Western New York's Largest Supplier of Reclaimed & Surplus Building Material

Rusted Grain

Tuesday 12/13: Make Your Own Organizer

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Using old dresser drawers, plywood and wood scraps, the ladies in the woodshop will be conducting a class on how to make your own storage unit/organizer.  A perfect holiday gift or to help aid in your New Year’s resolution of being neat and tidy.  There will be a few designs to choose from.  Workshop is free, donations accepted.  RSVP is greatly appreciated as we will be pre-cutting some pieces in preparation for the workshop.  Full details: Action HQ (1212 Jefferson) 6pm-9pm Note: The woodshop is NOT HEATED (yet).  Please bring extra layers. We will provide the tea and hot chocolate! … Read more

Find Us at Buffalo First’s Local Market Tonight!

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Find stuff for the holidays, come chat with us about what we do!  Tonight we will be participating in Buffalo First’s Give Local a Chance Bash and Local Marketplace. It is $5 to get in, raising funds to continue the neat stuff that Buffalo First does to support local businesses. Here are the details below: November 25, 2011 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm Main Street Studios 515 Main Street Buffalo, NY 14203 There will be demonstrations on the scroll saw as well as a presentation of how we acquire materials through our Green Demo Team, process them, and turn them … Read more

The waterfront story continues…

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As the summer ends and winter approaches, we finished the final touches on the waterfront food kiosk “Clinton’s Dish.”  We boarded her up for the season, installing beautiful storm shutters that were made in the Rusted Grain woodshop at Action HQ!  Like the siding, our materials for the storms were locally sourced: yellow pine flooring that was salvaged by the Green Demo Team during a green demolition project taking place in South Buffalo.  The aged boards were refaced and stained, becoming an awesome addition to the local flavor of Buffalo’s newest waterfront building.  Speaking of flavor…can’t wait ’til they come … Read more

ReUsing Lath

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Michael recently got an inquiry about sourcing wood lath, the thin strips of pine that form a substrate for an old-fashioned plaster wall. The inquirer was planning to use lath as a wall covering material in a commercial bathroom. Interesting . . . we recycle tons of lath in each house we dismantle and haven’t seen much reuse potential in the material. And here’s another use of wood lath, courtesy of Fine Woodworking magazine in their story about a contest run by the New Orleans ReUse organization “Green Project”. The table’s creator, Robert Portman, was dismayed at the waste of … Read more

Buy online!

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The Green Demo crew brings more and more reclaimed materials into Action HQ everyday.  The question becomes, what will we do with it? Do we reuse it as is? Can we salvage the good parts?  Or better yet, lets get our creative juices flowing and make new items from old stuff! We are now selling our creations online.  Included in every purchase is a short introduction to the woodworker or artist who made the piece along with a story of where the material used came from.  Below are some first examples, but keep your eyes peeled and check the website … Read more

Workshop: making wooden bottle openers

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Kids are reading less, people use e-books more, and libraries are scrambling for what to do about it.  One common solution is to close libraries and get rid of books (sound familiar Buffalo?).   Instead, one library in British Columbia is changing the way we think about libraries; they have a collection of “living books,” local experts, who have volunteered to share their knowledge on specific subjects.  Want to know about the history of the circus? Want to learn a certain painting technique?  “Check out” a living expert that will meet with you to discuss your topic of interest!  Libraries remain … Read more

From Stairs to Cabinets

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A lot of conversation in the building material reuse industry is about closing loops.   Rather than having a start and a finish (as in, virgin forest to landfill), we like to see a material come full circle and reenter into use.  At Action HQ we are constantly receiving and processing materials and using our woodshop to try and find uses for them.  When we have a good idea or something turns out particularly well, we’d like to share with you the creations we come up with! The green demo crew took down a house in South Buffalo this past week … Read more

Harvesting Our City

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the way ReUse Action acquires materials in Buffalo through green demos and salvage jobs and have come to the conclusion that what we are doing is much like mining for coal, only better.  What we are essentially doing is a more sustainable form of mining, in cities.  We are learning to use our city as an incredible and harvestable resource!  Harvesting material that is destined for a landfill, learning how to process it, reuse it and resell it.   We are “a community of tradesmen and women, artists, designers, and community members…” changing the … Read more

Opening Party at Rusted Grain!

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About fifty ReUse Action and Rusted Grain friends and supporters turned out Thursday evening to kick off Buffalo’s newest woodshop, and one of the few who specialize in reusing materials. Here are some photos: See more photos of Rusted Grain’s opening party here.

Thursday grand opening!

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Many replied they were sorry to have missed it, thinking the celebration was this past week. Well you didn’t miss a thing! ITS THIS THURSDAY! Come celebrate the opening of Rusted Grain and hear about all the awesome stuff ReUse Action has been a part of recently. July 21, 6:00pm – 7:30pm, 1212 Jefferson (big garage door in front).

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