eseemann Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 Good Morning All, I have been looking at people doing Harbor Freight challenges like how many free LED lights that look like light switches they can get in a month and one guy posted a photo with a box full of "free with any purchase" items including tape measures. I figure that HF tape measures would be the cheapest steel you can get and still be spring steel but they would still be some kind of spring steel. I wondered if anyone has sanded or sand blasted a HF tape measure tape and added it to a pattern weld just for the heck of it. I know you would need a bunch of them since the tape is very thin but I thought I would see if anyone has done this in the past. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 Harbor Freight limits one free gift per customer per day, with a purchase. You need to include your mileage and time so that free gift can get expensive if that is all you are after. I put my free LED light switch in the glove box of the wife's car, just in case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eseemann Posted March 8, 2018 Author Share Posted March 8, 2018 The problem is I drive past one every day! Must get more lights!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 May want to watch (pun intended) for old clock springs. If you have a source for valve springs from engines, they could be uncoiled, flattened, and used. Rewind springs in pull start engines (think lawn mowers) might work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 The amount of work that would go into cleaning everything off the steel tape probably would more than offset the savings in material cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 Free is not always the best way to go for materials.... We have plastic baskets at work that the delivery guys put the loaves of bread on. I recently found out that the internal braces are railroad approved strapping (AAR 33) - higher carbon strapping. They get hard enough that they snap when you try to bend. If you have a place that gets deliveries by rail they may have piles of strapping for free. We had a company back home that recycled the strapping due to it being the high tensile type, and they literally got tons of it on items shipped to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will W. Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Well now i REALLY want to quench and break test a tape measure. I mean, who needs the first 4 inches of one anyways? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormcrow Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 57 minutes ago, Will W. said: Well now i REALLY want to quench and break test a tape measure. I mean, who needs the first 4 inches of one anyways? No, no: cut the last four inches off, so you can use the rest of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eseemann Posted March 14, 2018 Author Share Posted March 14, 2018 A guy I met at an SCA event knew a guy that serviced street sweepers and got his hands on a bunch of steel bristles. He used them for a demo of full hard vs full soft. The full hard snapped like glass and the full soft acted like normal wire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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