Lump
Well-known member
Years ago I introduced my brother-in-law to the hobby of junk yard "treasure hunting." Today I no longer have time to do it, but he is retired, and goes about once a week. Now every so often I am the lucky beneficiary of something cool that he has found. 
One of our favorite places is a scrap metal yard. They haul junk in, and crush it almost immediately, so you have to be lucky and find something quickly after it arrives to the yard. Lee and I made friends with the owners years ago, and generally speaking they sell us just about anything we find at scrap metal prices or below (often for free, because we haul all of our scrap metal to them, and accept no payment for it). But today Lee called me from the junkyard and said, "There is an OLD floor jack down here, badly rusted. It's mechanical, not hydraulic, and kind of short. You want it?" I told him sure, bring it home!
Lee showed up at my office a few hours later, and this is what he had found:
As I started to check it out, Lee said he hadn't seen a name on it, but it seemed too old to be Asian. He pointed out that it had a stylized "W" on the side, and so I guessed it must be a Walker.
Then I noticed two brass tags riveted to the handle. One side listed it as a "Walker," just as I had guessed. But my good camera wasn't handy, and I had a heck of a time trying to photo the tag with my old camera. Sorry:
The tag on the other side had no important data on it, so OF COURSE that photo turned out fine. Sheesh!
Below is a pic of the right side:
Front view, below:
Rear view, below:
Look at the handle, with wood riveted to the steel bar. Cool, eh?
Here is a shot of the underside. When Lee called me about it on the phone, he said that the rear wheels were missing. But that was because it was so dirty and rusty, and the rear wheels so small that he didn't see them.
This jack is REALLY rusted up. All but one wheel are frozen, and one of them even has a flat spot where the jack has been dragged across the floor on the frozen wheel for years. Most moving parts everywhere are stuck. But it can probably be saved, with work and ingenuity. And...it was FREE.
But the LAST thing I need is another project. So now I've got to decide whether to drop some other project I had in mind and keep this...or send it back to the scrap yard.
Whaddaya think, folks?
One of our favorite places is a scrap metal yard. They haul junk in, and crush it almost immediately, so you have to be lucky and find something quickly after it arrives to the yard. Lee and I made friends with the owners years ago, and generally speaking they sell us just about anything we find at scrap metal prices or below (often for free, because we haul all of our scrap metal to them, and accept no payment for it). But today Lee called me from the junkyard and said, "There is an OLD floor jack down here, badly rusted. It's mechanical, not hydraulic, and kind of short. You want it?" I told him sure, bring it home!
Lee showed up at my office a few hours later, and this is what he had found:
As I started to check it out, Lee said he hadn't seen a name on it, but it seemed too old to be Asian. He pointed out that it had a stylized "W" on the side, and so I guessed it must be a Walker.
Then I noticed two brass tags riveted to the handle. One side listed it as a "Walker," just as I had guessed. But my good camera wasn't handy, and I had a heck of a time trying to photo the tag with my old camera. Sorry:
The tag on the other side had no important data on it, so OF COURSE that photo turned out fine. Sheesh!
Below is a pic of the right side:
Front view, below:
Rear view, below:
Look at the handle, with wood riveted to the steel bar. Cool, eh?
Here is a shot of the underside. When Lee called me about it on the phone, he said that the rear wheels were missing. But that was because it was so dirty and rusty, and the rear wheels so small that he didn't see them.
This jack is REALLY rusted up. All but one wheel are frozen, and one of them even has a flat spot where the jack has been dragged across the floor on the frozen wheel for years. Most moving parts everywhere are stuck. But it can probably be saved, with work and ingenuity. And...it was FREE.
But the LAST thing I need is another project. So now I've got to decide whether to drop some other project I had in mind and keep this...or send it back to the scrap yard.
Whaddaya think, folks?
