Folks Of Interest What's the coolest thing you have found dumpster diving?

Back in the 80's my Dad saw someone's street bike in a dumpster. I can't remember the make or exact year, but they pitched the whole thing in. No, he didn't take it and I had no means to go get it.

 

Found a 1900 vintage school clock in the garbage about 25 years ago, almost walked by it because it was painted white and looked like a plastic repro. Luckily I stopped and picked it up. Stripped and refinished the case, and had an old time clockmaker friend overhaul the works. It is still hanging on my wall, still keeps good time. Worth about $800.

 

My dad found a set of new but a little rusty Pont. headers by a trash can after a swap meet.

 

Only cool thing I found was a West Coast Choppers bicycle that was in decent condition minus the handle bars being made out of a 6" 2×4 and a cut wooden broom handle screwed to it... I cleaned it up and I use almost everyday to get to work. However, my best friend found a box of ****, and at 14 y/o that was the greatest find ever!

 

Son in law found a 2 deuce intake for my flathead complete. I restored it and was getting ready to install and ended up swapping it for a 3 deuce with a fellow hamber

 

I rescued an engine stand out of the dumpster at work , and a couple cool old table lamps ,

 

I picked up a two wheeled dolly beside a Goodwill box one day. Somebody had left it because it needed new tires, a trip to Tractor Supply got me two new tires for a few bucks, use it all the time now. At the trucking company's shop that I am leased to, they are always throwing out stuff. Have gotten a lot of steel and aluminum s**** pieces that they threw away, great when you need a short piece for a bracket or something. Have picked up lights they threw out, put two or three together and ended up with good ones for trailers. Even picked up a truck air dryer, going to figure out a way to hook it up to my air compressor.

 

I worked for the county before I retired. I used to dumpster dive all the time. Got a 6" Wilton vise with a floor stand, a 42 inch slip roll, a radial arm saw, 2 milk boxes full of end wrenches and sockets, all American made, Channelocks, Visegrips a brand new dental office air compressor, a large bin box of new, in the packages drill bits, all sorts of good, useable steel. There was so much more that I p***ed on. One day, they threw away the contents of the millwright shop. All of the machines were broken up first. Several lathes, Bridgeport and Hardinge mills, a surface grinder, etc. I salvaged a lot of tooling and cutters. Another time, they tossed the contents of the landscaping shop. Mowers, weed whackers, trimmers, you name it, in the trash
Just a small example of your tax dollars at work

 

Yeah, its disgusting. Imagine how much is thrown out if you include every government agency in the country.

 

^Bingo^

A few years back the state agency that I work for was on a tear to "clean sweep" the maintenance areas. The cubic ****loads of stuff that got thrown into the dumpster was staggaring. In a couple nights of dumpster diving I wrangled a****st other things: tools (mostly snap-on), oil cans and oil dispensers dating back to the '40s and a huge 5000lb Walker mechanical jack from the '30s or '40s.

 

Cubic ****loads, is a new one I like it!

 

"{

"

Way I figure, you're either a liar or a thief. Bragging about something like that makes you an idiot, in any event, IMO.

 

Not a great pic but you can tell what it is. Found it in a dumpster in Green Bay Wi back in '92. Guy said I could have it. Lid off a '34 five wndw.

 

Maybe ten years ago I looked down into the dumpster at the town dump were all the metal went at that time. You just backed up your truck and dumped your s**** into it, right on top was a Triumph Bonneville motorcycle! I asked the dump guy if he would put a chain on it and pull it up with the backhoe. He said I was 15 minutes late as the bike had just been rolled over the edge. It never left the inside of my van untill the next week at Hershey, quick $500. Bob

 

40 Ford Deluxe grill when I was in high school.

Unfortunately, my mother threw that "junk", along with my Autolite 4100 carb, 55 Chevy hood bird, and a huge box on car models out when I got married.

Last year I found a late 30's Ford tubular (60hp) front end ***embly in a local community s**** metal dumpster. Went home to get the truck and the rolloff beat me to the dumpster. Day late and a dollar short.

 

While s****ping cars when I was a kid I saw a "W" head Chevy with dented up chrome valve covers sitting in the engine pile. Asked the dude at the scale about it on the way out and he agreed to let me have it for equal weight of grade A. Sped home and loaded up two junk Ford straight sixes and it was mine. Turned out to be a 409. Yeah I know, it didn't happen without pictures but this was 40 years ago. Didn't matter anyway since it got scarfed up by a buddy after I joined the Navy.

 

When I worked at Niagara Machine and Tool Works in Buffalo,the bigshots had all the departments clean out all old inventory and throw in the dumpsters.One of my fellow workers and I would go for a look at lunch time.Used to drive my foreman nuts always asking for a s**** p***. New in the package bead roller dies,bench stakes,a rockwell testing machine,boxes and boxes of bolts with safety wire holes in them.I still use the stuff today. The biggest score was a deal I had worked out with the small machine sales guy upstairs for all the cutoffs from the pressbrake dies.Paid them double s**** price.I figure about 800 pieces.The funds from that deal have been growing with Vanguard for about 20 years now.Almost got that guy in sales fired but it all was legit.
Like the saying goes, One mans junk is another mans treasure.Aint that the truth.

 

Gotta love the stuff you find on paper routes. I ran routes for almost 10 years, mostly while managing my own district. Found some cool stuff. Found a small Fender guitar amp, like new, sitting on the curb. Now resides in the garage, and I play my ipod through it. Found an old Snap-On top tool box. Almost missed it, because it was stacked on the curb with a bunch of metal picnic coolers. Sold that one. Lots of street signs. After delivering papers, we would take the newspaper van around and hit garage sales on the weekends. Not car related, but found an OLD wooden blanket chest while walking the dog. I lived on the outskirts of a ******** Jewish neighborhood, and this chest had paper shipping labels inside written in German. Very cool. Still have it.

 

P-51 conecting rods and other parts, my neighbors original 1905 toilet, the first toilet in our town, now a planter. lot of donuts but no coffee.

 

Not IN the dumpster but leaning against it I found the little Honda 50 trail bike in this old photo.

 

Many decades ago I heard on my police scanner the local gas station had been robbed so I went down to do some sidewalk supervising. As the police were taking the report I kept hearing this metallic sound every time cars drove by. It turns out the bad guys grabbed the removable money slots from the register and flung the loose change onto the blvd. and took off with the paper bills still in their slots. The police never would have found the change if I didn't point this out to them. They blocked off the street and picked up a large amount of change. I didn't get a penny of it. Oh well, I could have grown up to be a police man, but I didn't. HA!

 

Back 1989, I work for a Top 100 Weapons Defense Contractor. They had just Dis***emble a Avionics Testing Chambers Building, Which was 50Ft by 40Ft, 16Ft. High Structural Steel. The Columns were Heavy Wall Thickness Square Tubing
With 16 inch Plate Steel as to Bolt it
Together.heavy Steel 16 inch I-Beams, 2Ft Cross I-beams, 4-inch
Angle Steel Cross Bracing, & they had 250 8Ft By 4Ft Composite Plywood, with a Thin Sheet of Copper Glued on to both Outside, then they Glued a Galvanized Sheet Metal Panel 8Ft X 4Ft, outside of that. They held A Write in Bid Auction. They had to Dis***emble the Building, haul it in a Gongdola 20
Miles to a Enclosed Yard. My Bid of
$1,501.00 Won the Bid. The Structural Steel, alone was $60,000.
Boy, was I Very Lucky, but I had a lot
Of my Co-Workers Very Jealous & Very Mad at Me! Regards Oh Well! Don't Worry, I've also, had A Lot of Missed Deals! but, That's for another Topic! BigDTexasKid.



Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

While renovating a building nearby I kept an eye on the "spoils" as they filled up the doumpster. When they got to the ceiling, they threw all the aluminium bracing for the suspended ceiling on top, so I backed up my van and filled it up inside, and had about 100lbs on the roof rack (along with about 20 new in boxes flourescent light fittings).
Straight down to the s**** dealer. I love junk, especially when I can buy car bits with the proceeds.

 

This is an interesting thread.
JonSSS you are as much a criminal as the guys who were face down on the street.
That money was not theirs, and it was not yours either, and you are as much a thief as they are.
The right thing to do would have been to return the money to the police so that it would go back to the rightful owner however you show a lack of character that is the same as the lowlifes who stole the money in the first place.
Congratulations on making yourself look bad.

On top of it all I will second the notion that I- we believe that you are also a liar and that your story is likely ******** that never actually happened.
In both scenarios, you are a loser.

I loved dumpster diving when I was a kid, found lots of good stuff.
They have ruined it to some degree now, as a lot of the dumpsters are locked and you can actually be charged with theft for dumpster diving

 

I pulled an almost mint '64 Mustang hood out of the dumpster of the Fort Belvoir Auto Hobby Shop.
Flipped it on Craigslist.

 

Any more cool stuff?

 

Last year of my friends went to see his old co workers , went dumpster diving & came home with two rounded over pick up bed loads of vintage late 50s early 60s parking meters, & new replacement parts! He gave me a nice one with a base & some were new never issued! Needless to say he came out pretty good at a swap meet we went to last year! Flux

 

Found a 1931 Chevy spare tire carrier once. Also a chrome mid 60's pair of Chevy valve covers. Still have them both.

 

The school I was attending in SF wanted an extra loading spot and didn't want to deal with the city so they tore the parking meter out, tossed it in the dumpster and painted the curb. I was out for a smoke and saw it. I liberated two trash bags from the janitor's cart to disguise it and carried that heavy mother across the city on the bus. I still have it and it is still full of change.

I've turned a 1 ton pneumatic chain hoist and a 1 ton carriage from separate dumpsters. Someone needs to throw away a gantry or at least an I beam.

 

I dug out a 1949 Ford Flathead engine out of a big metal/s**** dumpster several years ago all by myself....used my grandfathers handyman jack and lots of 2x4's and chains as support....trying NOT to drop the whole thing on me! (One of my dumber moments, but I was seeing 'treasure')...it was still connected to the front part of a frame, and it had everything on it still....I think back now and shudder on trying to get it into the back of my pickup truck all by myself...ended up sliding it down a 4x4 makeshift ramp with a thud....with a handyman jack it took all day....Not sure why they threw it away, but I cleaned it up later, and rebuilt it, and ran in in my car for months till I sold the car....geez, I'm lucky I survived that one!!!