apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

A local Maryland artist also reuses computer bits and pieces to make clocks. Her work was on display at the recent Bethesda Row Art Festival held in Bethesda, MD. Click on my name for the link to the site.

PC boards are water proof right? I wonder how they'd fare as wall tiles... hmmmm.

I worked with used boards several years ago turning them into jewelry and such. The only problem I found was that they are dust collectors. Using them as tile would cause you to find an easy way to keep them clean. Eventually you'll get some rust but that could be an attractive look on its own.

I've been collecting the keys from old keyboards that are thrown in the trash at my college. I'm going to tile a tabletop with them at some point. Right now I can only cover about a 3x3 area and I'd like to get a little bit larger. I've got my eye out for a dell keyboard with those great black keys!
You can buy replacement keys but it is a lot more fun to have them all be scavenged.

Really like that clock. My partner is a total geek and it would be perfect for him. Plus I noticed the site is offering free shipping, which I like!

the original designer titled this 'ATM'
representing a thought process of where does time and monetary means end.
it originally was designed with the hands of the clock movement over an LCD video panel with a loop of video images of humanities achievements and failures.

PC boards are fiberglass. So they are waterproof.

But consider that most of them have at least some holes drilled in them (for vias and the occasional through-hole-mounted components).

So that may limit their usefulness as wall tiles...

As cool as it is to re-use discarded objects...

Isn't this just more green-washing?

As someone who has worked in the tech industry for over 30 years in various capacities, I don't seen anything green about these other than the color of the fiberglass. Lots of toxic materials go into making printed circuit boards, and they don't bio-degrade if they go into a landfill. A circuit board that has solder on it contains lead. Most electronic components contain substances that will leach out in a landfill and contaminate ground-water.

So don't get me wrong - I like this idea and re-use is cool.

But "green"???

Doesn't get my vote as a "green product". No offense intended...

As to where do products go, some states now have mandatory recycling laws to keep these toxic items out of landfills.

In Vancouver (WA) where I live we can take old electronics to recycling centers for no charge, so it's even easier. All we need now is curbside electronic recycling. I've got some old electronics in my garage I've been meaning to take down to the transfer station "one of these days".

Electronics recycling centers ship what they collect to the developing world, where they create major environmental and health problems, e.g., http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/04/10/ewaste/index_np.html There are lots of article on this - so buying this stuff isn't a bad thing.

I think the keyboard letter table top is a great idea.

I bought a great circuitboard "jewelry" pin by a European designer at this year's design show at the Javits - I picked the gekko. And I've had a circuit board clipboard for at least 20 years so, while this stuff is fun, it isn't new.

Yeaaaah... what about the lead?

Back in my first year in Architecture school, I collected all the old circuit boards from the Computer Science building and screwed all the mobos into the wall behind my studio space. I left the PCI / ISA cards in their slots and used them as mini shelves for my x-acto knives, inking pens and other small instruments.

The electronics recycling center in Berkeley put used computers back in service for use by people who couldn't afford new ones.

If 50% of "recycled" computers are being shipped overseas for disassembly (assuming Salon is a reliable source), that leaves another 50% somehow being handled by ethical recycling centers. Those are decent odds for asking your local center what their policies are.

There was a front page story in the NY Times about problems with overseas recycling, so the issue is real.

Asking your recycler is exactly the way to go, wende.