Upcycling Unwanteds - Geared Up!

Despite having a love for cars, motorbikes & all things fuel driven & ozone destroying, I actually have a deep concern for the environment and the devastating impact the human race has encroached onto it. Contradicting, I know, but that's a whole different argument.

For this particular assignment I set personal goals that I wanted to achieve with my product:

1. Visual Impact.
2. Strong, Long Life.
3. Easy to Reproduce.
4. Help People (Either through the manufacturing process or the product itself).

Before brainstorming product possibilities, I set out to obtain a suitable material. Once I had found this material I was determined to find a purpose for it. I chose discarded motorcycle & car parts primarily because they were appropriate for what I wanted to achieve, particularly my 4th goal which I will go into later. These parts are also relevant to my interests & I enjoy spending time at wreckers & junk yards, thus enriching my own experience for this project.


The Cause

One of the things that inspired me throughout this project is the ability for upcycled products to create employment for the underprivileged in developing and poverty stricken countries and areas. Because of this, I wanted to create a product using a material that was relevant to these countries & their people. India, China, Brazil & a lot of South East Asian countries in particular all have densely populated cities, rife with poverty. What I had discovered, however, was within these cities, the most preferred mode of personal transport was the motorcycle or motorized scooter. I had this idealistic vision for my product, the underprivileged would be hired, trained & paid to manufacture my table.

Vietnam - A Sea of Motorbikes & Scooters

The Material

Once I had established my material source, I had to narrow down my choice & decide what specific parts I wanted to use. I chose the sprockets & chains for a number of reasons.

• They were a logical choice in terms of their material capabilities.
  
• These parts are strong & the chain has unique properties that allow it to be formed and mated with the sprocket.
• They are a common, replaceable part on a motorbike, thus making them readily available.

Motorcycle chain & sprocket

It seems like such a waste for someone to throw these away, the chain in particular, but once they wear past a certain point they become unsafe on the vehicle & must be discarded. The chain & sprockets themselves, as a whole, are still strong, but the sprocket teeth may be overly worn or the chain stretched past safe tolerances, thus ending up in junk yards (or my backyard).

The chain isn't an easy product to recycle either. It can't simply be melted down for its raw material. Chains are usually covered with lubricant or grease, differing grades of steel are used for the different parts of the chain & the rubber O-Rings make it a very exhaustive process to recycle.


The Design

I had some difficulty during this stage of development. I wanted a design that expressed and exploited the physical attributes of the materials, whilst still maintaining the character from its previous life. Mating the two parts together and using them in unison seemed like the answer, as it was a direct reflection of how they were used on the vehicle, but still maintained the strength I wanted in the tabletop. The chains are not completly welded to the sprocket either, its not necessary, only specific chain links have been permanantly attached to the sprocket, the rest are free to move around and make noise, again emphasising the strength of the two materials in harmony.

I used non matching parts, each sprocket and chain is a different design and is unique on its own. This, again, expresses that these parts are in fact collected scraps, and I believe add an interesting dimension to the overall design. Heavy duty road bike chains were used on the outer perimiter of the table for strength, while dirtbike chains were used in the centres to support the legs. No waste of material was created from the manufacturing process. I altered the length of the chain using a chain breaker and have used the broken link segments from that to reinforce the leg supports. If these were to be mass manufactered I would want to maintain that no two tables are the same and perhaps a certificate will be supplied to certify its uniqueness.


I wanted the table to have a polished finish, but through the welding process (or my lack thereof) the metal became tarnished. Sandblasting was out of my budget and hand polishing was too time consuming so I decided to paint it instead. I used a common hammertone paint and applied it using an air compressor & airbrush, avoiding the aerosol can option.

I used this paint because:

• It provides a tough, wear resitant finish.
• Protects against corrosion as well as rectifying any rust that was already on the metal.
• It gave an attractive textured finish.

Time to end my rambling

Final Product Poster

I believe I have achieved a satisfactory result for the effort I have put in. There are some aspects that I would have & should have put more time in (the legs...), but I think I achieved what I originally aimed for and that this table, maybe with some alteration, could in fact make a difference and can sell quite well should it go into production.

It probably works better as a stool rather than a table at the moment...



Peer Comments
- Gleb Lebazine
- Kiran Kashyap
- Sussana Li
- Charmaine Chen
- Lucinda Waters