This is an idea I ran across at another site as well..
It pays to look around and re-use whatever locally
available technology we have...

Case in point:
We have a Sustainable Energy class at our university.
We're modifying electric bicycles to run from NiMH
battery packs, and needed a DC source that wasn't common:
32v @ 18 amps ( to fast-charge a 16-cell 12AH pack ).
If you hook up 3 PC power supplies in series ( the 12v
outputs), you can get 36v @ as many amps as the supply
is rated for - I found 18-24A models ). We are also
building battery management boards ( to oversee the
fast-charge termination - necessary) we can use one of
the +5 outputs to run the chip on these boards.

You can put a small power resistor across the +5 output
to draw enough current to keep the PS happy so it doesn't
self-destruct.

BTW, the NiMH packs we are planning to use were
originally for Laptops - 9.6v @ 1700 maH -
put a bunch in series/parallel and they can spin
an ebike motor without an issue...

The issue of course is charging them..