Best scavenged items

[STROIL]

PHPaul, that might be the best scavenge story I ever heard. Good for you!

 

[PHPaul]

PHPaul, that might be the best scavenge story I ever heard. Good for you!

Thanks. I grin every time I fire up that Miller...

 

[RitchElbe]

Would love to have a 10k trail blazer....but in light of mobility and spot of the moment need a times..I'll actually be installing a ready welder in my truck

 

[CNC Dan]

..I'll actually be installing a ready welder in my truck

The little wire feed units that run off a few battries? If so please let us know how it works out.

 

[RitchElbe]

My bad Gents" in my rush to type while the teach was saying Hush ( LoL ) first I will be installing this ( see link ) then the Ready Welder if the alternator kit does ok.

High-amperage alternator and welder specs Premier Power Welder

 

[RitchElbe]

OK ...I just spoke to the owner of the company after seeing a major price hike from what I was told 6 months ago. Seems my original quote was half of the actually price..that person no longer works there. HOwever...The company has a lay a way deal..where one can pay $?? down...some each month and secure the current price without concern of it going higher down the road.

 

[Lloyd_E]

We don't have a lot of scrap yards up here. The municipal dump won't allow you to take stuff... but you can look. I missed 3 4'x8' work tables with micro-adjust feet and ss top with back splash... my budder was trying to urge me to take them and run for the hills! Another trip(when we first started renos on the house) there was a dual axle trailer frame - with wheels sitting on the pile... my FIL said hook it up and let's go... I passed. We do have a major metal recycler down the road with awesome stuff in piles you can see as you drive by. I inquired about signing a waiver and having access but they declined - too worried about liability... A shame - lots of useful materials in junk piles... and ya know what they say...

We usually do a run on "big clean-up week". This is when you are allowed to dump over size stuff, different materials etc for garbage pick up. I loaded more windows and doors for house parts and lots of cabinet doors for kitchens in my truck. The stuff comes in handy when renovating the shop or building more sheds. My best find was a bucket of misc tool. Lots of files in good order, some fine old pocket knives and the best item - a flint lock piece off of a black powder rifle. I researched the mark on it and it dates to mid 1840's. There are always lots of sport items, old lawn mowers, sinks etc...

 

[NS Gearhead]

I work at Eastern Canada's biggest university... so far I've dumpster dove for a SS countertop that once trimmed up fit over my workbench, and a smaller then normal grocery cart that's now my welding cart, as well as some of those molded plastic stackable chairs, end cuts, pallets, etc. Last weekend I went and picked up a 100gal oil tank (next project) and buddy threw in a small yard trailer... both for free.

 

[Travelover]

..........We usually do a run on "big clean-up week". This is when you are allowed to dump over size stuff, different materials etc for garbage pick up. ...........

This reminds me...a few years ago one of my neighbor's kids moved out and he literally put everything from the kid's room on the curb. I found over $25 just in change in one box of junk that I secreted to my garage for sorting...:laughing:

 

[bmaverick]

Our best find was dump literally in front of us.

On our way back from FL on the interstate, we exited to make a pit-stop. At the end of the ramp the traffic was packed at the light. The pickup ahead of me was eager to go. He had no tail gate with tool boxes all near the back. Well, he took the right curb on a bounce and floored it. This in turn sent five Craftsman sized tool boxes over end into the corner of this intersection. The light just turned for us to go. I pulled out and put the 4-ways on. I and another person spend 15mins picking up tools and loading them into our vehicles. The owner of the tools, he was so long gone down the road and didn't return in the half hour we were there.

That's the only so called jackpot of anything I ever had happen. Everything else has been my stuff getting borrowed, not returned or broken.

 

[smiley]

I just got a few wooden crate pallets for free today from a neighbor who is having tile laid in the kitchen. The base is solid thick boards and strong. All looking new. Going to take the sides off for the platform. Then use outdoor porch epoxy paint to them. These will do well for keeping the 3pt hay spear nice off the ground in the barn.

One of my brother in laws in Canada worked where they threw out several pallets a day. After work he would knock them apart and put them in the trunk of his car. On weekends they took them to a lot in the woods they had bought. They'd scab the 2x4 side rails into 4x4's for floor joists and studs and the 3/4 tops became flooring and siding. About the only lumber they bought was for rafters and plywood for the roof. Most of the doors and windows were scavenged on trash days. By the end of the second summer, they had a pretty decent little camp. After a few years they vinyl sided it and sold it at good profit.

 

[STROIL]

I've found that it really pays to just be aware of what you see lying along the roads you drive on. If I can see close enough and just recognize what it is I'm seeing as I'm going by, I ofter go back and take a look. I sure am not too proud to go back and get out and look at something. Understand, I don't do this on the highway, and I find a place near the item to park that is both safe and not interfering with other traffic on the road. I've picked up too many useful things to mention, but the two best I remember from recently are a fantastic pintle hitch, fully height adjustable and extremely heavy duty. The 2.5" receiver is solid steel (not even a really heavy square tube, but solid steel) the thing weighs like 40 lbs. It was laying near the curb on a neighborhood street about 20 yards from a railroad crossing. It had likely just rattled off the back of a flatbed truck or something like that. The other was a good old fashined trash picking. It is a wrought-iron loveseat that just happens to match the style of a patio set of furniture that we have in our back yard. It's one of those that "glides". One of the 4 hangers busted where it was welded to the frame. It literally took me 15 minutes to grind it clean, weld it and paint the new weld. Presto. One free great loveseat that matches our set. Keep them eyes open!

 

[not2old]

Before I retired, I ran a handyman service, specializing in repairing condos. I used to get paid to haul away stuff left in the garbage rooms. My best score was a set of four Blizzak 16" snow tires at 80% left. They were the right size for the toyota my wife had just inherited from her Dad. My stepson now has that car and is still using those winters four years later.

 

[RitchElbe]

Had a great haul today!! Hauled off scrap metal. Used funds paid to get this from scrap yard Tiller, chipper, 22ft werner ladder , 8 tpost
They paid $130 for my scrap, I paid $80 for the items listed and 4 batteries that were worthless. Which I sold to the local battery guy for $28! yep I can out ahead

 

[RitchElbe]

now why did it do the image twice...lol

 

[stingray1]

Awesome Buddy... have you seen this Awesome Pallet House Built For $500

Looks a lot better than I expected.

 

[RitchElbe]

Yes'sir..via GRIT magazine online

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

Not so much a scavange but a similar score happened to me about 15 yrs ago. I got a call at work from a buddy telling me to go to his house after work and make sure my truck was empty. A friend of his mother was trying to get her house ready for sale to join her husband who had already moved to Houston and needed the garage emptied.

Turned out that the guy used to work at the local Boeing factory. I left with the back of my truck literally heaped full of tools and equipment. Snap-on and Craftsman wrenches, Devilbis air tools, boxes of drill bits including Snap-on number and letter size, air fittings, hydraulic fittings, extension cords, a pail full of new milling bits (so I'm guessing) and a whole bunch of random assorted hand tools. Didn't cost me a dime, the lady was thrilled to bits to have them gone that she didn't have to deal with it.

 

[RitchElbe]

that's not a score.. THAT'S THE MOTHER LOAD!! reminds me of all Pops got his (our) shop started..Upon retirement from a certain uniformed service...They owed him a ton of back pay...said it would be a year or so before getting it. That pissed his Captain off..he said back in the motor pool and take whatever you want.. our records are so screwed that will never know... He spent the whole 4 day pass doing just that!!

 

[Travelover]

Nice find today. I saw a strip of metal laying by the side of our gravel road. On closer examination, it was about 7 feet of grader blade wear bar that had broken off a county maintenance truck. Amazingly to me, the mounting holes aligned perfectly with the wear bar on my cheapo no-brand rear blade. (I guess this must be standardized). I cut off the broken ends with my chop saw and bolted it up. This heavy duty wear bar will outlast me. :thumbsup: