Dumpster Diving

[Stainless169]

Found this being thrown out about a half block from the house. Nothing special but with a little TLC, it will make someone a good smoker for years to come.

Only bad thing was I felt like a ***** rolling it down the street to my house and my neighbors watching lol. Oh well.


Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

 

[G_P]

I love me some dumpster diving. Pulled countless thousands of feet of lumber out of them when I was a kid for building forts and other kid stuff. Also made quite a few bucks in school by going with my father to a local college when he did plumbing work. I would raid the dorm/apartment dumpsters around graduation time and snag all the stereos and computers the kids did not want to haul home.

Missed my local high schools dumpster by minutes when they cleared out the auto shop. The tools went to the town garage but all the machinery went into the dumpster. I pulled in as the trucks full of cabinets/hoists/etc were pulling out......

 

[c_mccann]

I cleaned out my rental recently and sold the contents on Ebay and CL- the proceeds paid for the new paint. And the guy was next to homeless according to the neighbors. (not my tennant, I bought the place with him in it). People are lazy and have no imagination.

 

[bad_idea]

The wife used to get mad at me for peaking in the dumpsters when we go places. Then I found her something nice one time and she has been good with it since. A Schwinn exercise bike sitting beside the dumpster at the apartment complex we lived at at the time. Dragged it home because she said she wanted one. Then I found out it is a $1500~ bike!

My most recent score was 30+ heavy duty 4" caster wheels from rolling displays out of a 40 yard container in front of a recently closed Men's Wearhouse (suit shop). All of the tools/benches in my garage will be on wheels, but until then I have a big bin of wheels to trip over!

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

I'm along time scavenger. Were going out on Sunday afternoon to Garbage pick in a local town that is doing bulk pickup.

I've picked up:

A Mattel Power Wheels ATV - one 12V tractor battery and junior was wheeling around on it for 3+ years. It went back to the curb at some point and someone else is probably riding it now. . .

My oak dining room table - someone was moving and set it at the curb . . .

I picked up a Fein woodworking vacuum - cleaned the fan of sheetrock dust and it's my go to vac using while sanding woodworking stuff.

My most recent pickup was 2 sling back chaise lounges that the sling had "popped" out. I "reslung" them (what a PITA) and they are now on the deck waiting for warmer weather. It they "pop" again I can buy new slings or kick them to the curb.

The pisser is that "the snipper" comes along during bulk pickup and cuts the power cords off items. Some people won't take a possibly useful item because the cord is gone . . .

Cheers

Jim

 

[NUTTSGT]

I love me some dumpster diving. Pulled countless thousands of feet of lumber out of them when I was a kid for building forts and other kid stuff. Also made quite a few bucks in school by going with my father to a local college when he did plumbing work. I would raid the dorm/apartment dumpsters around graduation time and snag all the stereos and computers the kids did not want to haul home.

Reminds me of this past winter when the granddaughter was at Children's Hospital. There was a dumpster behind the parking garage and I spied 4-5 2x6x8' that ap[peared to be new. I told the wife about them and she told me I wasn't going to get them. I laughed and told her if I had my truck I would have but I wasn't going to put them in her Explorer.

 

[superspec]

i remember going on a late night run with my dad and one of his friends to get peg board. an old dept store had gone out of business and had the pegboard on pallets out back. we hauled off enough peg board to cover every wall in 2 3 car shops floor to ceiling.

 

[ozyborn]

I loved it when my local BestBuy redid their entire warehouse. they tossed all of the pallet racking into the dumpster and bought new. Just by a sheer chance happening that dumpster never got full but my poor truck and trailer did several times...

then there was when they closed the John Deere foundry in town years ago and my dad came home with the back of his Jeep truck filled with vices and anvils. He was selling them for months...

 

[NUTTSGT]

I loved it when my local BestBuy redid their entire warehouse. they tossed all of the pallet racking into the dumpster and bought new. Just by a sheer chance happening that dumpster never got full but my poor truck and trailer did several times...

then there was when they closed the John Deere foundry in town years ago and my dad came home with the back of his Jeep truck filled with vices and anvils. He was selling them for months...

Your family ever play the lottery ?

 

[slip knot]

I always check the dumpster at work. When the boss' are coming down its clean everything out time. I've had chains, floor jack and countless greaseguns follow me home. Even had one of the employees clean out his FIL house after his passing. Looked in there one day and theres a brand new straight razor still in the box. Sold it on Ebay for some nice $$

 

[Norcal]

I'm along time scavenger. Were going out on Sunday afternoon to Garbage pick in a local town that is doing bulk pickup.

I've picked up:

A Mattel Power Wheels ATV - one 12V tractor battery and junior was wheeling around on it for 3+ years. It went back to the curb at some point and someone else is probably riding it now. . .

My oak dining room table - someone was moving and set it at the curb . . .

I picked up a Fein woodworking vacuum - cleaned the fan of sheetrock dust and it's my go to vac using while sanding woodworking stuff.

My most recent pickup was 2 sling back chaise lounges that the sling had "popped" out. I "reslung" them (what a PITA) and they are now on the deck waiting for warmer weather. It they "pop" again I can buy new slings or kick them to the curb.

The pisser is that "the snipper" comes along during bulk pickup and cuts the power cords off items. Some people won't take a possibly useful item because the cord is gone . . .

Cheers

Jim

Have you priced Fein products? They are VERY proud of their merchandise, & price their stuff accordingly. You did well.

 

[incurablescrounge]

Look at my user name. I have been a picker/diver for long time. When I pick trash for my job, it is a bad day that I don't bring a treasure home.
Some advice, look things over if something can live in there. Cockroaches especially like living in dehumidifiers. That was my most expensive find.
Best find, 1946 neon chevrolet clock that needed a cord. My best piece still after 26 years.

 

[Jarhead0408]

Don't like to abuse the privilege but every now and then I get to sift through the scrap section at work, Puled out $3000 Commercial Truck transmission jack that the mech shop threw out when they upgraded and both a van and a bus bench seat that are now the "couches" in my Garage. Didn't cost a dime but that jack is 250+lbs if it's an ounce.

 

[Ancient Iron]

I got my kitchen table from the curb. I saw it going to work. Later after dinner my girlfriend (now my wife) and I went somewhere and on the way home we passed the table again.Turns out to be a seven foot long Pine Tressle table. We go home to get my truck and swipe it.Took it completely apart and sanded it all down and refinished it. We looked online at them and couldn't believe what they cost new,At the time the cheapest one's we found started a $600.00

 

[egnorant]

As a kid we used to go "stomping the dump" for stuff to play with. Mostly looking for treehouse and bicycle parts. Our treehouse had a door and gunner bubble from some WW2
plane.
Latest best was a remodel and big personel change at a Xerox store.
Saw a toolbox and found it was full as I could barely lift it. 27 different micrometers, 2 sets of precision calibration blocks, dozens of T-handle allen wrenches and screwdrivers.

The second toolbox I pulled out (both were Kennedy machinist boxes with 11 drawers) had wire cutters, strippers, glues, lubes, cleaning cloths and wireing supplies.

Also found 2 Dremel tools with a LOT of bits and 4 big Fluke multimeters.

Then I hit the office supply layer, 6 staplers, 2 UPS (uninterruptible power supplies)units with blown fuses, a couple of magnifying lamps, 3 tall stand up fans and other stuff but my ****** was now full.

Came back the next day with my truck and watched a truckload of chairs and workbenches being hauled off by another picker, but I got the refrigerator and a nice desk!

Bruce

 

[NUTTSGT]

Holy cow Bruce, next time take a camera get a picture of the dumpster.

 

[Ancient Iron]

My friend was at a local landfill and found an exercise bike made of cast iron , It had to be from the twenties. The best part is that it still had the original Corbin Speedometer on it .That speedo can easily bring more than a thousand dollars

 

[NUTTSGT]

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.

The same library had a dumpster set up the other day. A bunch of typewriters, printer ink in boxes, Christmas trees, a few metal desks or stands. I managed to snag two sets of casters off the stands.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

You're half right but mostly wrong

he's ½ right, and 0.50% wrong.

Charles

 

[Charles (in GA)]

I loved it when my local BestBuy redid their entire warehouse. they tossed all of the pallet racking into the dumpster and bought new.

Racking, conveyors and the like are something that there are businesses that specialize in buying used and reselling. They will come tear it down and pay you for it. Cannot imagine why any company would not do that, vs throwing in a scrap bin.

Charles

 

[Zeke]

You guys ain't got nothin'. I've always been fond of an alley or two. Never bought a vacuum cleaner in my life. (This is an old thread, I may have posted that already.) The other day I was showing my wife something and I told her it came from the alley. She replied, "Of course it did."

Anyway, the day I got married I was driving home from the church with my wife and saw a great rag rug laying in an alley. I was driving a VW convertible. I pulled up, hopped out in my wedding suit and threw that sucker over the top of the car. Didn't need to tie it down as the convertible fabric held it OK. The rug was like a 9 x 12!. Turned out with a little cleaning it made a nice rug for the newly weds.

There's quite a bit in my lot that has been "found." Not stolen.

 

[Norcal]

Old thread alert.

A friend of mine calls dumpster diving "going to the country store". Nothing to be ashamed of, there is good stuff to be found in other people's castoffs.

 

[KRB52]

Occasionally I will find something worthwhile at the dumpster where we live. Last weekend, some idiot put out about a half a case of bottled beer and 5/6 of a six pack of some sort of hard lemonade stuff. Just left it next to the dumpster. That I tossed in, since there were kids in the area playing; if they found it and drank it...

A place I used to work at did mail order arts & crafts, sport & recreation and similar products. We used to store damaged, returned, discontinued, etc. items on pallets in containers. We had completed our annual tag sale (which the company presidents said they did not like to do) and the stuff that was left was just put on pallets and put into empty containers. I forget what my "offense" was, but my boss was pissed at me for something, so my "punishment" was to load a 40 yard container with pallets (usually can fit two side-by-side and 10-12 the length.) I was to then "fill in" the space in the front and the sides of the container with loose items, reclaim totes and pallets, etc. This was two hours a day, my "project" from 5 pm to 7 pm. Of course, I had no problem filling a tote with loose leaf paper (kids were in high school), pencils, colored pencils, markers, tape, etc. etc. plus any tools that I happened to find or anything else that looked worthwhile. I'm so happy I don't work there anymore. The waste was unbelievable. And, they didn't care.

 

[G_P]

Racking, conveyors and the like are something that there are businesses that specialize in buying used and reselling. They will come tear it down and pay you for it. Cannot imagine why any company would not do that, vs throwing in a scrap bin.

Charles

Home Depot throws pallet racking away all the time. They send it right to the scrapyard and wont allow employees to even buy it from them for more than scrap value.

 

[Joe69]

I pulled a Skil circular saw out of the dumpster at work a few years ago. I took it apart, cleaned it, and it's been working great ever since. I quit using the C-man one that I had, because the Skil worked much better.

Joe

 

[nicksnothereman]

This thread reminds me of spaceballs when the guys with the pick comb were "combing the desert". That having been said...um...don't go digging in people's garbage, people are nasty. If it's outside the bin then yeah fair game but in the bin...oh jeebus that's not a good idea; you'll get worms!

 

[tavernaut]

My neighbor is from El Salvador and speaks little English. He's lived on my block for ten years. He maintains a couple dozen lawns in the neighborhood and spends the rest of his time dumpster diving and scrounging. It is a phenomenal one-man operation. I let him say in a house I'm renovating, rent-free, because he scrounges so much **** and he likes to share.

In the past month: 300 feet of 6x6 pressure-treated sill. 11 sheets of 1-1/4" T&G plywood. A Harbor Freight electric jackhammer. 2 Makita sanders. 2 working dishwashers. 2- 5gal pails of exterior primer. Dozens of 2x4s. A pallet of used bricks. 2 working washer/dryer sets. A couple of stainless kitchen sinks. A cast-iron clawfoot tub. Another Honda self-propelled mower. 2 gas stoves, 1 electric. A Sony 100Wx4 receiver. Five electric motors, 1/3 to 3/4 HP.

Since he trims everybody's trees and mows their lawns, he has an endless supply of fresh fruit on hand at all times.

This guy is really handy to have around.

 

[nine4gmc]

They make worm medicine, I'll take my chances I can't tell you how much junk I have pulled from the dumpster at my old place. I can remember the last thing though. I was having a garage sale there and told my girl to watch for customers, that I was "going shopping". I literally walked over to the dumpster, pulled out a set of curtains and went back and put them on my tables and they sold 5 mins later...the customer even went home and got her dad and brother and came back shopping again, they bought more things... It was a good day.

 

[67carl]

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.

I ran a 5S project and came away with this nice shelving unit. They had no problem with guys taking stuff rather than tossing it in the garbage.

 

[Gizmosity]

We don't have garbage service here and have to go to a small, remote transfer station to throw everything away and recycle. I happen to drive right past it on my way to work. I stop there almost every day and poke around. Most days it's just garbage but some days it's gold.

I also know a guy who works for a company that goes to great lengths to re-use as much stuff within their enormous facility as is possible. It gets moved to a central area and on a certain day it's first come first served. He has managed to get me some insanely great stuff that nobody understands or wants. After it's picked through it just goes in the dumpster for the scrapper.

 

[Pathfinders]

Check out the dumpster at a Tractor Supply. I have hit the jackpot a few times at TS.

 

[Playwme]

Got myself an electric wheelchair from the dump the other day. Batteries were no good but I had plenty of spare ones. Whacked in 2 good ones and away it went. Seat needs the dog hair cleaned off it but it's all good otherwise. I'm also halfway through building a gokart from an electric mobility scooter I got from the dump too. Needed batteries replacing and a 4 second repair where the throttle plugs into the control board.

 

[G McKay]

Try walking around the neighborhood the day after the local/city garage sale and see what people put out. I have picked up everything from kitchen cabinets to drills and hand saws. Plus more.

 

[sweetk30]

paid a guy I know 350 shipped for this baby .

he scored it for free from the side of the dumpster cause it was heavy and the person couldn't toss it in .

unit was made in 2006 .

http://www.pannier.com/tags/embossed/roovers-metal-tape-embosser/index.html its the t-20 model.

there over $4000.00 new

 

[jfish]

DD'ing is one of my favorite past times, guys at work laugh at me,

in the metro areas the high rise buildings also have "e-cycle" collection bins for electronics and such, thats where the gold is.

in the past year I found about 40 of these speakerphone things

15 HP LCD monitors

and about 1000 brand new monitor / video cables and universal power cables

everything went on ebay and sold within a few months

I worked in a high rise two years ago that was renovating around 30 floors down to bare concrete. I worked at night opposite the other trades. Each morning as I ended my shift (I was the only trade in the building at night) I would root around the dumpsters. I spent of few hours of my own time each night in the dumpsters, and came out with a about 1000lbs of demo'd copper wiring that was otherwise heading to a land fill.

theeeeeeeen theres all the countless junk I have to convince myself to throw away because I brought it home and never used it lol.

 

[ambenz]

Sometimes Ill take a cruise to Downtown Chicago an scope out lower Wacker drives docks for construction open top dumpsters.
Those commercial office buildings usually get me high end lighting, good quality remnant rugs, cabinets, all kinds of office equipment, fixtures...just incredible stuff.
These corporate gurus are always remodeling....there is one building I am eyeing for antique paneling, crazy antique kitchen equipment, and furniture...I have the inside scoop that a lot of the pristine antique stuff is being chucked to modernize the space on the upper floor. This stuff should be in a museum!

 

[coljar]

The scrap dumpster sets next to the walk way that leads to my control room at the plant. I don't look in it every time, but I've got some pretty cool stuff out of it and got passes to take home. I've also got a nice commercial safe in an alley a couple of blocks from my house.

 

[nicksnothereman]

They make worm medicine, I'll take my chances I can't tell you how much junk I have pulled from the dumpster at my old place. I can remember the last thing though. I was having a garage sale there and told my girl to watch for customers, that I was "going shopping". I literally walked over to the dumpster, pulled out a set of curtains and went back and put them on my tables and they sold 5 mins later...the customer even went home and got her dad and brother and came back shopping again, they bought more things... It was a good day.

Yeah but by the time you notice you got em you gotta sterilize all your stuff. There's some real bad stuff out there, not just worms but nematodes and stuff like that. If I do it (which I don't) I'm wearing gloves and heat blasting it with a heat gun. People are reeeeeeel nasty man.

 

[nine4gmc]

Oh I know some people are just outright f'n gross. As a cable and DTV guy, I saw the insides of lots of houses. One was so bad with piss and feces, I called my manager to cancel the job. He told me to complete the job or else, I told him to come do it himself if he was serious about it. He showed up 15 mins later and immediately canceled the job, then called animal control and let the police handle the situation. I threw up in my mouth just walking in the front door, the 5 people there actually lived in **** up to their waist from the 10-20 animals kept in a single wide trailer....

That one stuck in my head for 15 yrs now, I will not forget it...There were others with food and junk hoarding issues but I can not deal with feces on EVERYTHING.

 

[Outlander]

When I worked for an aerospace company, I asked to take home a nice wooden crate that some machine parts were delivered in, After 10 rounds of paperwork it made a nice box in my new '86 Ranger.

The VP of Manufacturing had an office near where I sat, and there were scrap bins from the shop. Think exotics materials, not reworkable, very expensive parts. He would wander over and stare at the huge pile of scrap parts and motivate himself to launch 'scrap reduction' or 'quality improvement' programs

As for dumpster diving, I always wonder how to be sure it was truly prepared for garbage vs to be sold for scrap vs stored outside beside dumpsters. With my luck I would get napped for theft.