Dumpster Diving
- Thread starter Ancient Iron
- Start date
Dan in Pasadena
Well-known member
Nice score. What's its capacity?
OP
Ancient Iron
Well-known member
I'm sorry I was so happy to finally get a picture up I forgot to mention it is a Red Arrow model J2020 20 ton
kb2tha
Well-known member
Great find. I once picked a pile of new soffit panels from our transfer station. 
Sold them for $200. 
Sold them for $200. str8axle55
Well-known member
My work is constantly doing this. I take all of the scrap, and have the parts dept tell before before it hits the dumpster. The other day they tell me they have a whole warr Tonneau cover, that basically had nothing wrong with it. I took it home, sold it on CL for $350. I have also scored a wheel weight cubby cabinet, very heavy duty old steel work bench, Baldor bench grinder, wall mount ex fan...I`m sure there is more. I had a co-worked tell me he threw all his std craftsman tools in the dumpster the week before, he didn`t use them, and couldn`t understand fractional tools...wish I could`ve saved those.
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Dan in Pasadena
Well-known member
Life is too complex for some people. Maybe if he'd paid some attention in school.....? I'm just sayin'Northstar
Well-known member
It stuff like this every so often. Most of the time if I can't use it, I let others know about it and look for trade opportunities before it gets put in the sell pile.
Steevo
Well-known member
4 out of 3 people don't get fractions . . .
PassnThru
Well-known member
A freind snagged an Oreck sweeper out of a dumpster by the public library during the remodel. He put a new switch in it and it was good to go.
Beaumont67
Well-known member
Many years ago, work threw out tons of 2x2x1/4" Redi-Rack tubing at 7 ft. length.
The end colums was either 10 or 12 ft. high.
I got a gate pass from the supervisor, loaded my pickup.
I got +40 pieces of the sq. tubing and a dozen colums, for free.
- 14 feet industrial warehouse racks went into my home garage / 14 feet of racks in my storage garage / and cut down 1 section to make a heavy duty 7ft. long work bench with a top made out of planed oak planks that are 2 inches thick
Last year I was at a suit & tie affair, at a new building grand opening.
Got there early with the wife, and parked beside the dumpster...LOL
She went inside and I stayed behind for a look.
Pulled out a huge roll of 1/2" thick rubber building membrane about 8" wide.
- going to use a small piece of it on my John Deere 318 garden tractors single stage snow blower auger
Once a local video store was getting out of selling magazines...pulled 2 nice commercial mag. display stands, out of their dumpster.
The end colums was either 10 or 12 ft. high.
I got a gate pass from the supervisor, loaded my pickup.
I got +40 pieces of the sq. tubing and a dozen colums, for free.
- 14 feet industrial warehouse racks went into my home garage / 14 feet of racks in my storage garage / and cut down 1 section to make a heavy duty 7ft. long work bench with a top made out of planed oak planks that are 2 inches thick
Last year I was at a suit & tie affair, at a new building grand opening.
Got there early with the wife, and parked beside the dumpster...LOL
She went inside and I stayed behind for a look.
Pulled out a huge roll of 1/2" thick rubber building membrane about 8" wide.
- going to use a small piece of it on my John Deere 318 garden tractors single stage snow blower auger
Once a local video store was getting out of selling magazines...pulled 2 nice commercial mag. display stands, out of their dumpster.
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dreamingmuscle
Well-known member
Swing by any college campus at the end of the school year. It's a pickers heaven. The kids throw out every thing from vacuums, furniture to the dishes. I pick up all kind of bed frames. I love the metal futons frames, I hang them by chains and use them for loft like storage. Nice metal head boards get use for garden trellis's.
Glen
Glen
The local dump near me has brand new furniture getting dumped off all the time. Office chairs, oak desks, coffee tables, sofas. You name it it's at the dump and it mostly all arrives in new or like new condition. The only dents in the stuff are usually the dents it got when it was thrown off the dumptruck.
The only thing is it snows constantly here except for during a couple months in the summer. The weather will destroy that stuff in no time so you pretty much have to find it and take it the same day it was dropped off if it's a sunny day. In the summer is pretty much the only time when you can find anything. It's illegal here to just walk in, rummage, and take stuff from the dump, but if you go in with a truckload of trash then before you leave you can throw on a nice coffee table or something. They can't prove nothing or whose it was. I once found about a dozen brand new uncut 2x4s laying in the scrapheap and threw them on my truck before I left the dump.
The only thing is it snows constantly here except for during a couple months in the summer. The weather will destroy that stuff in no time so you pretty much have to find it and take it the same day it was dropped off if it's a sunny day. In the summer is pretty much the only time when you can find anything. It's illegal here to just walk in, rummage, and take stuff from the dump, but if you go in with a truckload of trash then before you leave you can throw on a nice coffee table or something. They can't prove nothing or whose it was. I once found about a dozen brand new uncut 2x4s laying in the scrapheap and threw them on my truck before I left the dump.
Need4racin
Banned
x2, plenty of walmart office furniture and unused food (for the doggies).
Kevin54
MEMBER EMERITUS
You would all be sick if you have seen what our company has tossed over just the last five years. Good machinery. Like new desk, fabric covered wall panels, Lista cabinets, the chrome heavy duty shelves, Fire cabinets, tons and tons of perishable tooling like drill bits, end mills, slitting saws, tons of round barstock, square barstock, plate steel, plate aluminum, brass, copper, and on and on and on. Thank 5S for it all. We are not and were not allowed to go dumpster diving. When it hit the dumpster, that's where it stayed until the scrappers picked it up and hauled it off. 
Displaced Hokie
Well-known member
Thank 5S for it all. We are not and were not allowed to go dumpster diving. When it hit the dumpster, that's where it stayed until the scrappers picked it up and hauled it off.
I feel your pain! I was in charge of the 5S effort for our shop area (I was in product support for a major mfg) and it was a painful struggle. In the end I think we came out good on it, but I had to fight to keep some things. I will say 5S made me re-evaluate my stuff at home and I did throw out a bunch of junk that I had never used and probably never would.
What was odd is that we could not get any of this, but we could donate it to the fire dept for their fundraising sale. I could go buy it then if I wanted.
I've seen dumpsters full of stuff go to the scrappers that would make folks here (and me) sick.
You would all be sick if you have seen what our company has tossed over just the last five years. Good machinery. Like new desk, fabric covered wall panels, Lista cabinets, the chrome heavy duty shelves, Fire cabinets, tons and tons of perishable tooling like drill bits, end mills, slitting saws, tons of round barstock, square barstock, plate steel, plate aluminum, brass, copper, and on and on and on. Thank 5S for it all. We are not and were not allowed to go dumpster diving. When it hit the dumpster, that's where it stayed until the scrappers picked it up and hauled it off.
You could not make a deal w/ the scrapper for the items you wanted? I do know some companies want the scrappers to destroy everything, a major food manufacturer closed a nearby facility & all the production machines had to be destroyed, some of the motors & controls were salvaged but the machines were rendered useless /destroyed & by now have been made into new steel products.... (On those machines I would agree, why would you want your competitors using your surplus equipment)???
ihredo4
Well-known member
I have heard of companies having contracts with the scrap. All of it must be destroyed or they face legal issues. I dumpster dived inside the building where I worked but once it was outside it was gone. Sad what gets junked.
After too many people complained about others hoisting their small children into the dumpsters at the waste transfer station to dig out treasures, it is now illegal to take anything out of the cities dumpsters. I have to say I've been tempted several times after seeing what gets thrown away. I hold myself back by the reminder of broken glass and a five-year-old in flip-flops peeking over the rim of a grease covered roll-off.
NOTABLAZER
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2010
- Messages
- 108
I work at a parts store in a strip mall in town,and we get people putting their garbage in our dumpster out back. It's annoying but one time I found a nice wheel barrow dumped in there,nothing wrong with it except the plastic bucket had a crack in it.
Every time I have taken some construction debris to the landfill (it goes in a separate area from the regular trash) I look what is tossed in dumpsters during commerical builds and remodels. I think if you spent a few hours a day there, perfect for my work schedule, you could walk away with an easy 100 bucks in scrap. . . . tax free as the one scrapper pays cash.
Found this pelican case sitting next to an overflowing dumpster last week! its waterproof and build like a brick **** house.
that deserves one. . . . .
YOU ****
^ i just saw how those are made on the history channel and was gonna start lookin out for thembigbubba
Well-known member
We can get a pass to go through the scrap dumpsters at work,It amazes me what they will throw away.I have pulled containers with 30 or better grade#1 2x4's out of there.Also have pulled lots of steel and castors and such out of there!
Sureshot
ALLIANCE MEMBER
A friend's wife works for a company that pick's up the dumpsters and the drivers fight over some of the stops.
Need4racin
Banned
Found this pelican case sitting next to an overflowing dumpster last week! its waterproof and build like a brick **** house.[/QUOTE
So that's the container the mass murder has been using for body part storage.
Steevo
Well-known member
That is the exact same bottle jack that is in my Red Arrow 20 ton press. Yours looks to be in better condition than mine, though.
nit2wn
Well-known member
I can't imagine what we throw in the dumpsters at work but we drive cars into the crusher. We do give a few of them to local fire dept for training purposes on extraction with the jaws of life. We have a sign out front with sayings of $500,000 fines or up to x amount of years in prison for removing any items from work. Contractor vehicles have to have $1 million in insurance to be on the property. Typical auto plant stuff.
Sureshot
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I went and looked in a buddy's scrap bin tonight as I needed some small welding supplies and they throw alot of real nice stuff out as they build big drilling equipment. In the bin besides the smaller parts was a 2'x4' piece of 1/2' plate. Wrestled it to my truck. Usually that stuff is too wedged in to get it out of the bin but it was recently emptied.
wnstwolf
Well-known member
Had to go back to my Green-belt training and see why we have "6-S" here at work. We are over achievers and added "Safety" .. Totally back up the throw it out thinking due to the focus on keeping things simple and clutter free. As mentioned on other posts we are tossing a 100k sq/ft storage facility. I fear mentioning the stuff going into the dumpster but it is the opposite of what this forum is all about..
camarotoolman
Banned
People have NEW on the brain in this country. I've been a picker for years, saved and made alot of $$
Had a friend who had a janitorial job while in college at a travel trailer manufacturer. He learned very quickly to look through the trash cans before dumping out. Apparently, the workers (who didn't have to buy their own tools) would simply sweep everything off their workbenches at the end of the day, including whatever tools happened to be laying on the bench. The tool department didn't even want the tools my friend found back, as that would have required putting them back in inventory. Wonder why the company was out of business later?
My friend collected a lot of good tools that way. After awhile, he had so many duplicates that he started giving me some of his extras. I've still got at least one 18" 3/8" extension and an assortment of shorter extensions and other misc. sockets that he gave me over 40 years ago.
GGB
My friend collected a lot of good tools that way. After awhile, he had so many duplicates that he started giving me some of his extras. I've still got at least one 18" 3/8" extension and an assortment of shorter extensions and other misc. sockets that he gave me over 40 years ago.
GGB
Reg1952
Well-known member
My Dad once stopped at a local plumping supply store and park beside there dumpster.It had about 25 sump pumps in there.All new.He asked inside what was going on with them and they told him they all did not work.When he left he jumped in and cut the cords off about 10 of them because you never know when you need a cord for something.Months went by and he finally needed a cord so he wired up one of those cords and the thing didnt work.He tested all the rest of the cords and not one of them worked.He cut the plugs open and not one of the wires was attacted to the prongs of the plug.Should of took the whole pump.