Junkyard finds

[plinker]

Went to the local scrap/salvage/junkyard & steel supply place and foundA ridgid No.22 2.5" pipe vise the screw was frozen, but now spins smooth thanks to some oil.
http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/Bench-Yoke-Vise/EN/index.htm

I also found a speedaire air compressor pump that seems to be ok, a 1/4 drive 1/2 c-man socket,8" diamond adj. wrench, a armstrong double open-end wrench 5/16 on each end? has special stamped on it. and a few other misc. things all for 5$

on previous trips I've found;

Craftsman oiless 12gal air compressor (that needed 2 head bolts) 6$
Vintage H.K. porter 36" bolt cutters (needs new head)
Craftsman 9/16 combo wrench
Craftsman 5/16 12pt socket
Craftsman vintage pump type pliers
Proto 3/8x7/16 double open-end wrench
diamond 12" adj. wrench

I find it amazing that people throw away good stuff.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Funny, I found my pipe vise in a scrap pile too!

 

[wrenchr]

I find wrenchs all the time, for some reason I find craftsman 5/8 wrenchs most of the time.

 

[beardking]

I find wrenchs all the time, for some reason I find craftsman 5/8 wrenchs most of the time.

That's where it went. Can I have it back please?

 

[rsanter]

one time I found a rigid pipe threader when I was dropping off some metal scrap.

still have it even though I have never used it (I have a complete set CMAN version I use when I need it)

one time I found one of those yellow paint and solvent storage cabinets at the curb for trash pickup day. I saved the city the trouble and picked it up for them.

another time I actually found a pile of firewood set out for trash pickup. about half a pickup load and it was dry split stuff.....

bob

 

[Uncle Buck]

one time I found a rigid pipe threader when I was dropping off some metal scrap.

still have it even though I have never used it (I have a complete set CMAN version I use when I need it)

one time I found one of those yellow paint and solvent storage cabinets at the curb for trash pickup day. I saved the city the trouble and picked it up for them.

another time I actually found a pile of firewood set out for trash pickup. about half a pickup load and it was dry split stuff.....

bob

A kindred spirit!

 

[billymade]

Those yellow paint/solvent storage cabinets are EXPENSIVE; gotta love FREE! They seem to be around $500-$1000 depending on the size!

 

[jimvannoy]

A kindred spirit!

Back 15-20 years ago when we lived in a neighborhood we use to drive around on "trash" night and get all kinds of stuff. Got a big TV adjusted the picture and sold it for 100 bucks, got all kinds of wood chairs, toys, file cabinets, tackle boxes, fishing poles, fans, etc, etc. One time we found 2 trash cans full to the top with toys and cassette tapes. All in perfect shape.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Back 15-20 years ago when we lived in a neighborhood we use to drive around on "trash" night and get all kinds of stuff. Got a big TV adjusted the picture and sold it for 100 bucks, got all kinds of wood chairs, toys, file cabinets, tackle boxes, fishing poles, fans, etc, etc. One time we found 2 trash cans full to the top with toys and cassette tapes. All in perfect shape.

I drive my wife nuts doing my dumpster dives, I have the little ones in training!

 

[jimvannoy]

I drive my wife nuts doing my dumpster dives, I have the little ones in training!

I am always looking for boxes to pack stuff I sell and ship it. We go to the local Dollar General store a lot to get them and the dumpster is almost always full of stuff from the store. Books and magazines, a case of some sort of food or cleaning stuff that 1 can or container got broken open and leaked on the other items in the box, seasonal stuff that did not sell, etc. We usually come home with a full load.

 

[Moose-LandTran]

A good friend of mine used to run a scrapyard. he has all kinds of tool he found in wrencked cars. cantilever tool boxes full of tools, Snap-on sets, shiny barely-used weedwhackers (two!) untold amounts of power tools. some incredible finds.

i, on the other hand, have never had so much luck. best i've had so far was a Snap-on pick my mum found in the road. it's currently being the handbrake lever for an old 500SEC.

 

[5wndwcpe]

Back 15-20 years ago when we lived in a neighborhood we use to drive around on "trash" night and get all kinds of stuff. Got a big TV adjusted the picture and sold it for 100 bucks, got all kinds of wood chairs, toys, file cabinets, tackle boxes, fishing poles, fans, etc, etc. One time we found 2 trash cans full to the top with toys and cassette tapes. All in perfect shape.

"When we lived in a neighborhood....." Now that there's funny.

 

[JeepsAreBuilt]

Years ago, my car broke a camshaft and I was stranded on the freeway. I walked about 2 miles to a phone.. but on the way, I walked along the freeway and found a snap-on long handle 7/16" wrench. I wasnt looking for stuff.. just saw it. Also found a broken cell phone and a empty wallet with a photo.

 

[Kevin54]

I walked about 2 miles to a phone.. but on the way, I walked along the freeway and found a snap-on long handle 7/16" wrench. I wasnt looking for stuff.. just saw it. Also found a broken cell phone and a empty wallet with a photo.

I live out in the country, and while mowing the side ditch along the house I came upon something laying in the grass. Let's just say it was about 10" long, shaped like a bullet, and buzzed if it had batteries. I ran over it and know it didn't have batteries. But WTH would a woman drive down the road, pull the batteries and say, WTF...just pitch it out the window

 

[Mike83]

I found a 3/4" / 7/16" open end Blue Point wrench at the junkyard for $2. The date stamp was like 1962 or something...back when they were made in the USA (Milwaukee or Chicago I think). Pretty cool!

 

[Brandon_Lutz]

After Katrina hit, my uncle was doing some contract work down in New Orleans. Happened to pass by a school that got tore up on the way home one evening. Well the Gym was being torn down and there were two of those huge fans you often find in Gyms laying on a pile of rubble behind what was left of the building.

Ole Uncle stopped by and talked to a few people and discovered they were going to throw them away. 50 bucks later my uncle had possession of two 10' by 10't fans with the motors and all.

We took them out of the mangled boxes and built new ones around them, put em on casters, and now we have some nice shop fans. My uncle kept one and my father has the other. Pretty good deal if you ask me

 

[wilbilt]

Years ago, my car broke a camshaft and I was stranded on the freeway. I walked about 2 miles to a phone.. but on the way, I walked along the freeway and found a snap-on long handle 7/16" wrench. I wasnt looking for stuff.. just saw it. Also found a broken cell phone and a empty wallet with a photo.

The Snap-On wrench and the empty wallet obviously belonged to the same person...

 

[annoyingrob]

I found an older vintage craftsman 1/2" ratchet, and a 36" 1/2" breaker bar in the junkyard once.

Use them both all the time

 

[wrenchr]

I live out in the country, and while mowing the side ditch along the house I came upon something laying in the grass. Let's just say it was about 10" long, shaped like a bullet, and buzzed if it had batteries. I ran over it and know it didn't have batteries. But WTH would a woman drive down the road, pull the batteries and say, WTF...just pitch it out the window

Maybe she got a newer more powerfull toy!! More speeds!!

 

[Moose-LandTran]

The Snap-On wrench and the empty wallet obviously belonged to the same person...

Hahaha, aint that the truth.

 

[Uncle Buck]

I used to work at a place where an old mechanic was constantly having to fight with young construction stiffs grabbing his SO tools from his box and failing to return them.

One day the owner of the place sent the old mechanic to a town an hr or so away to pick something up. As the old guy is pulling into the town many miles from his home shop he spies a wrench lying along side the road, being the sharp fellow he was he did a u and went back and retrieved the wrench.

When he picked it up he saw his own name etched on the wrench!

TRUE STORY!

 

[Moose-LandTran]

damn, talk about lucky.

a while back, i lost my favourite John Deere cap. was pretty pissed/upset about it. it was a present from my ex and means a lot to me. a few weeks later i was walking home, spied something green covered in leaves and ****, at the edge of the kerb and thought to myself "please be a John Deere cap.." as luck would have it, it was. took it home, stuck it in the sink full of hot soapy water, brushed it clean, dried it on the radiator and put it on!

big relief, still the only cap i wear.

 

[beardking]

I live out in the country, and while mowing the side ditch along the house I came upon something laying in the grass. Let's just say it was about 10" long, shaped like a bullet, and buzzed if it had batteries. I ran over it and know it didn't have batteries. But WTH would a woman drive down the road, pull the batteries and say, WTF...just pitch it out the window

When I was a kid (10 or 12), I lived right off the highway heading out of the little town I lived in. I was out mowing the front yard and found this polaroid sitting in the grass. That was my introduction to amature ****. Needless to say, I kept that hidden for a while.

 

[Major Ramifications]

Wait, you mean that you can go to the scrap yard and BUY stuff? How do they sell it, by weight? Do they let you walk around and shop?

 

[Uncle Buck]

Wait, you mean that you can go to the scrap yard and BUY stuff? How do they sell it, by weight? Do they let you walk around and shop?

Used to be not so much anymore though.

 

[jimvannoy]

I have you all beat. I was scuba diving in Florida and saw this wallet floating around in front of me. I grabbed it and opened it up and find out it's mine!

 

[Moose-LandTran]

I have you all beat. I was scuba diving in Florida and saw this wallet floating around in front of me. I grabbed it and opened it up and find out it's mine!

Seriously?

 

[jimvannoy]

Seriously?

Yep seriously.

 

[Uncle Buck]

I have you all beat. I was scuba diving in Florida and saw this wallet floating around in front of me. I grabbed it and opened it up and find out it's mine!

I assume it fell out of the boat or something, so spill the beans with the rest of the story!

 

[jimvannoy]

I assume it fell out of the boat or something, so spill the beans with the rest of the story!

I lost it the day before. I was diving in shorts and not a wet suit because the water was warm. Went diving and forgot to take it out of my pocket. Found it the next day on another dive.

 

[Deafautotech]

I lost it the day before. I was diving in shorts and not a wet suit because the water was warm. Went diving and forgot to take it out of my pocket. Found it the next day on another dive.

Oh Sh!t!!! that are lucky! i am advanced certified Scuba diver which i can dive to 120 feet deep of sea level. i am enjoy the scuba diving but i am easy breathing too fast (6'4" 300 lbs)... sometime i am try to breath little slow but problems is current that make me work harder....

 

[george4]

Never found a tool worth anything.
But as long as we are telling dive stories. I lost my hotel room key while diving in Maui, it had been in the pocket of my BC, the next day I found it at about 60 ft. I lost a knife while diving off Treasure Cay in the Bahamas, fell of the back of my console, the next year I found it in about 20 ft.

 

[Uncle Buck]

I lost it the day before. I was diving in shorts and not a wet suit because the water was warm. Went diving and forgot to take it out of my pocket. Found it the next day on another dive.

Truely remarkable!

 

[jimvannoy]

Never found a tool worth anything.
But as long as we are telling dive stories. I lost my hotel room key while diving in Maui, it had been in the pocket of my BC, the next day I found it at about 60 ft. I lost a knife while diving off Treasure Cay in the Bahamas, fell of the back of my console, the next year I found it in about 20 ft.

I was diving in Maui and ruptured my ear drum. I was at about 60 or 70 ft and had a bad pain in my ear I could not equalize. All of the sudden it went pop and felt great about then I saw blood in the water around me. We had just seen a big shark a few minutes before that too. I got out of the water quick that day.

 

[jimvannoy]

Oh Sh!t!!! that are lucky! i am advanced certified Scuba diver which i can dive to 120 feet deep of sea level. i am enjoy the scuba diving but i am easy breathing too fast (6'4" 300 lbs)... sometime i am try to breath little slow but problems is current that make me work harder....

I use to do a lot of cave diving in Florida springs. One time we were deep in a cave at about 170 feet using mixed gas. We found a small air pocket and took out our regulators to talk and said lets turn off our lights and see how dark it is. Well we did and I could not see my had pressed against my mask. It was totally black. We turned our lights back on and started swimming the way we thought was out, after a few minutes we stopped and looked at each other pointed one way then the other and kind of did a shrug. After a few more minutes of swimming I started to get worried. We were running low on gas and really needed to go. We kept swimming and finally way up ahead I started to see a faint light. We made it out ok. That was the one time we did not use a safety line. I always used them after that.

 

[Uncle Buck]

I was diving in Maui and ruptured my ear drum. I was at about 60 or 70 ft and had a bad pain in my ear I could not equalize. All of the sudden it went pop and felt great about then I saw blood in the water around me. We had just seen a big shark a few minutes before that too. I got out of the water quick that day.

I use to do a lot of cave diving in Florida springs. One time we were deep in a cave at about 170 feet using mixed gas. We found a small air pocket and took out our regulators to talk and said lets turn off our lights and see how dark it is. Well we did and I could not see my had pressed against my mask. It was totally black. We turned our lights back on and started swimming the way we thought was out, after a few minutes we stopped and looked at each other pointed one way then the other and kind of did a shrug. After a few more minutes of swimming I started to get worried. We were running low on gas and really needed to go. We kept swimming and finally way up ahead I started to see a faint light. We made it out ok. That was the one time we did not use a safety line. I always used them after that.

Man, after reading about you swimming with sharks and becoming disoriented spelunking you make me feel like half a man!

 

[lbgradwell]

Man, after reading about you swimming with sharks and becoming disoriented spelunking you make me feel like half a man!

Andy has the other half... 6'4" 300 lbs. Damn!

 

[Moose-LandTran]

Andy has the other half... 6'4" 300 lbs. Damn!

I have a friend about the same size. he makes me (5'10" 147lb) feel tiny. to make me feel better i stand next to my 4'11" 90lb colleague. works every time.

 

[SCguy]

Its not exactly looking for tools but me and a friend ride around town dumpster diving for Pepsi and Coke caps. The major places are trashcans at the football field. I drive through parking lots and am always on the look for them. LOL

RD

 

[Moose-LandTran]

i once saw a gearbox (looked similar to the Getrag in my old bmw) laying in the hard shoulder of a motorway. how it got there, i have no idea.

in retrospect, i really should've stopped and picked it up.