees everyone, but is not able to bite or tear clothes.

We must remember that the hatch is sealed, so make side holes to ventilate the booth.

Coffee table

Using a stainless steel drum with plenty of perforations, you can change the interior of your apartment beyond recognition: make a unique coffee table in a fashionable hi-tech style. You can decorate it with internal lighting from an LED garland to save energy - it’s simple, but it looks original and very unusual.

This is not difficult to do: you just need to attach a few steel pins to the drum body. Attach a table top made of plexiglass or MDF board on top. A piece of furniture made in this way will decorate the interior of your living room.

Unique poufs

Fantasy has no limits - with a certain skill and imagination, you can make various poufs from a drum for a children's room. We take a colored pillow and cut out a square of the same size from chipboard, then use a stapler to secure the pillow to the square.

We attach the halves of the card loop to the chipboard and the outer wall of the drum using self-tapping screws and self-tapping screws, paint the side surface of the drum with bright paint - a unique pouf with a hinged lid is ready, and inside children can store small toys and things.

Such original poufs made of stainless metal will last for many years, when children grow up, they can be covered with discreet fabric and placed in the living room.

Lampshade for the nursery

To completely change the interior of a children's room using an original homemade lampshade from a drum from an old washing machine, you need to do the following:

• from any non-flammable, non-conducting material (textolite, ebonite) we make a circle half the size of the drum diameter;
• then we cut out a hole for the cartridge and connection wire;
• insert the cartridge into the prepared hole, fix the circle on the back wall of the drum, take the wire out;
• We screw three special hooks into the ceiling, as shown in the photo;
• We attach special cables to the drum body on which the entire structure will hang;
• we hang the assembled structure;
• connect the wire from the chandelier to the socket terminals;
• We screw the light bulb through the receiving hole of the drum - everything is ready.

To dim the light and create a fabulous interior, you can attach multi-colored light fabric to the walls inside.

How to make a sharpener or grinding device from a washing machine engine

A sharpener is one of the most popular tools for the home. It can be used to sharpen garden tools, household knives and scissors. If you don’t already have one, buy it at any tool store or make a sharpening machine from a washing machine. The most difficult part is how to attach the sanding wheel to the motor. The easiest way is to buy a ready-made flange. It looks something like this.

Flange for motor

You can machine a flange from a metal pipe of a suitable diameter; most often, a tube with a cross-section of 32 mm is suitable. You need to cut a piece 15 centimeters long from it, this is quite enough to fix the emery. The flange is secured to the motor shaft by welding or a through bolt. The video describes in detail how a homemade washing machine sharpener works:

In the country

If you have a plot of land, you can use one of the ideas below. Their implementation does not require special skills and will not take much time.

To help the gardener

Here, an old drum can be used to wash vegetables or mushrooms grown in the garden beds. The container is placed above the gutter, the harvested crop is placed through the laundry hole, we water it from above with a hose, and from below the dirty water flows out by gravity through the perforations. The original design works like a colander in the kitchen, only much larger - at the entrance we get clean vegetables or mushrooms, quickly and without unnecessary hassle.

Many gardeners use the drum as a limiter for the growth of fruit bushes or to protect the root system of rare flowers from pests - not a single rodent will overcome the steel protection, and excess moisture will escape through the hole system.

You can also make a unique flowerpot, decorating the sides with fragments of ceramic tiles of different designs - beautiful and unusual.

Making a grill

The drum body is made of stainless steel, and it is resistant to high temperatures, so you can make an original rotating grill, especially since there are already perforations for airflow on all sides. We take old pipes, if we don’t have our own welding, then we invite a neighbor - and in half an hour we have a barbecue in our yard for cooking barbecue. To prevent the weather from spoiling the holiday, we build a durable rain canopy on top.

It’s quite easy to make a barbecue yourself from a drum from front-facing machines, with vertical stacking of laundry - you need to make small modifications: cut off the side with a grinder, and add a stable support from below.

Drum products

The washing machine tank also turns out to be a very useful acquisition in the household.

Feather plucking machine

For this mechanism, the drum from the automatic machine is installed horizontally. Beating fingers directed inward are inserted into its holes at the bottom and sides. This is the most expensive part of the product, because they are sold individually, and the minimum required quantity is 100 pieces. There is an inlet for water at the top, and an outlet for its removal at the bottom.

This mechanism works like this: a chicken carcass treated with boiling water is placed in the tank. Rotating at high speed, the chicken hits the beating fingers, causing the feathers to fly off. The whole process takes a couple of minutes, and, contrary to fears, this type of processing does not cause damage to the carcass.

Brazier

The drum of the washing machine is not subject to corrosion and withstands temperature changes well. This makes it an ideal material to use as a barbecue. It is enough to weld pipes of the required length as legs. The presence of many holes in the design ensures uniform access of air necessary for cooking.

Smokehouse

For this device, a hole is cut in the side of the drum and a door is installed. The remaining holes should be welded or sheathed with metal. A grate is placed inside on which meat (fish) will be smoked. A slot is made on top for smoke.

Shade

A circle is cut out of non-flammable material with a diameter smaller than the drum, in the center of which a hole is cut for the cartridge. The resulting base for the lamp is attached to the rear wall of the tank. Next, ropes with hooks at the ends should be secured to the ceiling, onto which the drum is directly hung. Then you need to connect the electrical wire to the socket. And for beauty or to create muted light, the craft can be covered with fabric.

Ottoman in the living room

First you should choose a seat cushion, under which you should cut a cover of the same shape from a sheet of chipboard. Then fasten them with a construction stapler. The resulting seat is connected to the tank using a pair of furniture hinges. The space inside the drum can be used for storing things, and the tank itself can be painted with acrylic paints to match the pillow. Due to the strength of the drum, the service life of such a homemade product is very long.

Container for washing fruits and vegetables

The method of application is as follows: vegetables from the garden are placed in the drum and watered with a hose. Dirt and soil flow out through numerous holes, leaving vegetables inside.

Shrub growth limiter

It is used like this: a hole is dug into which a tank from the machine is installed, filled to the brim with earth. Plants and shrubs planted in it cannot grow beyond the size of the drum, chaotically filling the area at the dacha. It is also a good protection for roots from moles and shrews.

Using a tank or drum as a country table looks original. The tabletop for it can be cut from thick glass or 40 mm chipboard. The tabletop is fastened with two slats of the same length, the ends of which are attached to its end. In the middle part of the slats, corners are installed, which are connected along a vertical shelf to the wall of the tank.

Some useful tips

From a drum and an electric motor from household appliances, you can make a concrete mixer, a juicer, a universal sterilizer for home canning, a grass grinder and cereals for feeding poultry - there are no limits to your imagination.

To implement grandiose projects, anyone can find the information they are interested in, diagrams and detailed drawings with an algorithm of step-by-step actions on the Internet. When a washing machine breaks down, each user can independently figure out how to organize a second life for it.

Other options

Among other homemade products for which craftsmen use motors from washing machines, the most interesting can be noted. For example, someone thought of adapting such a motor to their bicycle so as not to pedal. Another managed to build a grain crusher, and a third managed to build a grinding (or grinding) machine. The turn has even come to such complex equipment as a lawn mower on wheels and a wind generator.

And this is far from the limit for folk craftsmen.

Hatch door products

A good owner will also find a worthy use for the hatch door.

Window in the bathhouse

The part can be ideally used in a steam room, because it allows light to pass through, but it is difficult to see anything through it. In addition, the glass is very thick and durable, so it will retain heat well and will not allow moisture to pass through . The most difficult step is to install the lock correctly, otherwise the window will not close. For this purpose, the hatch is also suitable for a garage or toilet.

Dog kennel door

In this capacity, the lid can protect the dog from piercing drafts in cold weather. Also ideal when you need to temporarily confine your pet. But you need to remember that the lid is sealed, so you should first drill ventilation in the booth.

Important! The door can also be used as a plate for preparing food in a microwave oven. A large transparent deep bowl is always relevant for the garden: as a bowl for animals or a decorative bowl for fruit.

Wires

The machine's wiring can be simply cut out using pliers. But if you put in a little time, you'll end up with plenty of long pieces of wire that can be used in a variety of projects. They can usually be easily removed without cutting. The metal and plastic clips that secure the wires can also be reused.

By removing the top layer you will get to the “guts” of the washing machine. There are also many useful wires here, after disconnecting them it will be easier to get to other parts. You will have to store the machine's spare parts somewhere, but they can be useful when repairing other equipment or working on some homemade project. Disassembling an old device can save you from searching for the necessary items at flea markets and sales in the future.