My friends get on my case about always looking through junk piles and metal dumpsters searching for treasures.
I find lots of great stuff, but today was a new one on me.

Looking through a metal dumpster for anything interesting, I noticed the corner of a vise!
After doing some uncovering, there were TWO in there. One Kurt, and one kurt knock-off.
Both in fine shape, just need cleaning and relubing.  And both with rotating bases too, what a deal.

No handles to be found, but for the price I'm not complaining.....  :)

I started DD when I was a kid, and am still at it.  I call anything I find "Obtainium".  Sort of fits.

i love dumpster diving as far as i can tell its better than fishing

and the kit is less expensive as well

the funny thing is i found a vice as well a month or so back not as spiffy as yours but it was a nice upgrade and only took some clean up and a little fire to free it up

Frog,

 

The end of a rainbow shines on your head..   What a guy..

 

Forge on and make beautiful things

Holy XXXX! Nice score.....I've done pretty well at DD, but one time I was fishing some nice picture frames out of one and upset the prop holding up the metal lid which promptly smashed my hand between it and the bin rim..... :( ........The frames went on to the land fill, be careful.........

I have an incredible dumpster story for you.  A good friend of mine, recently deceased, Harry Forman, was one of the biggest coin dealers in the world.  Wanna know how he got his start?  His dad and he had a fruit and vegetable stand during the Depression near the Philadelphia Mint.  He saw them throwing away coining dies for pennies, quarters, etc. that were worn out, and he snatched them from the trash and sold them to a coin dealer for tens of thousands of dollars.   that was how he got his start!http://www.money.org/membership/awards/recognition-of-service-awards/awards-purposecriteria/harry-j-forman-dealer-of-the-year.aspx

 

That would never happen today.  Neat story.

Frog,

The end of a rainbow shines on your head.. What a guy..

I'd rather be lucky than good any day of the week... ;)

You know how awkward it is trying to pull a big Kurt vise with swivel base out of a dumpster by yourself?

Probably ruined a shirt in extracting both vises. You should feel bad for me. :)

I'd rather be lucky than good any day of the week... ;)

You know how awkward it is trying to pull a big Kurt vise with swivel base out of a dumpster by yourself?

Probably ruined a shirt in extracting both vises. You should feel bad for me. :)

 

I'll trade you a shirt for just one of the vises. :)

Anyone here ever heard of a Tosher?  It's relevant I assure you, with a nod to Sir Terry.  

Anyone here ever heard of a Tosher?  It's relevant I assure you, with a nod to Sir Terry.  

 

Oh, that one just stinks!

 

Frosty The Lucky.

2wks ago i found a real scull + lots of bones in a bin medical exibit,it did not come home with me would not like to try and explain that one away

I bet those where stolen by a worker who planed to come back and get them later...     Used Kurts bring $400, they dont end up in dumpsters

Used Kurts were $125-$200 at the auctions I went to in the Bay Area. Seen 10-25 on a table a few times. A friend got a big SIP dividing head that was headed for a dumpster. A friend scored a stereo microscope worth $1,200 that was headed for the dumpster of a hospital. Big companies do stupid things. I got 2 working refrigerated air dryers from where I work, they were getting tossed as they were excess. I brought thousands of dollars worth of gear home during our move.

A D series with a swivel base sells for over a grand new...  If you could have bought them for $100-$200 you cold have made a mint reselling them.     Just the swivel base will bring $200 alone   Cheapest one on eBay is $425, most are $599

During WW2, there were guys called "pearl divers" whose job it was to comb through the landfills looking for bits and bobs that were thrown away during prosperous times, but now were very much in demand.  They found gold and silver, iron and aluminum, manufactured parts and tools, you name it.

 

Stories like this, BF, make me want to get back into some dumpsters.  Sadly, the only thing I usually find is day-old tamales!  If I ever get back to work, I'm hoping it's for a stupid company that likes to throw away a lot of goodies.  

Cleaning up nicely though... Completely filthy and filled with swarf and crap.
Lots of de-greaser and cleaner and wire brushing so far:

So how much are you going to be asking for them at Quad State next year?

 

I got my Fisher vise setup yesterday and used it today.  It is certainly a step up from the 4" post vise I had installed in that location.

Greetings Wayne/Frog,

 

Frog only has 360 days left until the next SOFA..    With his luck he is going to need a much bigger truck...   Of course he will not have much success without his prime negotiator.   LOL

 

Forge on and make beautiful things

Larry, when I was in CA and going to auctions, my average was 10¢ on the dollar for new. Tesa test indicators were $20, a full set of 0-12" Mitutoyo micrometers was $125. When they auctioned off Mare Island Naval shipyard they were selling Vidmar cabinets full of mics for $375. There was no shortage of machine shop equipment around there. I walked past 6 shops to get to one that was being sold off in San Jose, where the machine shop listings looked like residential listings-there were so many. A friend who is a used machinery dealer hauled off 800,000# of machine tools to the scrap yard because it was sitting too long. Then eBay came along and a lot of the prices started to climb due to everyone "going to get rich". I still find deals though, and some deals find me, I was recently given a vertical mill and several other machines.