Five Super Fun Scrap Metal Projects To Make For Kids

Almost all metals are completely recyclable, but in spite of that fact, Australians recycle less than a third of their steel and about two-thirds of their aluminum cans. If you have old metal, you can take it to a scrap metal facility instead of the landfill, but if you are feeling creative, you can make a project out of it instead.

If you have kids, here are five fun scrap metal projects you should explore:

1. Ute Bed

If you have the old bed of an antique ute, it can make the perfect bed frame for your transportation loving child. All you need to do is detach the bed from the cab of the ute, repaint it a fun colour and place a mattress in it

If you don't have a full ute bed, you can still do something fun with other types of scrap metal. Make a headboard out of the front of the vehicle, or create a foot board out of the grille.

2. Washing Tub Toy Box

If you have an old washing machine or dryer, you can take out the tub to make a fun toy box that also doubles as a stool. Simply detach the tub from the rest of the machine. You can line it and cover the outside with felt, or you can leave the metal as it is and spray paint it your child's favorite colours.

Use the basket on its own to hold toys or weld some caster wheels to the bottom to make it moveable. Finally, make an optional lid so you can use the tub as a stool. To make the lid, you just need a circular piece of wood and a circular cushion to glue to it.

3. Clothing Hooks

All kids need hangers to keep their clothing organised and off the floor. If you have a little bit of welding skills, you can easily make your child a place to hang his or her clothing. You can use whatever metal you have on hand, or you can look for scrap metal that reflects your kids' interests and hobbies.

For instance, if your kid loves tools, you can take an old saw and weld small metal hooks onto that. If your kid loves sports, take some old metal golf clubs and bend those to create hooks in a piece of old wood.

4. A Nuts-and-Bolts Chess Set

If you want to get the kids involved with a scrap metal project, consider making a nuts and bolts chess set. To get started, you can use an old checkers board, or you can pound a piece of sheet metal into a flat square, and then paint squares on it.

To make your pieces, you just need a bag of old nuts and bolts. Grab a small welding tool and melt various nuts and bolts together to create the different pieces such as kings, queens, knights and bishops.

5. Random Sculptures

Instead of making something your child can use, consider just letting your child get creative with some metal sculpting. You can use any old metal from soda cans to old metal watering cans to chopped up appliances. However, an easy type of metal to start with is bed springs.

If you have an old mattress, pull out the springs and let your child craft something amazing. Your springs can be the center of a dog sculpture, you can put them together to make a lamp shade or your child can make something abstract.

Whether you have metalworking skills or not, all of these projects have little to no risk. They are made with scrap metal, and if the project doesn't work, you can easily recycle the metal at a scrap metal facility.

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