Freebies-What have you been given?

[Speedbird]

A recent thread asked "Are you that guy?" that gets stuff from work that is going to the dumpster. I am that guy and was wondering what members got and what was the reason it was thrown away. I get stuff almost every week and looking in my shop it shows. Last week, it was a Branson ultrasonic cleaner. They bought a new one because the old one worked "intermittantly. Well, the power cord was not completely plugged in to the back. Works fine now.

 

[PAToyota]

Most recent "dumpster diving" freebie was a 600# hand truck with a flat tire. The bead had popped off the rim and I guess they couldn't figure out how to reseat it. Five minutes with a ratchet strap and the compressor and good as new again.

Most recent brand new freebie was a Durham four drawer cabinet as a door prize at a vendor's show. Past such freebies include a cordless drill, DeWalt portaband, and a Quincy portable compressor.

 

[LawnDart79]

...found a Makita circular saw laying in the middle of the road once.

It's a pretty nice saw, case and all!

 

[Concrete B]

I come from a long line of scavengers. a lot of my tools were dumpster rescues form my father in law. A lot of my metal is scavenged, junk fridge has a lot of straight sheet metal on it! Thought about torching a dumpster for heavy gauge stuff, but i don't want to go to jail! I have a buddy that is a commercial carpenter and gets TONS of stuff free. Good stuff.

 

[copterdoctor]

I don't get much free stuff from my work... but my wife and I were given a 86 dodge truck with a GIGANTIC cab over camper on it... it was a wedding gift (excuse to buy a new one) from my inlaws... we've used it once, and it beats renting a motorhome, or putting up the tent...

 

[Regnar]

Work was throwing away and auto rewind hose reel because it wouldnt wind up. Opened it up, put the spring back on the numb and hung it in the garage.

 

[slowtwitch]

I'm very fortunate, I'm kinda of the go to guy when it comes to getting rid of things where i work. When I was working on my network degree, I was asked to scrap a bunch of servers. Instead i took them home and used them for school work.

I have since removed them and replaced them with just one server.

Here's my Logan lathe that I rebuilt. It was given to me by my neighbor for helping him out. It was completely disassembled and in a bunch of boxes when it was given to me.

 

[Fixxer]

Hi.
I got som things from a friend..
The bench grinder? on the left (dont know if that what you call it in english..)
it worked, he just didn´t need 2 of them... so i got one..

the chopsaw on the right, didn´t work, same friend..
cabel on the on/off switch was broken, 4 minutes fixing, and it worked fine

200amp TIG welder, AC/DC the one on the left of the two, same friend, but this i bought from him, aprox 600 USD, not free, but cheap

 

[bazzateer]

A good friend gave me this about 3-4 years ago. Needed some work to get it back on the road but I've been using it for over 3 years now.

 

[A29]

38 chevy p/u. Passed it on to a friend about a year later.

 

[1320stang]

Floor mount drill press, still in my garage.
2000 Chevy Astrovan, passed it to a friend in need.
traded a free set of tires and $50 for a 1994 Chrysler LHS with a broken timing belt, drove it for 3 years and got $300 on a trade in for my wife's van.

Those are the biggies.

 

[steve911]

I was given a hulk of a 60's vintage M444 Bobcat. It was sitting in an old potatoe warehouse near me and was destined to be scrap. They said if I can get out and haul it away I could have it. 3 monthsd later, tons of elbow grease, paint and some new parts from Bobcat, this is what I ended up with. Here is a before and after pic.

 

[ZRX61]

Just this weekend I ended up with a 6x4ft sheet of polished diamond plate, wasn't *free* per se as I swapped it for a 25rnd box of .44mag BlackTalons.. & those were free... so technically so was the sheet aluminum

 

[esmith2039]

I'm very fortunate, I'm kinda of the go to guy when it comes to getting rid of things where i work. When I was working on my network degree, I was asked to scrap a bunch of servers. Instead i took them home and used them for school work.

I have since removed them and replaced them with just one server.

I remember when those servers were new.. don't recall them ever giving them away where I went to school/work. Not sure what they did with the old ones. Gave away plenty of desktops though! Had 25+ in my living room at one time.

 

[BlindViper]

Every cabinet, shelf, table in my garage was being thrown out. I bring home lots of nuts, bolts, and washers. Various bits of steel and wood.

 

[BigE]

Let's see:

- 1997 Cub Cadet 2155 mower. Dad's best friend from the Air Force passed away and his widow had it and a John Deere. She kept the JD and wanted the Cub gone.

- 1988 Mazda B2200. Buddy's former boss kept it around to take mowers in for service and such. It kept deteriorating til it just wasn't safe or convenient to drive. He wanted it gone and offered it up if I could just haul it away. Truck was in great shape. Maintenance had just been neglected. Currently getting it back running.

- All the furniture in my house with the exception of the bedroom was free/hand-me-down. Couch, love seat, Lazy Boy and dining room table came from my uncle. He said, "It's yours if you come get it." Cost me gas and a 1-way Uhaul. computer desk and 21" monitor came from my brother - college leftovers in my parents' basement. Full bed, coffee table, microwave stand, washer and dryer came from a buddy who got married and had two of everything.

 

[trbomax]

I got a 12ga double and a vintage ruger 10-22 carbine,one of the first ones with the folding stock. Today the wife is bringing back (from ohio) a reallu old floor drill press that her cousin was going to scrap. I guess it was all they could do to get it in her grand cherokee,the base is over 2'square.

 

[Graymills - Craig]

Herpes.

Oh, was that not what you are talking about?

 

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

In helping some local companies clean up / move stuff I've gotten some good freebies:
Masonry company: Mustang skid loader that needed and engine, then later bucket / fork attachements. (work in progress)
Lock /Safe company: Multiple small drill press' and bench grinders and giant antique pedastal fan for the shop.
Records storage company: Hand trucks and heavy wooden rolling carts (like 3 trailer loads).

I also pack-rat lots of good parts leftover from work - hydraulic components, hose, RV sized generator that was a take-off....all kindsa stuff.

 

[dkroth]

I got free lunch at Five Guys today. They're opening a new store in my neighborhood. We accidentally went in today when the official opening is Wednesday. Franchise owner was there and said, "We're doing a dry run anyway. Have lunch on me!"

Thanks!

 

[GN4WHLN]

Got a couple of metal shelves I've converted into folding tables, a junk projector stand that has become a welding cart, a nice wood card catalog I use for small parts, casters, et. al. from work. The custodians have strict instructions to let me inspect anything I might use in the garage before tossing it.

 

[Arne73]

Work was throwing away and auto rewind hose reel because it wouldnt wind up. Opened it up, put the spring back on the numb and hung it in the garage.

Same here, on mine the spring was still hangin there!

 

[sberry]

How about this one? Including Hall seat grinder. Dont think the valve grinder itself had ever been used.

 

[supertooljunkie]

I got a Craftsman floor standing drill press for doing some remodel work for a friend.
A neighbor of mine got a Dodge 440 BB engine and ****** yesterday. I got to help remove it from the RV. I get to help with the teardown and rebuild. He got the virus out of my computer.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I've some small things but really nothing major.



Well, on second thought, just about everything in this picture was given to me.

 

[Kirbot]

A friend of mine gave this to me a while ago, it was an "extra"

It sure didn't look like this when I got it, but it was mostly complete.

Note,
I no longer keep the chuck key in the chuck, even though it can't hurt anything on the tailstock, it's still a bad habit.

 

[SpeedCoach]

About my 2nd year out of college, my wife and I we were hosting a party at our house....i invited everyone from my department at work, including a guy who was about to retire (who I had become friends with - parties weren't really his "thing"....but he came nonetheless). Anyway, he was cleaning out his place getting ready to move out to Arizona....the day before the party he says "hey - you're pretty handy, I came across an old vise I dont need, would you want it?"

Being young I was just building my tool collection, and like I said, we had just gotten the house. I didnt even have a bench at the time, but of course I agreed to any free tool I could get!

He showed up to the party with this

Wilton 801

Every year I intend to clean it up and paint it but never quite get around to it......maybe next year.

 

[Mark-in-NH]

What haven't I been given. Whenever one of my clients replaces something in their homes here with the latest & greatest, I usually wind up with the old item. I have been given everything from simple household furnishing, furniture, kitchen appliances, washer / dryers, TV's A/C units, bbqs, boats, tools of all kinds. I was actually given a B series Kubota diesel tractor one time. I jumped started it, drove it onto a trailer and away I went. I even had an elderly client whose house I took care of for years, we actually became good friends, give me his house and property when he decided he could no longer travel back and forth to use it.
My most recent "take it home" items was a brand new sledge hammer & single bit axe with price tags still on them. There was also a 6' Little Giant ladder in the lot.
I am getting way over due for another yard sale

 

[Radio Flyer]

1992 Ford Ranger with 134,000 miles on it. It was my brother's. He said the cab leaks water, the water pump leaks, battery goes dead, and hasn't driven it in 2 years. "If you want it, come get it...I'm done with it".

He also called "dibs" if I don't want it. Sounds like he just wants me to fix it for him.

 

[Speedbird]

I was given an Ingersol-Rand t30 80 gallon air compressor. It was at a convenience store and no one kept a check on the oil and was locked up. They just bought a new one and set it beside it. I took it apart, cleaned up the crank and rod and put it back together. Looks and runs like new now.

 

[ears]

My company bought a warehouse about fifteen years ago. It was a cabinet making shop then the next owner was grinding latex pellets and mixing it with other stuff to make oil absorber and then fuel additives and other odd stuff. He sold to us and moved his operations to the back shop and rented office space from us. All the machinery he was using got stored in a 48' kentucky trailer.

Three years ago the state kicked us out for a road project. The guy didn't want to mess with the stuff being stored, he was just going to set up a little office. The rest we loaded on a train and shipped to his other shop. Told me to do what I wanted with the rest.

I ended up with tons of mad scientist type stuff. Beakers, test tubes etc. A couple centrifuges, surface area analyzer, vaccum pumps, vaccum ovens, laboratory blender, stainless piping, copper tubing, magnetic drive pumps box after box of bizarre and expensive looking odditys.

Process equipment, there was a 15 hp granulator and giant dust collector, liquid solids blender, vibratory screener, sieve shaker, flexible conveyors, hoppers with mixing blending moving type motors on them. Lots of three phase breakers, giant breaker boxes, spools of wire etc.

I am at about $15000 from ebaying this stuff, still have most of the smaller stuff. I still have no idea what some of it is. I googled until my head was spinning figuring out a lot of it. Tough sell on some of it. For example I have one of these. http://www.micromeritics.com/Product-Showcase/FlowSorb-III.aspx
Who the hell needs one of these and what is a reasonable price?

As for other stuff, well when we moved out of the warehouse I stripped all the wiring, got $3800 in scrap for that. I also work for a moving company, if it doesn't look right in the new house it will end up back at our shop. After two days it goes in the trash or to whoever takes it.

 

[Walterchang]

I have got a Dayton shop vac it was filthy but cleaned up, pelican case, two storage lockers, two filing cabinets, a metal shelving rack, a towel dispenser, Kennedy tool box, several anvil cases countless hand tools.

When I was younger and did not know better I turned down a hilti power tools kit it had like 5 tools in it.

 

[Handiest1]

A customer gave me a military 513-T Remington target rifle. I've seen them go for about 6-800 dollars. Unfortunately the Sheriff has it right now.

 

[tcianci]

This really is making me think. I hope I don't get anyone upset with the length of the list but I always wanted to figure this out. Here goes!

This computer, the desk it's on, the base cabinet to my C'man roll away, an arc welder, 3 floor jacks, a pay phone, hot wrench, engine stand, blast cabinet, air compressor, lawn mower, riding mower, chain saw, 3 leaf blowers (backpack, roll along and hand held) wheelbarrow, roto tiller, 2 band saws, table saw, milling machine, lathe, laminate trimmer, machinist tools, lighting, air conditioners, windows and doors, mill work, creeper, towel and antibacterial dispensers, torque wrenches, guitars, a piano, amplifier, CD player, light fixtures, printers, MIG cart, gas hedge trimmer, gas string trimmer, whole cars and trucks, Misc power tools, audio equipment, air hose, beer fridge, nuke, floor epoxy, and all manner of hand tools. I'm happy to say that I have also been able to give tons of stuff away as well.

 

[Alaric.H]

Th neighbor dropped the title to this yesterday as it kept overheating


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_cbH83lhL6o8/TOZumDOuozI/AAAAAAAAMP8/xrfI64g9NgU/s640/IMG_0439.JPG

 

[billspit]

A couple of years ago a guy gave me a free 1980 Spitfire. He had pulled the overdrive transmission and differential out of it, which is why he bought it. The car was too good (unrusted) to crush, so he passed it on. I have redone some stuff on the car and rebuilt the engine. Still haven't gotten around to starting it though.

 

[dabirdguy]

The next-door neighbor of a car buddy of mine gave me the fridge in the picture:

 

[Lippyp]

Recently I was given an old Westwood 13hp ride on mower and a small trailer that will be going over to France to be used on my propery over there behind my 18hp ride-on and odd trips to the dump etc.

 

[Speedbird]

This week, I got a piece of pvc 1 1/2" hose about 12' long out of the dumpster at work. Has never been used. This stuff is 3-4 dollars a foot at lowes. I needed it for my irrigation pump intake. And someone gave me a large piece of rubber conveyor belt 2' wide and 3/8" thick. Don't have a use for it right now, but when I do,......

 

[UncleJoe]

I'm very fortunate, I'm kinda of the go to guy when it comes to getting rid of things where i work. When I was working on my network degree, I was asked to scrap a bunch of servers. Instead i took them home and used them for school work.

I have since removed them and replaced them with just one server.

Here's my Logan lathe that I rebuilt. It was given to me by my neighbor for helping him out. It was completely disassembled and in a bunch of boxes when it was given to me.

I have installed and maintained 100's of those servers over the years and all I can say is it sure must have made a lot of noise when you had all those fired up. Those look similar to the old Compaq 2500 with raid hard drives. The first time I installed one of those for a large client they were complaining about the cost of RAID. I took them to the server room and explained where the hard drives were and I explained that all 3500 employees were currently on the network and accessing data and I reached down and pulled out a hard drive. They about crapped their pants. After a few minutes of calming them down they realized no one in the firm had even noticed. I grabbed a spare and place it in the slot and locked the doors and then explained how it was rebuilding the missing data.

They never questioned me again.