Hello again, fellow readers and fixers! We had a light bulb moment in our heads recently. There’s one thing that we’re keen on doing, and that’s revisiting an old repurpose idea from a few years ago. We originally explored the idea of using old parts from computers and peripherals to make different snack makers.
There are a variety of different snack makers for people who fancy making their own treats. You could make candyfloss, popcorn, waffles, pancakes or crepes, or even cook burgers or hotdogs! While making them as separate units would be fun projects, we had set our sights higher. And that was to combine them all into the space of a desktop PC!
How it all started…
During a repair cafe session, I found a Dell XPS 600 tower PC that was among our spares in the store room. It was a large unit that we felt was fairly easy to work with. This is due to the sliding mechanism for opening and closing the PC. Its large internal space also allowed for splitting into different compartments if needed. So we decided to strip it down, while keeping the power supply. We then took it with us to Access Space, in the city centre.
We also needed to build the snack makers that we can then integrate into our chosen case. But at the time, we were worried that trying to build our own makers from scratch would be time-consuming. That’s because it can take a lot of trial and error, with choosing the right parts for the project. And we also needed to make sure that they work properly without issues. And so, we basically cheated.
Getting the snack makers
We came across some very cheap popcorn and candyfloss makers on Ebay. Our thought process at that time, was to use pre-assembled units that we can easily work into the PC case. We bought one of each, and we brought them over to Access Space to try out. As far as I recall, they actually worked quite well for what they cost. We managed to make some tasty popcorn, and I made a small portion of candyfloss after a couple of tries.
We actually had some fun seeing how the two machines work, and we were interested in working on the project further. Sadly, that was as far as we got. The project drifted into the back burner over time, as we focused on our repair cafes and events elsewhere. And with it, we left behind our Dell XPS 600 tower case, donating it to the recycle pile!
Looking back…
Recalling what we did up to the last time we worked on the project, something dawned on me. By opting to use the pre-assembled popcorn and candyfloss makers, for our project, I realised that we missed the whole point of reusing and repurposing what we already have! To be fair, we took the easy option back then to have fun quickly. We probably weren’t prioritising the reduce, reuse, recycle concept back then as much as we do today.
I believe it’s worth going back to the drawing board and look again at the snack maker project. Of course, we’d certainly try making a popcorn maker and a candyfloss maker from scratch using old parts, as we originally wanted to do! Yes, it can be a lot of trial and error, but seeing our creations produce tasty treats would be worth it in the end! So, until next time, just keep calm and keep on fixing!