...it's definitely a sickness; but one of those small things in life that make you feel good. After I find some cool useful "junk" I always feel great; it's better than Xmas cuz Xmas only comes once a year. Hardly a week goes by that I don't haul some junk home. "Free" is the magic word!!
I found lots of good hunks of steel alongside railroad tracks and along roads in industrial areas. My wife was mad at me once when we went for a long walk and I dragged home a heavy mudflap from a Peterbuilt truck. It was in the gutter and I couldn't just leave it there. It's heavy nylon cord reinforced rubber, about 1/2" thick, and I've cut it up and used it for all kinds of things on different projects. One of my favorite scores was when I brought home about 35 five-foot long heavy duty coat hanger poles from an old school they tore down. About half of them were 1-3/8 x .135" wall, and the rest were 1" x 1/8" wall. The two sizes telescope into each other nicely. I use them for all kinds of stuff.
Hell, 20 years ago a guy down the street threw out a 28-29 Model A hood on junk day... and I use all the time an old shopping cart with the basket cut off to haul things around, take it with me to indoor swaps to haul my stuff to the tables with. They already put a piece of wood on the bottom of it. I forget what store it was from, Coles or something, but they were out of business I think before I was born...
Ok I can not believe that NO ONE from TEXAS has chimed in on this. I pick s**** up all the time, and I am not affraid to admit it. I pick things up, and strip the junk off it, and haul the rest to the s****per. My wife says I've gotten enough **** laying around, but I am fixing to clean the small rafters out in my garage, and I will have more room to store the s**** I pick up. Some one mentioned having two piles earlier, I have at least 3, 2 here at home and 1 at my moms house. I find my self going nuts as well, looking for that peice I saw laying somewhere and just can't remember where. Anyhow I am glad I am not the only one, oh yeah, we just picked up nice lil 18 foot car hauler so I can haul bigger **** home now.... its 16' with 2 foot dove tail, 5 foot ramps, brakes, bull dog hitch, nice 6 ply trailer tires, 7000 lbs jack on the front end.
Guilty as charged. My garage is unpenetrable due to scrouging stuff like building materials and s**** iron shapes and bracketry. Somewhere in there is a fresh-build 59A V8, a fresh 250 Chevy six with 3 carbs, a couple automatic transmissions, several rearends, several early Ford front ends, a 34 Dodge smiley tube axle with spindles and brakes, my Old Roadster dismantled, another roadster frame and parts galore, a set of 50s Chrysler wires with the small bolt pattern, a set of NOS chrome reverse wheels, a 12-speed drill press, a Dake arbor press, various tools and toolboxes, a Lincoln 225, a little wire-feed welder, air compressor, drive-in movie speakers, some old floor lamps to be restored, a couple desk lamps to be restored, an under-seat car heater, a 1930s cash register from a DeSoto-Plymouth dealer in Colorado, rings up to $999.99, a mid-30s Willys gas tank, a late 20s Buick(?) open car windshield ***embly, and all manner of odds and ends. OH, when I die, the junkman is going to have stories to tell his kids.
Nope. It isn't just you. I just started welding, and I already have a sizeable pile of stuff. My wife is so proud... Slonaker
I'm so good at scrounging metal and other parts, that my buddies place orders with me. It might take some time, but I usually come real close to getting what we need. My wife is pretty tollerant of my scrounging ways. I agree that if you ask nicely, People are only to glad to help out. P.S. I'm glad that I live in town and space is limited so that I can't collect too much. Some people have no idea what metal is worth.
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! There's something special about things you just come across and don't cost you anything. Only thing better is finding a use for them. Frank
<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on" width="100%"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off">I have been in the secound hand business for the last 15 years, lottsa great car stuff, furniture, antiques, and ***orted junque has come off the curb and from dumpsters during that time. My buddy is building a rocket out of s**** for my store sign at Retro Rocket and just pulled a semi truck muffler stack with that cool vented chrome wrap on it out of a dumpster. Sololobo/Roadburners of Omaha </TD></TR><TR UNSELECTABLE="on" hb_tag="1"><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 1pt" height=1 UNSELECTABLE="on"> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
I'm guilty, too! My best source is the s**** dumpster at work. They've s****ped both powered and unpowered conveyor lines, as well as push-cart transfers that are used in the plants. I have built a 20' flat bed car trailer from what they've trashed, and have enough material now to build another. I've had to get selective with what I bring home, as the local codes would have me in jail for what I could scrounge. Always have access to 1.5"x3" channel in 10' lengths, 1' and 2' square tube in various chunks. It's almost unbelievable what those idiots will consider s**** that a person can salvage good raw stock out of. Roger
I work for a fence company and often roam the yard for trash metal that I can use. I've made vice stands, motor stands, taping stand, parts hangers and am in the process of a motor run station. Gotta love free steel.
I work for a large company with afab shop,a machine shop and a railway production facility.and they wont let me have nothing!!! My last Job I made every thing out of the s**** pile didnt even have to take it home,just did it at work.Made an engine stand,a work table,a stainless shifter, a couple of shifter Knobs& a few medieval weapons.
guys, it's not a sickness!!!!! HOT RODDERS ARE THE NORMAL ONES!!! We live in a throw-a-way society..."Madison ave. types" have the general pop. convinced to buy new, don't repair. Maybe that does help the economy? but sometimes I wonder. Growing up on our family farm everthing was repaired, straightend, welded up with "s****" I'm still running and rebuilding the old 8-N fords, 4 or 5 rebuilds, (dad is smiling down on me) And s****, It pisses me off when people dump their trash on our place (someone must have spread the word that our farm is a county refuse site) BUT I get some really good stuff....Bed frames(for floor board and seat brackets on the roadster) month ago found 4 really nice chev military wheels, only problem they had cast centers,, cleaned and painted those puppys up and hung em on the wall . This thread just reminds me of why I like this site so much. I'll shut up know
my wife calls me a junk *****, " whats that for?", when will you ever use this?, why do you bring this **** home? my reply ; I don't know yet, I can use it some day,for some thing. and "IT WAS FREE!!!.
i can only imagine.....[/quote] Hell yeah man I made a huge sword & 2 maces,one of which is more than a decoration.Also a large battle ax.
The nice thing about small town America, is that you know the guy who runs the county landfill. Hell, he will even keep an eye out for you for specific items. While I was in school, I worked part time at the county landfill, and I can tell you that it is absolutley amazing what people throw away. Man, the week after Christmas IS Christmas for the guys at the landfill.........
Bed frames make great battery boxes, I also have some old streamline strut material from aircraft. makes good headlight stands.
in his free time, my dad drives around looking for anything of interest, he's got deep pockets so he can pretty much get anything he wants, but for him, and me.. it's the thrill of the hunt.. anyways.. he finds sheet after sheet of ... well.. sheet metal lol, he has at least 5 32-34 ford truck cabs and car bodies in his back yard, i havnt seen him in a few months so im sure he has more by now.. he picks up anything he can, rearends, brake drums, hoods everything, he has almost filled one of those steel buildings you can buy and build a huge one. thousands and thousands of parts and quite a few bodies.
I brought home a 3' piece of steel sprinkler pipe. I'm saving it to use for notching frames. Cut it about 2 1/2" wide,then cut in half and you have a 2" notch for a frame. I'll use it someday...
Guilty as charged. I have long stuff stacked vertically and the short pieces in several 5 gal. buckets. Never buy angle iron. For about $3-4 you can get a double bedframe at a second hand/ thrift store and you get about 15 feet of steel. I usually keep 1 or 2 in stock. The boys at HD want $4 for a 2 ft. piece. I snagged a 3' x 3' x 1/2" plate with a machined surface at the recycling center. Got Sprinkler tubing(1 1/4" x 20' ) from a supermarket renovation. N B R
My old job was as a metal purchaser for a recycling center. I purchased (at s**** rate) tons of Aluminum/stainless and tubing. Several times a cl***ic would be dragged in to be crushed (actually this is a big part of why I quit that job) and I would salvage whatever I could before I had to crush it. Like the dash and trim from an old Pontiac Catalina. etc.... come to think of it sometimes I miss that job.
Ha, half the **** around my house was found in the street. Metal is the most valuable thing I find (I'll circle back for miles for copper). If I don't use it, I sell it for s****. If I can use it, I'll stop and pick it up. Wood is a good find here in El Paso (not too many trees around here except the ones in peoples yards). Last night we were sitting outside drinking beer all night with a nice fire courtesy of some guy who cut down a big tree and took the logs to the curb (nice of him to cut it up for me). One day my neighbor set a washer & dryer out on the curb with a sign that said "Works-free". I got my truck and took it to an auction house down the street and my take was $90. My car loading ramps are made out of a giant aluminum McDonalds sign that got felled in a tornado. They gave it to me and I kept the straight part for ramps (got $500 for the rest of it), my flat dolly says "Pepperidge Farms" on side and was found in the street. It's alot harder to score free **** here in ELP (mexicans are alot smarter about stuff like this) than it was back in NC but if you get there first it's yours.
The Jalopy Journal
