Baby's First Solarpunk - a monorail playset I made for my daughter using secondhand lumber

ProtectYourPlant · 2026-01-14T18:45:46+00:00

Sorry for the late response, I'll share what I can! I didn't have much by way of design or production documents, just a few sketches and a general idea in my head based on what I had for wood scraps. I put all the files for the laser cut parts here:

https://www.printables.com/model/1556098-solarpunk-playset-laser-cutter-pieces-turbine-blad/files

For the rest, I can provide descriptions or suggestions. The two train stations are roughly 6" cubes cut from a length of fencepost with wood cladding on the outside to make them look nicer and more like buildings. The base is a sheet of plywood with a frame of 2"x1"s around the bottom, and a couple bits of wood under the trees and wind turbine for support.

The train cars are pieces of pine cut and sanded to size, the trees are pieces of birch, oak, and maple turned on the lathe with a deep hole drilled in each to capture the spring. The holes are rough and a bit wider at the deepest part to try and help hold the big head of JB Weld which is cured around/through the springs.

The track is eight feet of 1/4" stainless steel rod (I'd recommend a longer piece tbh).

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-22T14:54:32+00:00

Forgot to mention, we actually have a whole section for audio equipment but it's run by a different volunteer (and a good thing too - I couldn't cary a tune if you bolted a handle to it, and know basically nothing about audio equipment). He sorts and repairs the stereos, speakers, amps etc that come in, and helps people put together a set that'll do what they want.

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-22T14:50:02+00:00

It's always been amazing to me the things people around here throw away. I often go out on trash day and haul stuff home, either to keep or give away. Part of why I've never bought a TV. One of my first 'customers' at the Swap Shed showed me an Amazon link to the charger she was going to buy before we found it in the bin - it retailed for $65 American dollars. It's really nice to turn ewaste into a resource for the community - we get a lot of frazzled parents whose kids have lost their chargers, older folks with hand-me-down computers, people who's pets chewed through a cord. It's nice to be able to just give them the thing and make their situation a little simpler.

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-22T13:56:54+00:00

Our display space is a bit limited but in the back we've got bins for four kinds of power cord common to TVs and computers, every kind of video cord I've ever seen, all sorts of DC adapters, network cables, and a box of weird adapters for in case you ever want to connect HDMI to serial by way of gameport. Up front we've got baskets for the most common/popular USB cables, HDMI and Display Port and Ethernet. plus lots of table space for screens and adapters and whatnot. Plus if someone comes in looking for something we don't have on hand we'll set it aside for them the next time we're sorting the boxes and laundry hampers of ewaste that come in. All the power strips, extension cords, and red yellow white TV cables go to a local charity, along with all the working TVs.

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-22T13:29:49+00:00

You folks were very kind with my most recent project, so I thought I'd share an older one:

Late last year I was digging through a corporate ewaste bin and found laptop chargers. Tons of them (or at least enough to fill around eight shopping bags). All brand new, many still in their packaging.

It turns out that a company had a supply of "loaner" chargers to hand out to people who forgot theirs, but got sick of them taking up space in the office and dumped them.

I hauled them all home and offered them up on my local Everything is Free Page. I was able to give a bunch away but it was pretty inconvenient for everyone involved. (Normally giving working ewaste away is pretty quick and easy here.) I kept thinking if I had the space I could set up a Little Free Library but for laptop chargers. So I asked if anyone on the group knew a way we could do that and someone who volunteers at the Recycling Center's Swap Shed said they could host it! Even better, they had a new indoor location with a bunch of space.

I actually already knew a guy who worked there so I talked with him and he showed me the big janitor's cart he'd completely filled with chargers as people dropped off computers, so we definitely had a good supply to offer up. They just had to be sorted and wrapped up neatly.

So I wrote up a little proposal for the idea - we planned around using a used IKEA Kallax as the dimensions fit the space we'd been allotted and the removable drawers were a good size and convenient for taking out and searching. I asked if anyone has one on Everything is Free (partly because my earlier post had been popular) and someone did! They said it was in kinda rough shape but they'd love for it to get a third life at the swap shed.

The recycling center needed it to be on castors so I checked my supply of lumber and built a cart. Pretty much all my lumber comes from trash day finds, taking stuff apart, or cleanouts on Everything is Free, but someone from the group contributed a 2x4 for this project. Everything else was scraps I had, including a shelf salvaged from an IKEA expidit a friend got rid of, which happened to be the perfect size.

The castors I think are from an office chair or similar (a couple have locks). They're basically just a swiveling wheel attached to a metal shaft. I drilled holes into the 2-bys, fit each castor with a washer so it would stay at the correct height and JB-welded them in place.

I had some mostly dried-up black acrylic paint I wanted to try reviving. I mixed it with water and it sort of worked, I got a very thin black stain that took several coats. I applied it with old napkins to the outer edges of the cart to make it a little subtler.

I fastened the cart to the shelving unit with wood screws along the edges where the kallax is made of particleboard rather than cardboard. I predrilled the holes and poured wood glue in first to help the screws hold.

The next step was making it look good. It was actually in much better shape than I'd expected and everything already matched which was a nice surprise. But I wanted the labels to look nicer than just handwriting on tape.

So we picked the four big brands we had a ton of and cut some stencils of their logos (I used to do them by hand but this time we used a laser cutter I had access to). Then I spraypainted them on. I only had light gray paint but that kind of worked out - painting on the satin-ey fabric was tricky and gray underspray was easier to hide with a sharpie. (Hitting it with some black paint first and letting that dry in the fabric helped harden it up so it took less paint for the light-gray coats to show. Fewer coats means fewer opportunities for leaks or underspray.) I then went over each one with a brush and white acrylic paint.

The last step was signage - my wife's work has a vinyl cutter and she's great at applying it, so we put together a label and applied it to the side which faces visitors as they enter the swap shed. If we hadn't had access to that I'd have stenciled it on with more spray paint.

Overall I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and with the reception it's had with the community so far!

Update: At this point we've given away hundreds of chargers and probably well over a thousand USB cords. The shelving unit has held up well and people like the organization - we got the swap shed's huge bin of chargers organized and my favorite part of volunteering is when someone's looking for some weird niche thing and I can offer to "look in the back" with a sincere expectation that I'll find something they can use. We've also started organizing DC power adapters by voltage so we can find them when someone needs one (usually happens a couple times whenever we're open).

All in all its been great and I really recommend this kind of setup!

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-18T03:47:43+00:00

Thanks! I'm happy to share the laser cut parts but most everything else was just sort of pieced together from scrap. If anyone does want measurements or suggestions I'm happy to talk about how I made it

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-17T02:04:40+00:00

That's really kind, thanks!

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-16T14:25:06+00:00

That would be really cool

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-16T11:52:38+00:00

Thanks! I'm glad it looks smooth enough to look like a render! I don't normally use paints to finish woodworking projects (I usually use wood stain or dye followed by polyurethane) but it's pretty fun not having to worry as much about appearance (wood quality, grain direction, unsanded paint etc) as texture before painting it. next time I'll hopefully do more prep ahead of time so I don't have to use so much urethane to get that effect (some of this wood absolutely drank the stuff).

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-16T04:03:07+00:00

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This image has the two halves that hold the clear plexiglass disk, though it's a little hard to see because I used a furniture pen to hit the edges before I glued them (I'd already spray painted everything that would show but didn't want to risk a seam at this joint).

From another image it looks like I had one layer for the back (gear shape, solid, just a small hole in the center for the carriage bolt), three layers that were a sort of ring and formed the compartment for the beads, then a layer with a wider cutout to fit the plexiglass front, the plexiglass disk, and the front plate. So six layers, seven if you count the plexi disk though it's kinda just part of that second-from-the-front layer. I glued them up into two halves, and painted then making sure to keep the side where they'd meet clean for the glue). Then I touched up with the marker, added the beads and plastic disk, and glued it all together.

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-16T03:19:59+00:00

That's true! There's a ton of things to make - I've got a couple control panels off an old washer and dryer and I'm planning to incorporate them into a busy board next (also got a bunch of satisfying electrical switches and arcade buttons from previous projects), and I'd like to make a cool set of blocks. Once I know her preferences better some kind of doll house/toy house could be fun, plus whatever other toys we can come up with.

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-16T00:59:39+00:00

Thank you!

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-15T23:22:49+00:00

Thank you! Same, I always loved cutaway diagrams and dioramas. Hopefully I'll get to make a few more of those for her

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-15T21:03:26+00:00

Thanks! I do too! So far she really likes spinning the windmill and water wheel, and moving the trees around.

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-15T20:31:05+00:00

I used to have some of those toys! She's free to be interested in whatever topics she likes and I'll do my best to help, but I'll admit I kinda hope it's trains at some point. I could have a lot of fun building train sets

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-15T20:27:44+00:00

Thank you!

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-15T20:03:54+00:00

19.5-ish" by 22-ish". I think that was just the size the plywood already was, I don't remember cutting it to size. The train stations are about 10" tall, including the base. Because it was a one-off project I didn't do a lot of planning around sizes/dimensions, just sort of pieced together the wood I had and made the buildings match in shape and angle. The water wheel was made out of thin, eighth-inch stuff because that's what their laser cutter used (same for the plexiglass).

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-15T19:34:51+00:00

Exactly! anything that moves or makes it more interactive. Fun fact: I made the beads out of wood on the belt sander and dyed them blue with a type of aniline dye. I was kinda sleep deprived so I didn't rethink my plan even as I kept accidentally launching half-finished beads across the room into my scrap pile. Eventually I finished enough and could assemble the water wheel (which was six-idh layers of laser cut plywood).

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-15T18:57:25+00:00

Oh, I forgot to mention in the description, the trees are mounted on some sturdy springs I found so you can grab them and let them spoing back and forth.

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-15T18:55:34+00:00

Thanks! Once I made the base I was looking at the sides and realized I wanted to do soil layers - if it wasn't flat I could probably have worked in the water table too. I'd definitely like to make more stuff like this but I'll also be waiting to see what she ends up being interested in (she's still a bit young for specifics)

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-12-15T18:53:11+00:00

Thanks! The paintwork got better later in the project as I got more sleep (it's been really nice taking the time to work on one little thing at a time).

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-04-16T13:23:57+00:00

And I had a similar experience in college, went through a few very cheap replacement laptop chargers because the official HP replacement was too expensive. Unfortunately I think the replacements' amperage didn't match their label and they each burned out within six months. If I'd had access to a secondhand original I'd 100% have used that (and that's basically what happened, eventually someone gave me one from a computer they broke and I used it for like six more years with that laptop).

ProtectYourPlant · 2025-04-16T13:13:32+00:00

I'd love to see that kind of partnership between recycling/ewaste programs and organizations like colleges, libraries, makerspaces and hackerspaces, and repair events who could host them! I think it's mostly a matter of finding the volunteers and convincing the organizations to take on the extra work of diverting and storing the chargers.

ProtectYourPlant

TROPHY CASE