For a recent university design project we were required to salvage scrap materials and up cycle them into a new, functional product. The scrap products that I salvaged were a Toyota Yaris hubcap and the foot of a desk chair. I chose to use these two products, with the addition of a circular glass surface, to create a new, unique coffee table.

Step 1: Step 1 - the Scraps That I Found and Salvaged

The two main components of my design that I found were a Toyota hub cap and the foot of an office desk chair salvaged from my garden shed.

Step 2: Step 2 - the Initial Assembly

My initial idea was to turn the base of the desk chair upside down, remove the wheels, sit the hubcap in the centre of the 5 legs and to cover the legs with a circular glass top. however once I had done so I noticed 2 main issues, firstly, the hub cap was not well balanced inside the 5 legs, to solve this, simply placed another salvaged item, an metal industrial wheel of some kind, around the upright that was causing the hubcap to not be balanced. This increased the surface area that the hub cap could sit on.

Step 3: Step 2 -continued

The second issue was that the piece of glass I had available did not quite cover the full diameter of the chair legs. In an attempt to secusre the glass, I put the 5 wheels back onto the legs. Luckily enough, the glass I had available sits withing the wheels and is secured well. To secure the glass even more I added small rubber pads to the ledge on which the glass sits, to secure it and prevent the glass from slipping.

Step 4: Step 3 - Adjustments

The hub cap at this point was sitting quite low beneath the glass top, I wanted to raise it in order to support the glass centrally, to do so I simply stuck pizza packaging bases (also recycled) together using double sided tape, and placed them beneath the hub cap.