3040 replies to this topic

[Glenn]

Show us what followed you home, and from where. Show us the steel, tools, equiptment etc, that followed YOU home.

Also where it was found, such as the junk yard, street corner, alley way, flea market etc.

And maybe a few details to give the rest of us non-scroungers a little help on how the process works. :?

[bruce wilcock]

been away for a week and still to catch up ,on the posts

well as to following home i went to a yard and saw a big fly press oa its side with weeds growing through it ,so i got out my rule and gave it once over ,there was no one around so i found a bar and stood it up ,i had a horse to shoe so i went to shoe the horse thinking to grab it later .Got the shoes on the nag,went back and the press had gone// well nothing for it but go home ,all the time wishing i hadnt stood it up ,for the world to see .back at the smithy stood infront of the door ,the fliy press, i had to move it to get in.

a day or so later a man that worked at the yard told me the boss saw me ,and told them to take it my budding smithy ,to stop me from pinching it ,and if i had he wouldnt let me in the yard again , he never charged me for it and never spoke about it, until i mentiond it and he told me he thought i was going to take it the way i was looking around, and didnt want me to get into ,bad habits,

[T-Gold]

LOL, Bruce! That's pretty cool. :)

Hmm... I don't have pictures, but a floor washer chassis followed me home recently, with motors and miscellany still attached... heavy sucker, too. Let's see... axle, shocks, rims, and disc weights from the local Goodyear's dumpster. Loads of stuff from UH including scrap steel, kiln shelving, Duraboard, and other goodies. One time 13 computers followed me home from school. That was fun. (No, I didn't steal them... they were being thrown away) Hmm. A lot of other stuff, for sure -- mostly from dumpsters, but other places too.

[the other dave]

A fair amount of things seem to find their way into my pickup bed when I am driving around. It seems that a Sunday afternoon and early evening ride around the neighborhood is always a good time for doing some reclaimation. Lets see, iron bed frames are always volunteering to become light weight angle iron for stands and brackets. And then those empty metal buckets from the dumpster at work become coal shuttles and small quench tanks at demos. Then there was the new style disk brake drum which transformed itself after I found it next to a trach can into the forge pot for my coal forge. A home weightlifting gym provided square tubing for my anvil stand. And a few blowers from evaporator coils on home air conditioners provide circulating air in the shop in last summer, though only the smaller ones are 120 volts.

[HWooldridge]

I have been fortunate enough to have been given several items over the years - sometimes because it was just 'right place and right time' and sometimes in exchange for work instead of cash. Several years ago, I got a 500 gal propane tank when the company I worked for switched to electric forklifts, then they gave me a 3 ton gantry crane with hoist because it was too tall for one of the areas in the plant. Later, they gave away a couple of MIG's and a bunch of pipe fittings. Another company I worked for sold me two Bridgeport mills for $300 because they were extras and in the way. I sold one for $600 and kept the other. Although it has no digital readouts, it's in almost new condition despite being made in the '60's.

On another occasion, I helped a fellow do some work on a large power hammer and he gave me some sheet metal working tools (a Beverly shear and a Niagara slip roll). Another fellow sold me a MIG with a bad contactor for $100 - I replaced the contactor for $40 and still have the welder. I haven't always done this well but it usually works out to a favorable conclusion... :wink:

[Glenn]

Went to the junk yard today to finally get rid of some small drops and short pieces of little use. Fellow pulled up beside me in a pickup with the rims almost touching the ground. He had cleaned out a garage and everything in the truck was rust perferated or rust. Nothing worth even a second look.

At the bottom of his load he put a couple of pick axe heads and a maddock head off to the side, but threw a pry bar into the junk pile. It was one of the straight ones, with the bottom 1/3 square, the center thrid hex, and the top third round. The working end had a single bevel. I said he may want to keep that bar. He said no one uses them any more, you can't sell them, it's junk.

Usually these are about 1" square stock and about 4-5 feet long. But this thing was 2 inches by 2 inches square, a full 6 feet long, and weighed most of 50 pounds.

I ask the weighmaster what he wanted for the bar, and he said to put it on my truck before I weighed out. I owe the weighmaster a favor now, got the bar in exchange for small unusuable pits of stock - weight for weight.

[JimG]

Five feet of 12inch chimney flue.

[Bwilloughby]

heh, Halloween 2003, this was out in my front yard. (Kinda followed me home)her name is Spooky


Just a few weeks ago this one followed me home, the junk man said "the boss is not here, Throw them in your truck an git" :D
The tank is about 40" long and 16" diameter. I've started making the forge out of this, I'm gonna cut maybe 18" off and seal up an end and make the other the door.

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Edited by mod07, 23 June 2009 - 08:03 AM.

[Leah]

Bwilloughby,

What was in the tank? Have you cut into it yet? I am not trying to mind your business, but please be SURE you know what was in the tank before you start to cut into it. You sound like a neat person and I would hate for you to go boom :) .

What kind of critter is Spooky? She sure is cute.

[Bwilloughby]

Thanks for the concern, I had thought of that as well.

Dunno what was in the tank, I have already cut the top off with a cut off wheel. from the looks of the inside the valve part has been gone since moses parted the red sea. :P

Spooky is a Red eyed white Ferret, shes about 3.5-4 years old, I think someone got her and didn't realize what a hand full they are and couldn't take it so they let her go.

[primtechsmith]

A local guy was trying to rid his barn of some clutter. And I heard exactly what he thought was "clutter": A 3ft. section of rail road track with a horn on on one end, and a crude pritchel hole on the other, 6 pairs of old loose rusted tongs, and a 1.27lb straight pein hammer head. And a bowie knife he started and never finished....

My brother In Law and good friend (also fellow blacksmith) puts it perfect "If it's free, it's for me!"

peyton

[meco3hp]

Hello,
This is what I had followed me home this week. I had this given to me by a buddy's son. My buddy passed away about a year and a half ago. This guy was a handy man deluxe! If you went to the lumber yard and they didn't have a fitting you needed right now, they'd send you to this guy, more than likely he'd have it. He could fix anything and had a fantastic collection of parts and such from his days of installing and uninstalled big power plant engines. He has a whole shop full of stuff that he'd gathered up over the years. A 36" or 48" foot shear, a 12' brake, and about 5 or 6 of these beaders. Most are Pexto but this one is differnt from the rest. I asked the son about one of them and he said if you want it, "we can just throw it on your truck right now, I'm tired of tripping over it"! Somehow it'd got tossed outside into the middle of a "path" and the son isn't much into keeping things picked up. It's stuck and I'll have to take it apart and go though it, but for free, hey, you can't beat it. Plus I like working on this kind of stuff. Also it was from one of my best friends, so that adds a lot to it! The only dies are the ones that are on it right now. It is a Niagra.

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[Glenn]

They must grow some big oaks in Ky. This "Acorn" Platten was just laying there on the side of the road. The fellow said he would like it to find a "good home" where it could be used. He even loaded it onto the truck !!

The truck's 350 v-8 had no problem pulling, but the trucks brakes were lacking in preformance. :wink:
I will try to get it measured and weighed tomorrow, and then formulate some idea of how to unload it - safely. In case you noticed, that IS a full size pallet under the thing.

2100 pounds. Now to find Whitesmith so he can lift his side, scoot it off the truck, and we can carry it to where it wants to live.

Attached Files

•  acorn.jpg   61.59K   244 downloads

[Ed Thomas]

Glenn: what an AWESOME score. An excellent addition to the shop!

[HWooldridge]

I'm green with "acorn envy"...bet it weighs close to 1000 lbs. Good find!

[ThomasPowers]

Basic rules:

*ASK* if you are nice you can often get stuff with no hassles

*CHECK* those dumpsters/trash piles might just have something good this time

*TAKE* never expect something to be there when you come back (basic tools & gloves & a tarp for dirty stuff in the vehicle at all times)

*EXPLORE* rivers in old industrial parts of town can be a steel mine...be safe though!

*TALK* that old geezer who wants to talk your ear off---well it turns out he worked for an anvil manufacturer and tells of there being a row of anvils alongside the river bank when they closed the plant down (true tale!). A fellow selling oily car parts howdy'd me at a fleamarket. I didn't need car parts but it turns out his uncle wanted to sell an anvil---515# Fisher in mint condition for $350

*THINK* what businesses might have good stuff or come across good stuff---that knife made from a RR spike might be paid for in anvils when you make it for a scrap/junk dealer

*NEATNESS* leave the area nicer than when you arrive encourages businesses to call you to haul off good stuff to "neaten up"

*SAFETY* gloves, boots even a hard hat comes in handy to let the owners not worry about you hurting yourself and sueing them...watch out for cars when you stop alongside the road for roadkill iron.

and lastly *CONSTANT VIGILANCE* I once ended up getting a 125# Peter Wright anvil and a 6" post vise cause I noticed the vise leaning against a barn while doing a test drive on a car we were buying... I always ask folks with "barn junk" at the fleamarket about the heavy stuff they didn't bring...I spotted a keg down in the ditch near a RR crossing on the way to a smithing meeting---2/3 full of new HC spikes they were not willing to haul it back up the hill when they cleaned up after redoing the crossing---we were. Coming back from a Dr's visit the summer I had pneumonia I got my wife to stop the car and let me pick up the sledgehammer alongside the road---took me 1/2 and hour to catch my breath.

Thomas

[HWooldridge]

Thomas,

That is one of the best list of rules I have ever seen - it should be preserved for posterity in a blueprint or something similar. I would also add "TRADE" because you can often score something really fine for something you didn't need. I once traded a plain .22 S&W pistol for a 250# Fisher and a 180# Mousehole in great shape - we were both happy.

I'll also tell about one that got away. I went to a junkyard one day and found the largest Edwards shear I have ever seen - probably would have sheared 1x8 flat and had a 1" punch setup. The ONLY problem was a set of broken blades. Instead of going to the front desk and putting my name on it, I went home and thought about where to put it, how to haul it, etc. This was Saturday morning so I figured Monday was safe but the yard already had it on a truck to the local mini-mill so it was really gone - melted down!

[sandpile]

THOMAS P. You forgot about the doughnuts and a six-pack at the scrapeyards.BOG.

Chuck

[Strine]

What a fantastic tool holder for all your 1 inch bottom anvil tools. All you need now is four train bogey axles for the legs.

[Glenn]

That Acorn Platten weighed in at 2100 pounds. Now to find Whitesmith so he can lift his side, scoot it off the truck, and we can carry it to where it wants to live. :lol: