one mans junk

[cijuanni]

What really burns me is people who park perfectly good machine tools outside and let them rust till they are useless. It is their property, but someone needs to be beaten, proscuted or at least sent to court mandated machine tool sensitivity counseling.

[snowman]

Lucky jerks...nobody around here will let you in to the scrap yards anymore...unless you are dropping something off. Too much liability to let you dig through their junk.

-Jacob

[egpace]

MY FIND!

I was driving home from work one Friday when I caught a glimpse, out of the corner of my eye, of what appeared to be a 3-jaw chuck. I jammed on my brakes & made a quick turn around and when I made it back, to my surprise I saw 9” swing Hardinge Cataract bench lathe thrown out on the curb for junk night. I pulled my truck up, and with adrenaline pumping, I humped the headstock end on to the tail gate and then swung the tail stock end around then slid the lathe safely in the bed. After accomplishing that, I glanced down to see a couple of boxes of tooling & a micro drill press, needless to say, they soon joined the lathe in the bed of my truck. I ended up with a dozen or so 3C collets, a hand wheel style closer, a jack shaft style lineshaft with numerous round and flat pulleys, a half a dozen lathe dogs, and some South Bend parts.

I listed the stuff I didn’t need on ebay & pocketed nearly $300.00 which I’ve been using to pick up odds and ends to restore the Hardinge. (The lathe did not have a compound, but I did nail one on ebay for $150.00). I’ll post some pictures when I get the time.

Some days later, while out taking a walk, I went passed the house where the lathe was thrown out. The owner happened to be in the front yard working on his lawn. I said hello, then, after mentioning that I had picked up the old machines he had thrown out. I asked him the story behind them. Turns out they belonged to the previous owner of the house. The new owner had been throwing the contents of the shop over the last few weeks and the items I picked up were the last of it. The shop was now filled with garden tools.

If I hadn’t picked it up, I’m sure it would have ended up in a landfill somewhere.

[Duct Taper]

I was passing a house on a walk and noticed them throwing stuff in a dumpster. Renters had abandoned the house. I pulled out a complete hemi engine in parts, all degreased, bored and honed!

Also last summer I passed a dumpster next to a warehouse and saw the legs of some kind of machine sticking up. It was a foot operated punch press that had been taking up room in the warehouse that was due to be demolished. It went into my pickup real quick. Right place, right time, act quick!

[x39]

A subject near and dear to my heart. I've gotten a ton of good stuff from our dump, everything from Harley parts to toys for my son when he was little. I'm constantly amazed by the condition of the bicycles people discard. Most have nothing more wrong with them than a soft tire. Back when I was still running bias ply tires, I found an eight lug GM wheel with a brand new 7.50x16 snow tire on it. I went right on my truck and I ran it for quite some time. The worst thing I've seen in my years of scavenging was a 1950something pre-unit Triumph 650, which has been smashed flat with a front end loader by the dump attendants. Upon asking, they told me that when it was dropped off, it was on it's wheels and resting on the kickstand. One of the morons asked what kind of bike it was. I told him it was a Triumph. He said "Oh. We all thought it was an old Harley."

[snowman]

so how do you guys pull crap out of dumpsters without getting arrested?

I always expect the cops to pull up.

-Jacob

[x39]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by snowman:
so how do you guys pull crap out of dumpsters without getting arrested?

I always expect the cops to pull up.

-Jacob</font>

In these parts (rural Maine), dump picking is a way of life. If the county deputies started hassling people who were carrying on ths time honored tradition, the sheriff would be looking for a new job after the next election.

[BillH]

MY uncle got a backpack Leaf blower made by Stihl. He was at the dump at the same time the guy was throwing it out. ASked if he could have it and came home with it. Only problem was that the spark plug needed its gap adjusted(new spark plug) Started right up. 450$ leafblower.
Long time ago we bought a Stihl weedwhacker for 15$, wouldnt run. Cleaned out the carb, started right up, still use it to this day.

[DR]

At my dump, called a transfer station, you can dump metal and other recyleables for nothing. I take my metal shavings, most times my truck weighs more on the way out than in.

Officially, you aren't supposed to remove items from the metal pile, liability issues. But, the dump attendants usually don't care. I've practically equipped a whole wood shop for my son in law. The item that really made me ill was seeing a Delta 14" bandsaw way up on the pile. Climbing up to pull that one out would have been pushing my luck, for sure they wouldn't have let that pass.

[Mark Hockett]

A man I work with just bought a real nice, near new Husqvarna chain saw at a yard sale for $10.00. Wouldnt run, he took it home and emptied the bar oil out of the gas tank and filled it with gas and it works perfect. Some people should not be allowed to purchase these kinds of tools. Maybe they should make you pass a test before you are allowed to purchase.
Mark