Rules of acquisition

[Glenn]

This was started by Garey Ford.



The following are Rules of acquisition of the Blacksmith:

1. if its metal & free get it now.
2. if you can get it in your truck take it home.
3. if 2' of steel cable is good to take home then 100' is even better
4. if you can hide it from the wife take it home.
5. if there is a remote posibility that someday you may use it take it home.
6. if its to big to move by yourself call some of your nonblacksmithing friends to help as they will not want some of it.
7. always check out the dumpsters.

[meco3hp]

8. if the railroad ain't picked it up after 10 years, they must not want it!
9. never pass up a tool, even if you have 2 of them already!

[ThomasPowers]

Sounds like the scrounging rules that have been posted many places many times.

A couple I hold by are:

*Never expect something to be there when you come back---get it NOW!" keep gloves and something to put dirty/oily stuff in the vehicle in on hand at all times.

If in doubt *ask*. It is amazing the stuff people will let you have and even tell you about better stuff they want removed but were not strong enough to haul it out of the basement or garage.---note this works best if you are neatly dressed and polite and look as if you will work in a safe matter.

A sixpack of a cold drink will work wonders on a hot Friday afternoon when they didn't want to get sweating picking up all that stuff they were just going to trash anyway.

Always leave a place *cleaner* than you found it. Even if you have to take extra time to do so. I was once given free rights to anything scrapped by a small ornamental iron shop because they had to pay to have their scrap bin hauled and not only did it decrease how often that happened by removal of material I always stacked the stuff left in a better pile so it would hold twice as much.

CONSTANT VIGILANCE! I picked up a 125# PW and a heavy post vise once cause I saw some "stuff" leaning against a collapsing barn while doing the test drive for a car we were buying---my wife refused to let me pick it up then; but I went back after we bought it and made a deal with the owner...

And my best scrounge: they were getting ready to tear down the 1915 college building that had been industrial arts and then was welding engineering and so were dumping "nice" stuff in a construction dumpster that I would check out regularly. One day a fellow saw me fishing stuff out and asked me what I was doing. I explained about being a smith, etc and he told me he was in charge of getting the building cleaned out. He could not give me the stuff as it was "state property". He could not sell me the stuff without posting it and tasking bids, etc; but he could *pay* me to haul it off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We agreed that I would help clean out the building getting paid in kind. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Thomas

[Archie Zietman]

as mad eye moody said, and Thomas just pointed out "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!!!!!"

[sandpile]

For the life of me, I can't understand a lot of the guys talkng about my wife will not let-I have to wait until the right time- She can't know about it. For the most part I think they are just putting out some Bull.GRIN

I have carried everything from a four-year old Billy goat to to a fifty lb Little Gaint home and never thought about asking anybody if it was alright. I know not to go the the girlie bars or break-wind in church. But for the most part I don't have to worry about what Mom is going to think about something.

If the price tags get a little high, I might hear, better let up for a little while.BOG.

Chuck

[Brian C.]

I am with you Chuck. As long as it doesnt bakrupt us & keeps me off the streets, Sweetie doesnt seem to care. A few years ago she came home from work and there I stood with my new Hay-Budden anvil that had just been delivered along with a pal of mine who had just sold me a riding mower & air compressor. All she ever said was "you got lot's of toys today didnt you?" :wink:

[Leah]

I used to be able to get a lot of good scrap for free at work. The only problem I ever had with hubby was that, every once in a while, he would kinda fuss about all the scrap metal I had in the corner of my shop. I get home before he does so I just started sticking it in a corner before he got home. As for spending, he buys what he wants and I buy what I want. As long as the bills get paid, everything is fine. Heck, I bought myself a new truck a couple of years ago and did not even tell him I was looking for one. I just drove up in the dirveway, blew the horn and told him to come see what I had. I did the same way when I ordered my shop. I told him about it after I had bought it. He did not fuss because half of it was going to be his. Sometimes, one of us will ask the other one what we spent on an item and the answer will be "You don't want to know"

[yesteryearforge]

more couples would be like that if the wife weilded a hammer as good as her husband :lol:

[Daryl]

..... yes honey, the Buick CAN double as a quasi-half-ton in a pinch.

[one_rod]

A while ago I blagged the remains of a small vertical miller from the local scrapyard.

I was struggling to unload the heavy base casting from the back of the van, when my wife bcame out to see what all he huffing and puffing was about.

"What is it?" she asked.

"A milling machine" I said.

"Milling machine?.......does that mean we can make our own flour now?"


Sometimes I am just not sure when she is taking the mickey.


one_rod.

[Rick Rowlands]

I'm in the process of buying stuff from a scrapper who is cleaning out a foundry. I am trying to get a large shotblast machine, mold squeezers, heat treat furnace and some smaller stuff. Friday I hauled out a pickup load of steel flasks, couple of days before that we got a trailerload of patterns, before that a trailerload of foundry supplies. There are eight 55 gallon drums of 7" and 8" grinding wheels which I am trying to buy. They are slightly used then thrown out. No wonder the place went belly up.

Probably spend a couple grand by the time its over and come out with lots and lots of goodies that I couldn't buy elsewhere.