Why can't wrenches be recycled?

[Blacknwhitepit]

As I look at many old wrenches I have that still work properly; I wonder why the government sells off so many wrenches at auction.

I recently bought a lot of wrenches from a government auction and their only crime was that they were rusty, old and ugly. They work within tolerance and can still be used (for certain applications)

If properly done, they could be bought for pennies on the dollar, checked, stripped and rechromed for service.

Has anyone ever set up a business to do this?

I know about chrome expenses and cautions, but if the business volume were good enough, the environment could be protected, manufacturing energy to produce tools to do the same job would be decreased. I'm sure that they would have to be tested to ANSI standards, but that could be worked out.

Your input?

-BWP

 

[Kevin54]

Look up in wikipedia or some other reference site for "5S" and you'll see why stuff gets tossed. I don't know how many thousands of dollars our shop alone has tossed in the last few years because of it. from sockets to height gages, mics to machinery. Shops all over do it anymore. And what's bad is that they will toss it instead of letting anyone have it. I walked out past a roll off one day and there were probably 10-15 fire cabinets tossed away that were in perfectly good shape.

 

[spencerian]

I wonder why the government sells off so many wrenches at auction.

I recently bought a lot of wrenches from a government auction....

Your input?

-BWP

What government auction? (You can PM me if ya want to keep it low pro).

The governement TOSSES, SELLS, and DESTROYS stuff because they get money for it. What I mean is they have to USE the budget amount or they will LOSE that amount. Noone in the gov wants cutbacks!

 

[Merkava_4]

If properly done, they could be bought for pennies on the dollar, checked, stripped and rechromed for service.

I was thinking recycled meant melted down is mass quantities and then new wrenches made; not sure if that would qualify as new though. I'm thinking your description more accurately meets the definition of being refurbished.

 

[Danglerb]

Reallocation of assets within the government is messy, add in contractors and there are weird legal issues sometimes in the contracts. I used to visit a few GSA auction sites, but prices can get a bit high with many of the bidders using "funny money" vouchers and me using real money.

Sometimes things sell cheap, and sometimes its junk.

 

[eschoendorff]

What government auction? (You can PM me if ya want to keep it low pro).

The governement TOSSES, SELLS, and DESTROYS stuff because they get money for it. What I mean is they have to USE the budget amount or they will LOSE that amount. Noone in the gov wants cutbacks!

That is SO true. It even happens to me at school. You do not get rewarded for being frugal... if you do not use your budget, it gets absorbed back into the general account and then your budget for the following year is non-existant.

This *****. But it is true... all part of the politics of public work.

I would LOVE nothing more than to teach at a school where quality teaching and content are more important than political ***-kissing.

 

[rsanter]

big buisness is very wastefull. goverment is even more wastefull

the people that are making the decisions are not paying the tab

bob

 

[84TurboBuick]

I have a perfect story for this thread that tell the story about gov't waste perfectly.


When I was stationed at Ft. Drum, the base had just gotten a huge makeover to the tune of $2 Billion.

The motor pools were all brand new and had a budget allotment for tools, lifts, boxes.....etc. Our motor Sgt. wanted to go to the local Sears store and order everything they needed so that they could save money and use the rest on things he new that most shops didn't have. The total was somewhere around $250K for what he wanted. (This was '91 so things were a bit cheaper then). After getting the store to agree to order everything, he went to the get the ok from our CO....guess what?.....NOPE!!!!!

Come to find out that Snap-On was the to be the exclusive supplier for all the motor pools tool needs. In the end, Snap-On made around $3 MILLION and the motor pool got around a 12th of what they could have gotten from shopping around a little.

A little cavet to this story......6 months later all those brand new Snap-On tools were now sitting in the homes of the mechanics. This is due to the fact that the gov't only keeps track of the number of tools, not the brand name. That $200.00 set of Snap-On wrenches was now a $29.99 set of Craftsman raised panels.


You gotta love how our tax dollars are used!

 

[Benchloader]

Lots of military equipment including tools get "turned in" for many reasons. Some as simple changes in authorizations for type or quantity. Turned in several #1 Common Mechanic Tool Sets that couldn't be used on the newer type of vehicles, haven't seen an M151A3 in years.

Tools usually go to the DMRO, old PDO, and are accounted for by weight! Its suppsed to generate money to be put back into the military budget. Units can get credit too for drawing property from DRMO, Refrigerators to store batteries for example, or other items for training aids.

Going to a DMRO auction/sale can be interesting, items are sold by "lot" which may be a small pallet or box to a truck load of items. Most military installations have a DRMO. Always seem to be military surplus and junk dealers with trucks, trailers, & u-hauls at most of the sales.

 

[trackwelder]

Most of the time it is the liability reason for not allowing the employees to take unwanted company property. My company has a large railcar repair center that has numerous bays to repair cars. Each track had a color to identify it. The tools had been painted to ease cleanup at the end of each shift. Track one might be red, track two blue ,etc. A new boss came to the shop and did not like this setup. He ordered all new tools and when they came in he had several rolloffs dropped and junked all the tools,boxes, welders, rollcarts, etc. Nobody was allowed to take anything, and he personally waited there to watch the rolloffs picked up and taken off the property. These were high quality items like snapon,williams,miller and many others.

 

[kythri]

I have a perfect story for this thread that tell the story about gov't waste perfectly.


When I was stationed at Ft. Drum, the base had just gotten a huge makeover to the tune of $2 Billion.

The motor pools were all brand new and had a budget allotment for tools, lifts, boxes.....etc. Our motor Sgt. wanted to go to the local Sears store and order everything they needed so that they could save money and use the rest on things he new that most shops didn't have. The total was somewhere around $250K for what he wanted. (This was '91 so things were a bit cheaper then). After getting the store to agree to order everything, he went to the get the ok from our CO....guess what?.....NOPE!!!!!

Come to find out that Snap-On was the to be the exclusive supplier for all the motor pools tool needs. In the end, Snap-On made around $3 MILLION and the motor pool got around a 12th of what they could have gotten from shopping around a little.

A little cavet to this story......6 months later all those brand new Snap-On tools were now sitting in the homes of the mechanics. This is due to the fact that the gov't only keeps track of the number of tools, not the brand name. That $200.00 set of Snap-On wrenches was now a $29.99 set of Craftsman raised panels.


You gotta love how our tax dollars are used!

Hope those guys don't try to warranty that Snap-On stuff...

My dad was telling me that the Snap-On gear he used in Viet Nam was all either serialized, or had NSN-style numbers on it, and it was readily identifiable as government property.

He knew of a couple of guys who got slapped for purloined tools, caught because they tried to warranty stuff, and the dealer called someone (local base MP or whatever...).