Bicycle inner tubes?

On the "you know you're a permie when" thread someone said

"...when you know dozens of things to do with old bike inner tubes. "

Could anyone educate me?  I've been amassing some, contrary to my family's non accumulative goals but will either need to release them or use them soon.  They look like they should be useful, but how?

First thing that spring to mind for me is tying and bracing trees.

A friend of mine fixed a leaky spigot by using a short piece of inner tube as a gasket.  You won't use up too many inner tubes doing this, but it's a good trick to remember.  I've also used it in place of a bungee cord to tie stuff to my bike rack.

Have you looked at the inner tubes and made a determination if they can be patched? For $3 you can go to an auto parts store and get enough rubber cement and patch to fix about 10 bicycle inner tubes.

I am pretty sure if you were to pull off the tires on my tractor just about every wheel has 3 patches holding the inner tubes together. Its not a junk tractor either, its just that an inner tube that holds air is just as good as a $700 brand new tubeless tire.

I know it is a dying art, but I still patch inner tubes, still buy tubes when my tubeless tires go flat.

I collect all my old inner tubes. They have plenty of uses. I did wonder, at one point, if I had enough to patch the roof of the barn.

I collected them as tree ties when planting my orchard.

They can be used if they hold air as floating devices while swimming and tubing in ponds and rivers.

There is an awesome company in Missoula that makes wallets out of used inner tubes. I bought one for my son and he loved it!



Company website:  http://www.uplineredesign.com/

Farmers here use long strips of it as emergency  leak reapair bandage , stretch wrap around a leak in the pipes and then bind it down with blue bailing twine --or orange if you prefer--boyh seem to work as well as the next, the dairy farms have pipes running everywhere and when you no water or no pressure at milking time thats a problem.

use them for exercise. cut out the valve (could cause wounds) and (if needed) tie with a simple knot to a loop.

you can use pieces as anti-movement-mat to secure (wood-working) workpieces to the table/bench. you may need to cut it open (just one layer, not 2). it helps when working with a router or when clamping workpieces to the bench/table.

you can use a piece of tube to put over your clamps. over the thing that grabs unto the workpiece/wood.

when you clip/screw battery-powered lamps unto your bike handle..... hmmm.... it might work for nearly everything where you fix something on/unto a round(ed) handle/pipe/bar etc. ... where you would need some extra grip in the connection

i have cut strips of tractor tube and used them to tie newly planted trees  to stakes , found the easiesr way to cut thick tube was with my 4 and half inch grinder and using a ceramic tile cutting disc mounted on it   ,  a used worn out one   , or one of the cheap types that dont have much of the abrasive layer on them from new worked best---just draw a line with bright marker or chalk and as you cut gently pull one edge away from the cut line  , hardly any amount of melted crumb is created .