The local electric company is giving away wire reels of varying sizes:
They seem like they could be handy for something, but before I sign up to bring home more junk, what kind of creative ideas might you use them for? I saw a picture of someone using one as a chick brooder recently (by enclosing it with hardware cloth). Jumps? Tables? What other ideas do you have?
goats love to climb on them, my grand daughters’ goats have about eight in their pen the jump for spool to spool as if they were in the mountains
We also use one for a dog grooming stand, we put a rubber mat on it for the dog
Many are used for tables in cattle working pens by the chute, holding branding supplies, etc.
Nice because they are sturdier than regular tables and the wood is treated, good outside “furniture”.
Goatie playground!! I’d love to find a few of these! We did also use ours for side tables by the garden, tack shed, random places.
Wow, gold mine! My hobby is building jumps and I’d love to get my hands on some of those. Among other ideas the round ends would be great for wheels. I’m thinking of a pair of jump wings that look like tractors. and another with wagon wheels at either side and jumping the wagon body. The centers look like nice lumber to put to use in jumps after dismantling to get the round disks.
Goats…although mine (Boer) ignored them
If only I had goats! 
I do think they would be handy as tables! I’ll have to see if I can get some this week.
I have a friend who made jumps out of them by putting them on their side, cutting the bottom to make it flat and placing several side by side, although they freaked me out a little bit because of the parts that stick up. You could maybe add another layer of wood to the outside though and make a rolltop-ish jump. Or use these as small standards and somehow mount cups to put a pole between them. Trying to find photos but I’m not sure I have any of it set up. This one shows it from the side so you can see how it was cut.
Very unlikely do they contain treated lumber. The wire and cable guys are very picky about what comes in contact with their wires and fiber optic cables. The darkness of the wood is due to weathering. They will last a few years outside, but if you want them to last longer, you should paint them.
I’ll have to see if I have any pictures. I did something similar and used various pieces of safe stuff I found lying around to turn them into coops. I’ve also removed one end off of two spools and connected them.The bigger ones make good skinnies too.
When I was a kid, these were at-home jump standards. Just the right height for hunter pony schooling. We rested the pole on the flat side for safety.
In college and beyond, these spools were tables, in cheap apartments and rathskellers.
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