The stuff people throw away! GET YOURSELF A VAN!

[jchaneng]

I have always been shocked by what some people throw/ give away tool/equipement wise, but this week it went to a whole new level. There was a big clear out at work and i ended up with loads of usefull stuff. Anyone else find themselves totaly shocked by what people throw away?


Id say that most of the equipement in my workshop was free and in some cases was even payed to take it away, it has easily covered the cost of my van!

I was given free pickings from the scrap pile at work and went away with 2 welding benches (both needed 3 men to lift), 3 big record vises, small bench guilotine, a 200L compressor filter/chiller/dryer system, Pillar drill, manual forklift trolly and an airline lubricator/filter, all in working and very usable condition. the whole lot was literally going to be weighed in for scrap.

post pics of any cool free stuff you have come by.

 

[bensminibikes]

A friend of mine once found a baja mini bike, I found a set of golf clubs, and a go kart with a engine

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[jchaneng]

 

[WhiffySpark]

Looks like a bunch of junk to me lol

 

[jd_1138]

Wow, retail value on all that is like $3,000 or so. Great score.

Some people just don't want to fart around with selling stuff if they're busy/don't need the money. My boss threw away a perfectly good iPad 2 in his waste basket. I asked if something was wrong with it. "Nope, I just bought the new iPad". I asked if I could have it. I returned it to factory specs and sold it for $150 I think.

 

[jchaneng]

Looks like a bunch of junk to me lol

haha thats what my manager said, true its a bit rough but all usable and actialy all stuff i needed, was about to build a heavy duty bench on wheels so that saved me a few £££ at least.

 

[jchaneng]

throwing out an ipad, mental even if you are loaded! wouldnt even be hard to sell!

 

[anndel]

One man's junk is another man's treasure. Nice roll of barbed wire!

 

[lilredex]

It is a bit different when a business tosses stuff like that. It has reached the end of its useful life and has been written off (depreciated) long ago. It is now in the way and the best way to make it disappear is to send it to the scrapper.

As DIYers we have the time to rehabilitate and re-use. For a money making company to do that.....it would be like spending $10 to save $5.

Good bunch of projects, I'd grab them too!

 

[srvctec]

It is a bit different when a business tosses stuff like that. It has reached the end of its useful life and has been written off (depreciated) long ago. It is now in the way and the best way to make it disappear is to send it to the scrapper.

As DIYers we have the time to rehabilitate and re-use. For a money making company to do that.....it would be like spending $10 to save $5.

Good bunch of projects, I'd grab them too!

Exactly. I get stuff from work all the time that is trash to them. Most of what I get is old nonworking equipment I need to junk out to get the scrap metal I can then use to build or repair other stuff. I've gotten lots of pounds of stainless steel and aluminum this way over the last 28 years.

 

[Jim Johnstone]

It is a bit different when a business tosses stuff like that. It has reached the end of its useful life and has been written off (depreciated) long ago. It is now in the way and the best way to make it disappear is to send it to the scrapper.

As DIYers we have the time to rehabilitate and re-use. For a money making company to do that.....it would be like spending $10 to save $5.

Good bunch of projects, I'd grab them too!

Totally agree. I've got several jacobs ball bearing super chucks and rohm keyless chucks that retail for a few hundred each, all from various machine shops I've worked in. Each time they either had worn jaws or were gummed up with old lubricants, and each time the bosses said it wasn't worth paying someone to freshen them up, so they just bought brand new ones.

 

[Reese]

I understand completely the business economics for tossing used stuff.

I was a foreman in a union aviation repair shop several years back. Re-using used cabinets, shelves, etc, surplussed from other departments required I borrow skilled trades to move them with a fully burdened rate near $200 per hour. Nothing got charged in less than 1 hour increments.

I could buy nice new cabinets for $200 have them delivered to our dock and use my guys to move them off the dock to the the new home in the shop.

Other guys would ask about salvaging recyclables or re-usables from the dumpster on company time. My guys time was billed to the government customer for $200-250 per hour for aircraft engine repair. The government would periodically audit us to make sure our labor charges were correct. Unless there is gold in the dumpster you were losing money to grab a few dollars of material for recycle or re-use and risking getting cross ways with Uncle Sam.

I once had to clear 20-30 tanker desks, hundreds of lineal feet of shelving, and stacks of old office chairs and tables from a closed department. My options were to pay for several 30 yard dumpsters and hiring skill trades for at least a week or horse trading with other foremen for some of it and letting my guys cart the remaining stuff off on their time. Two days later the department was clear, I was a hero with my guys, and another foreman was able to equip his new parts packaging area on the cheap.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

I don't even really look for it and so far I found a Honda 50 trail bike and a wall mount shop vac.

 

[NJ Marty]

It is a bit different when a business tosses stuff like that. It has reached the end of its useful life and has been written off (depreciated) long ago. It is now in the way and the best way to make it disappear is to send it to the scrapper.

As DIYers we have the time to rehabilitate and re-use. For a money making company to do that.....it would be like spending $10 to save $5.

Good bunch of projects, I'd grab them too!

Yes but some is wasteful.
My friend recently got a job as a maintenance guy at one of the largest Pharmaceutical companies here in NJ. A bunch were called to go to the penthouse conference room and told to cut up the conference table and throw it in the dumpster. The table was custom made with exotic woods from Brazil and his boss told him afterwords the table cost $70,000 and was only 4 years old. It was no match for the circular saw.

 

[Deej-79]

Yes but some is wasteful.
My friend recently got a job as a maintenance guy at one of the largest Pharmaceutical companies here in NJ. A bunch were called to go to the penthouse conference room and told to cut up the conference table and throw it in the dumpster. The table was custom made with exotic woods from Brazil and his boss told him afterwords the table cost $70,000 and was only 4 years old. It was no match for the circular saw.

Thats a damn shame

 

[Indexmill]

Yes but some is wasteful.
My friend recently got a job as a maintenance guy at one of the largest Pharmaceutical companies here in NJ. A bunch were called to go to the penthouse conference room and told to cut up the conference table and throw it in the dumpster. The table was custom made with exotic woods from Brazil and his boss told him afterwords the table cost $70,000 and was only 4 years old. It was no match for the circular saw.

People are fucked.

 

[PSYKO_Inc]

I've owned a pickup or van continuously since I was 15 years old, with the exception of a few months while I was stationed in Japan (made do with a beater hatchback for a few months until I found a deal on a $500 beater van.) People have told me it's wasteful to have a pickup in my driveway that's almost never driven, or an SUV with poor fuel economy, but I also have a small sedan that I use for commuting, the utility that each of the other vehicles provides has more than made up for their shortcomings.

 

[bwringer]

If you live near a university, take a drive through a few alleys near campus in May when the students move back home.

Combine spoiled brats with limited space, and it's absolutely astonishing what you can find. A wide selection of home goods -- so many microwaves, vacuums, etc. that you can be picky. Lots and lots of furniture, of course -- avoid anything absorbent. Computers and electronics galore. Tons of stereo equipment. You used to find records and CDs -- not so much nowadays. Liquor, barware, bar stools, etc. Sporting goods.

Once, a friend found a nice electric guitar and amp -- guess Junior didn't want Mama to know he was all mixed up in devil music.

 

[78C-10]

Yes but some is wasteful.
My friend recently got a job as a maintenance guy at one of the largest Pharmaceutical companies here in NJ. A bunch were called to go to the penthouse conference room and told to cut up the conference table and throw it in the dumpster. The table was custom made with exotic woods from Brazil and his boss told him afterwords the table cost $70,000 and was only 4 years old. It was no match for the circular saw.

:

 

[ScottsGT]

If you live near a university, take a drive through a few alleys near campus in May when the students move back home.

Combine spoiled brats with limited space, and it's absolutely astonishing what you can find. A wide selection of home goods -- so many microwaves, vacuums, etc. that you can be picky. Lots and lots of furniture, of course -- avoid anything absorbent. Computers and electronics galore. Tons of stereo equipment. You used to find records and CDs -- not so much nowadays. Liquor, barware, bar stools, etc. Sporting goods.

Once, a friend found a nice electric guitar and amp -- guess Junior didn't want Mama to know he was all mixed up in devil music.

I work at a University. This man speaks the truth! Outside the dorms, the concrete blocks stack so high, our Facilities department finally started picking them up for campus projects.
On my drive home through the rental neighborhoods the couches, recliners and end tables are all over the place. Even bicycles can be had. Many are left on the curb at the last minute since they didn't sell on C/L or won't fit in the car. On campus alone, hundreds of bikes are left chained up to bike racks. We have a group here that rounds them up, tunes them up and resells them for basically the cost of any parts needed +$10. Co-worker bought a $400 mountain bike for $35 to only have it stolen two weeks later by a homeless guy. He caught the guy riding it a month later and took it back from him.

 

[1990 Grand Wag]

You deserve a "YOU ****" for that haul!

 

[bonneyman]

Crying shame what people throw away.

 

[nadogail]

What they are throwing away, in large part, was bought with OPM.

OPM is other people's money.

 

[Ign]

I'll often just give excess or unneeded tools to needy friends. It's hardly worth my time to list on CL and deal w the mouth breathers.

I don't have a problem w a business scrapping stuff, at least it'll be recycled and they get a few bucks out of it. I also think it's great when they allow employees to take it.

But yeah, after the poor guy who got sued for a $40 CL printer, I'd just soon add to the net weight of my scrap runs, at least for metal stuff. I just recycled some T12 flo's rather than try to sell. Pull out the ballasts as they pay a bit better than standard tin - provided they say no PCB's