Another tools that were going to be thrown out thread.

[Kracin]

Work was trying to reorganize things, and in their infinite wisdom they were going to toss a bunch of taps and dies.. just throw them out, so i got them, for free!

pictured is the metric set, pretty much all hanson, and theres the greenfield die set. not pictures is a westward (chinese) standard set that i left at work for use while there, and a bunch of taps in the upper ranges from 3/4 up to 1"-8

i hate throwing away good tools so i figured i'd give them a home eventually i'll need the dies for chasing threads on studs and other odds and ends at home on cars, and the taps always come in handy for little project stuff.

 

[txvwnut]

Damn nice recovery! Unfortuantly I don't have that at my job since it is government based and we have to account for every dollar.

 

[Kracin]

Damn nice recovery! Unfortuantly I don't have that at my job since it is government based and we have to account for every dollar.

they throw dollars in the trash every single day....

they toss shop fans because they get a bent blade but still run. they toss motors that may or may not have been bad, but since somebody purchase a new conveyor, no point in keeping parts, so everything is tossed. a new boss comes in and doesn't know what things are for so they toss everything they don't understand. (during cleanup fits, they even threw out 4 different carpet cutter motor and blade assemblies... they threw a fit when our other ones needed repairs and found out they cost 4k a piece.... smart people). brand new speedaire paint guns, trash. brand new bimba pneumatic cylinders sized from 1" dia and 4" long, up to 3" dia and 18" long, all trashed.... its nuts.

 

[scootr29]

Damn nice recovery! Unfortuantly I don't have that at my job since it is government based and we have to account for every dollar.

Are you serious?

 

[lilcraigford]

I was expecting something entirely different when I clicked the thread. That looks like a nice Hanson set to!

Its unbelievable what gets binned. My dad used to snag all kinds of things when he was a TIG welder; electric motors, fittings, electrical connectors, aluminum sheet/plate, occasionally some stainless steel. The big score was the drill press with a dead motor.

I work in a cubicle... I think the only thing I've "saved" are some Igus composite rod ends (coworker had some samples).

 

[Katodog]

I can't carry my cell phone at work so I can't take pictures of what we take out of the scrap bins and garbage, but you'd all puke if you knew what companies actually do with **** that gets returned, especially ours.

A ratchet was returned, the sticker said "Don't Fit". I kid you not, brand new perfect condition 3/8" ratchet and it was returned because it "Don't Fit". Don't fit what??? If you're smart enough to know what a ratchet is that you went out and bought one, don't you think you'd know what it fits??

A complete socket set, SAE/Metric, nothing wrong, nothing missing, going into the trash because the customer said the ratchet was broke. This has happened 5 times so far, each time I pull the ratchet, put a socket on it, and ratchet it...works perfectly. Nothing wrong with them, so we grab them and use them for maintenance. We have probably 15-20 ratchets of varying sizes that were returned because the "ratchet doesn't work" and each time they work perfectly. I've had one that slipped, stripped it down, greased it, works perfectly. And these aren't cheapo sets, these are quality on par with at least Gearwrench.

Funny thing is that we can grab what we want to use in the warehouse, but if we want to take the stuff home...that's stealing. So...you're gonna throw it in the garbage (which is a compactor that will smash it into smithereens) or throw it in the scrap bins (scrap prices **** these days, especially compared to what you could make buy selling this stuff at "clearance") and take the loss on it, instead of letting the guys take the stuff home and use it. I don't like that kind of "logic". It's okay though, it gets us decent tools to work with, and the guys in returns have no problem hanging on to stuff for us.

 

[jeffmoss26]

Wow!! You ****

 

[steed andersen]

Nice save.

 

[ganymede]

A complete socket set, SAE/Metric, nothing wrong, nothing missing, going into the trash because the customer said the ratchet was broke. This has happened 5 times so far, each time I pull the ratchet, put a socket on it, and ratchet it...works perfectly. Nothing wrong with them, so we grab them and use them for maintenance. We have probably 15-20 ratchets of varying sizes that were returned because the "ratchet doesn't work" and each time they work perfectly. ... .

I bet most of those are from some cheapo buying a ratchet for one job and then taking it back.

 

[wafrederick]

Have a few extension cords and one Dewalt circular saw that a roofing place were going to throw out.There was nothing wrong with the extension cords and still work good.The Dewalt,said it was not working right and it was a simple fix.Replaced the blade and works great to this day

 

[Katodog]

I bet most of those are from some cheapo buying a ratchet for one job and then taking it back.

That's basically what we figure. Apart from the "bought the wrong thing" or "ratchet broke" situations, we just think some jackass bought it, used it once, then returned it to save some bucks. We just grabbed a bunch of loose sockets the other day, each one was tagged "damaged in shipping"...which made us wonder, how exactly does a socket that is in perfect brand-new condition rate being "damaged in shipping". No scratches, no cracks, nothing. But hey, what can you do.

 

[txvwnut]

Are you serious?

Yup if it is deemed unuseful we have to send it to surplus sales and it goes to auction.
And no we can't go buy it out of auction... but they didn't say anything about one our freinds going and buying from the auction.

 

[brandyspaw]

Its always nice to get some stuff like this. When I was young and first turning wrenches for a living a mechanic I worked for used to give away some tools occasionally when he would upgrade. It wasn't ever a lot of stuff at one time but everything was greatly appreciated when starting out.

 

[Mridolfo]

Along the same topic

I pulled these out of the garbage bin the last time work went on a cleaning spree. We got them for a masking job that we could never get right and it eventually got pulled. We only used them for a couple weeks.

2 x START International TDA150
2 x START International ZCM1000B

 

[rslaback]

Funny thing is that we can grab what we want to use in the warehouse, but if we want to take the stuff home...that's stealing. So...you're gonna throw it in the garbage (which is a compactor that will smash it into smithereens) or throw it in the scrap bins (scrap prices **** these days, especially compared to what you could make buy selling this stuff at "clearance") and take the loss on it, instead of letting the guys take the stuff home and use it. I don't like that kind of "logic". It's okay though, it gets us decent tools to work with, and the guys in returns have no problem hanging on to stuff for us.

If you really do want to understand why companies do this, I can explain it to you.

 

[454ragtop]

I found a 10 ft fiberglass step ladder sticking out of a dumpster a few years ago, been using it ever since. About 6 months ago I found half of a fiberglass extension ladder sticking out of another dumpster, took that home too. Usually find stuff of interest at the end of swap meets too, electric motors, a Mead bench top belt grinder, etc.
OP, that Greenfield screw plate set is very nice, and very expensive, have a huge older set in a wood box that is one of my favorites.
Jim

 

[Askme42]

Damn nice recovery! Unfortuantly I don't have that at my job since it is government based and we have to account for every dollar.

You've gotta be kidding me. Lol.

Most government workers I know just order two of all the tools they order and take one home. Been going on for decades.

 

[SweetD]

Makes me sick to think about what has been thrown out over the years, for no practical reason.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

If you really do want to understand why companies do this, I can explain it to you.

Yes, please do.

My guess is the company doesn't want to give anything away in case they lose a potential customer. A scrap yard I used to be able to buy stuff from no longer will sell because their biggest customers specifically state that all scrap is to be destroyed, not resold.

 

[2oolhound]

Awesome score! Nothing beats free tools!

We did a major refit installation at work 6 months ago and they let me haul all the "junk" away. Among which was an ingersol rand 12 HP screw compressor that had been cannibalized for parts. I tossed most of it in my recycle bin but kept the screw pump (it's heart). A month ago our current compressor dies and it's the top shaft in the pump. Outside contractors do this type of maintenance and I just started 3 days off when I read an emaiil talking about the difficulty trying to find parts. They could only find a 5hp unit and it was $4000. I called my boss and told him to cancel the order because I still had the old unit which is what we are running on now, a straight re&re of the whole pump. I felt an bonus would have been nice but I guess that kind of thing doesn't happen anymore.

 

[Kracin]

Yes, please do.

My guess is the company doesn't want to give anything away in case they lose a potential customer. A scrap yard I used to be able to buy stuff from no longer will sell because their biggest customers specifically state that all scrap is to be destroyed, not resold.

they do it to protect the liability of having employees purposely remarking things so they can get them for free and reselling them later. also for potentially causing a large amount of defective products to hit the market. it's easiest to just get rid of anything potentially defective.

perfect example is pepsi bottling co. co-worker worked there and said they used to always buy partial fills of pepsi and such. partial fill being that they were able to buy 6,12,24 packs of pepsi products at super low discount, like a buck a case because there was a known partial fill problem at the time of production, so only a few of the cans had a partial fill in them.

the problem is presented when an employee was taking those and selling the cases at garage sales he had every weekend, and swap meets. people bought the cases, and when they found the problem, made complaints. this caused their defect rate to go WAY up. and they had to cancel their program of letting employees buy the discounted partial fill stock completely to avoid any more problems with quality control.


*****, but its always a few ruining it for all.


^ thats the same reason why i can buy quality store shelving for literally scrap metal price (lozier shelving, same stuff you see for store displays that hold merchandise everywhere, walmart, target, etc), but you are contractually bound to not sell it because you'll pick up stuff with minor defects that they don't want shipped out

 

[Toymeister]

Yup if it is deemed unuseful we have to send it to surplus sales and it goes to auction.
And no we can't go buy it out of auction... but they didn't say anything about one our freinds going and buying from the auction.

That's not true for any Department of Defense surplus. Source : My 16 years employment by the organization which sells DoD surplus. The Defense Logistics Agency, Disposition Service (DLA-DS) formally known as Defense Reutilization Marketing Service (DRMS), the field offices were known as DRMOs.

Over 10 years ago DLA-DS contracted out sales of surplus to the Levy Latham Company. (Government Liquidation LLC) They run Uncle Sams Retail outlet on the web. Virtually anyone can buy from GL now unless you are directly responsible for declaring the item surplus. I personally bought surplus from them. Some wisea$$ turned me in to the legal department to find out that I was completely in the right. I did environmental work for them, so nothing to do with surplus sales. That Agency does certain aspects of environmental disposal for DoD.

GL is not an honorable company, they cut side deals with whomever they wish and are not subject to the fair play rules the Government had to play by. You can see this in the market for surplus available now, its not that plentiful as you would expect for a nation coming out of a war, except for a few limited sources.

 

[toolslinger]

I have made it a crusade to save tools getting tossed...

It's a toss up what is the best find so far...
I picked up a Bewo cold saw from a place I had worked at for a while... After I opened my own shop, a friend called from the other place and told me the machine was on a fork, and headed to the dumpster... Man I was over there like a shot. Took it home, and the issue was a frozen vise. It had been sitting for almost a year unused. So a 3' pipe wrench broke the thread loose, and I have a several thousand dollar industrial cold saw...
Another was a Bridgeport... It was old, and tired, and the place decided to replace it. It is one of those places that decrees that items must be destroyed, and can't be sold... A friend of a friend called me, and off I ran... When they set it in the dumpster, they missed by a couple feet, and my trailer happened to be in the way. It still needs some help, but it has already made me money...
I got a nice Delta Unisaw that was deemed unsafe by another shop's administrators (off site bean counters)... They had 2 kickbacks in a week, so it had to go... Picked it up, put a sharp blade on it, and squared the fence, and she's good as new.
A number of drill presses, sanders, and radial arm saws have been tossed to me over time too...

I've had to go pick up a number of lemons too over time... However, folks around my area know I'm the guy to call when something is getting the ax equipment wise... I never say no if I can manage it as I don't want to not get the call the next time. Worst case is the item gets passed on to someone else, or scrapped... I don't usually come out on the wrong side financially...

 

[CRF8]

I worked for a county agency. Items valued at "under $50" just got a sticker and were able to be disposed of when not needed, broken, obsolete. Over $100 got a hard plate with a unique serial number. Departments and employees were inventoried and responsible for those items.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rslaback]

Yes, please do.

My guess is the company doesn't want to give anything away in case they lose a potential customer. A scrap yard I used to be able to buy stuff from no longer will sell because their biggest customers specifically state that all scrap is to be destroyed, not resold.

The biggest thing to consider is that the company is a manufacturer (that makes products from raw materials and supplies) and their primary purpose is to make money. An integral part of the ability to make money is to maintain a reputation for building a quality product.

That said in the event of a returned "defective" product (which may or may not actually be defective) they have 3 main options: Donation, Resale and Destruction.

If they donate it they run the risk of it showing up again for warranty issues, lowering the reputation of the company or encouraging illegitimate returns or defection rates. The last thing that they want to do is donate tools which are subpar to consumers who would have possibly a) purchased one or b) may be less likely to purchase from them because they equate the donated product with a bad quality offering.

If they resell it they need to put in place an entire infrastructure of sorting, shipping, identifying issues, reworking and redistributing the product. These positions and labor will be of a higher skill level and pay than the individuals who originally assembled it. The product will also naturally have a lower profit margin than a brand new product because of the extra required labor and resources and the fact that they will need to sell it for less. In addition, the company will develop a market of consumers who may be more inclined to purchase refurb equipment instead of brand new equipment. That has the potential to lower the overall profit margin of the company. They also run the risk of taking a loss on a product if that refurbished product also fails.

If they have retailers and distributors simply destroy the product they can write off the costs of that product as a business loss. They also do not have to develop and maintain any additional systems.

In many cases the company will decide to just destroy the product. It often ends up actually being cheaper for them in the long run. It seems wasteful to us (and is) but to a manufacturer that might make the most sense for them financially and in terms of reputation. It's good business.

 

[jeffmoss26]

My old job (manufacturing company) was big on 5S - a fair amount of useful stuff got tossed/scrapped as things were redone. I have quite a few old files and handles, metal letter stamps, and a Huot drill organizer in my shop now.

 

[Cdstahlman]

Advance auto parts does this **** too. Defective rotors and drums they could scrap simply got tossed in the dumpster. Lots of items that could be scrapped are simply pitched. (Used to give them to a employee to scrap instead).

Break a single socket from a gearwrench set? Return it and get a new set and the old set gets tossed in the dumpster. (Or in my car).

Also any of the clearance items with red tags and ending in 5 eventually clearance down to 5 cents and have to be thrown out rather than marked back up in price and sold for 1$ (I have several cases of products still)

Dorman repackaged all their help items? Toss them out. (Or into boxes and take them home). I have six boxes full of stuff.

List goes on...

 

[wild cowboy]

if you don't need the taps and dies there is definite ebay gold there!

 

[n8n]

I just scored a 1000VA APC UPS out of the recycle bin at work... didn't even need new batteries. must have come back from a job and wasn't needed with whatever new equipment they installed. It's at my girlfriend's place now backing up her FiOS box. Still need a couple more, need one for my own cube at work, one for a desktop, and if I found a couple true online/true sine wave units I've already converted a couple for use as home theater power conditioners but all that I have are already in use and both my roommate and my girlfriend don't have conditioning/backup for their gear. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled.

 

[Katodog]

...(Or in my car).

With us...anything leaves the building and it's theft.

 

[jfcasey]

Saved these from a scrap pile, boss said take em. Each one has 1 busted jaw and a bent handle. One day I'll get around to putting the 2 good jaws together on the one with the least bent handle.

 

[Cdstahlman]

Saved these from a scrap pile, boss said take em. Each one has 1 busted jaw and a bent handle. One day I'll get around to putting the 2 good jaws together on the one with the least bent handle.

You ****

 

[Cdstahlman]

With us...anything leaves the building and it's theft.

Helps when you're the store manager....

 

[mikegt4]

My former employer scrapped any tool that was worn or damaged. They were worried (and rightfully so) that if someone got hurt using it the company would be sued. Also getting hurt on the job was a termination offense, getting hurt proved that you were not following safety rules.

I was able to get a nice mobile computer cabinet that was being scrapped but not until after about 2 months of review up the chain of command and a sign off by the legal department. I think that they tried to make it as painful as possible to discourage others from dumpster diving. I never saw anyone else try to get anything from the scrap bin again.

 

[hangfirew8]

I've worked a bunch of government contracts. All put everything on skids, shrinked wrapped the whole bundle and returned it to the gov't at the end of each contract. I worked with guys that previously had contracts and employers where they would "clean up" and take home stuff every year; I never had that luxury. Everything I worked with, at some point someone came and asked for it back when the contract wrapped up. If you didn't have it you risked termination for fraud/waste/abuse.

 

[madcrisis]

I have a nice little gift for finding tools or rescuing them from the trash. My friends and I have a running joke about "acquiring" tools. (No, I do not steal anything I have) In the past year ive gotten a band saw, chop saw, aircompressor with bad pump, 220V pedestol grinder, xy vise, 5 gallons of simple green concentrate, 2 big steel cabinets, a 6 ft butcher block, and a few other things I cant think of right now. All of them were rescued from the dumpster

 

[cagullett1]

My dad recently retired from Raytheon (he previously worked in a division of TI that was bought out by Raytheon) and he has got free equipto & lista cabinets, wilton bullet vise, industrial electrical extension cord reels, SOLID workbenches with built-in outlets, and industrial hose reels. My uncle still works for TI and I'm having him keep on the lookout for a lista cabinet they are getting rid of. Before GJ, I thought my dad's equipto cabinet was junk and asked him why he kept it around (it has deep drawers and looks like a filing cabinet)... now, I try to steal it from him lol

 

[cruzer75]

Hell yes i rescue stuff all the time at work! Best score is the bridgeport for one Ben Franklin...had to buy it for scrap price.

 

[rartuin270]

Snagged this at work the other day. Brand new out of our service truck. They replaced it with drawer cabinets. Boss was going to put it on the scrap pile but I told him I would give him $25 for it.