Introduction: Trash to Treasure 8 the Treasure Chest

About: I think my interests tell a lot about me, I'm a multimedia artist which means I work in whatever medium grabs my attention, paint on canvas is very relaxing and acrylic paint can be mixed with paper to make a …

In the continuing saga of my reusing and repurposing objects I find during my curb mining expeditions https://www.instructables.com/id/Mining-for-suburban-gold/  is this outside storage unit

Step 1: The Find

On a recent outing I found this assortment of plastic panels, I had no idea what they were until the next day when I unloaded the truck and looked them over, king of a jigsaw puzzle with no picture to go by, I eventually figured out what it was, unfortunately they had cut the sides instead of simply undoing the screws

Step 2: The Fix

After a little mental gymnastics I figured I could add some straps to hold the cut pieces together and what better to use than recycled aluminum cans

Step 3: Preparing the Straps

In a recent "ible" the author suggested using heat and weight to uncurl the aluminum cans, well I didn't feel like waiting that long and I didn't really need perfectly flat sheets so... I cut the top and bottom from the soda cans using a serrated knife (usually called a steak knife here in the U.S.) then using an old pair of scissors I cut the remaining cylinder, using the old trick to curl paper by pulling it over a sharp edge, I pulled each sheet over the corner of my work surface. I then cleaned up the edges left from the knife with the scissors

Step 4: The Fix

after cutting some trips from the aluminum sheets, I used self tapping screws to attach the strips and hold the sides together. In the 1st pic is my 1st attempt with a long strip running down the seam, it was difficult to get it all held in place and screwed down, the next pic shows the way I did the other 3 corners. Although this repair seems to work fairly well, I'm going to add some full sheets to the outside corners. Since the hooks that acted as hinges for the lid are missing I may attach some recycled door hinges but I'm going to have to think about a cooler alternative

Step 5: Treasure Chest

I guess it depends on how you define treasure, this is a perfect spot to hide a LOT of the granbrats toys so for them it's definitely treasure.