Resource Center (scrap pile) and useful materials

[Glenn]

What did you pull from the resource center (scrap pile) for a project ?  Things that may have been there waiting for a opportunity to save you a trip into town or save a couple of dollars from leaving your wallet.  

Things like the wife pulled out of the resource center and ask you to drive into the ground as her plant stakes, which was actually your EMT conduit.  The piece of channel that you now use as a bridge when you make your BBQ fork tines.  The shackle bolt ( U bolt) for holding the leaf springs to the frame on a truck, that is now your favorite chisel.

We need ideas as to what to add (when we find it) to our resource center.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Some inch & a half wide by three eights thick three feet long flat stock. To make a 3 point hitch rear lift stabilizer bar for my Massey Ferguson tractor (saved $63.00 from buying new).

Some sucker rod and an end cut off piece to make an anvil hardy bottom tool and some chisel's. A piece of half inch angle iron to make a small feather for a trade item at our BOA meeting this month.

[Daswulf]

Nothing fancy but my hose reel concrete screw anchors were fully shot. (Plastic ones that came with it).

Dug around in my resource fastner bins and came up with all four lead alloy screw anchors, washers and screws to fit them. 

Saved me time, gas and money driving out to a hardware store and back. 

I also dragged out a heavy metal shelving unit that has been doing very little behind my shop and cleaned it off to put in the basement for more food storage. 

 

[Scott NC]

  Anything really.  As long as you can cut, bend, braze, weld, etc... you can fabricate/fix/save $ on just about anything.  The other day I made a temporary repair on a water line with some rubber hose and hose clamps.  I had to tear through all my boxed up stuff but it worked.  It depends on what you consider your resource pile.  I have organizers full of salvaged tiny nuts and bolts, sprangs, hose clamps, you name it.  It's all in buckets waiting for re-sorting.  I have boxes of odd rubber and plastic scraps, leather odds and ends, short lengths of wire.  I had to get rid of a lot of it for the move but I'm re-stocking every day.  It's nice to know it's all there for use.  Coffee cans full of bushings, small pieces of hardware clothe, piles of stone, brick and misc.....  Most all of it gleaned for free or low cost.  I don't throw much away, might need it some day......  Who needs Ace Hardware.  

[Malleus]

21 hours ago, Glenn said:

The shackle bolt ( U bolt) for holding the leaf springs to the frame on a truck, that is now your favorite chisel.

I occasionally have a pretty good source for U bolts from large trucks.  I usually save them if they're not too greasy.  Any idea what kind of steel these are usually made from?

I have drawers and bins completely full of hardware and scrap bits I have collected over the years.  I get a lot of it from estate sales.  People that come in my home shop are amazed by what I have amassed over the years.

[Scott NC]

  You ever save shoe strings before throwing the shoes away?   Lol... They come in handy!  I can't help it.....  It's all organized now though!

[Les L]

I made a living welding, only wore lace up boots with leather laces, and kept an extra set in my truck. One morning one of my coworkers was walking down the hall, with no laces in one of his boots. I asked him what happened and he said he played a prank on another employee’s boots the week before and this morning when he set down the employee cut the laces from the bottom to the top of his boot. He couldn’t believe it when I gave him a pair of laces. So, yes I have always saved my laces. Shoe strings aren’t worth saving when I retire the shoes. 

Back to the topic, my scrap pile is pretty extensive, over 40yrs worth, in the last two years I’ve spent $63 US on material that I couldn’t find in my pile for the project I was working on. My wife used to fuss about my pile until she realized that when she needed something made or repaired most times I could go to the shop and come back with what was needed because I had the material on hand. 

[Scott NC]

  I use them for tying up rolled up garden hose, tomato plants to stakes, rolls of loose wire, scrap rods of metal, a third hand when positioning something, in place of twist ties, holding stuff open/closed, etc...  Laces, shoestrings..... Beats cutting up rope in some cases.  I welded and air arced on railcars and more than once had the lace break off in my hand.  Slag and sputterballs make short work of them.  No, I didn't save them.

[Malleus]

Hardly a day goes by at work where I don't have to do some kind of welding.  That being said, I do save by boot laces.  I keep spares at home where I put my boots on in the morning, and I keep a spare set in my glovebox, and a set at work.  I only use them in case of breakage. lol   Now, I do have a drawer in my shop where there is a crap ton of string, wire, small rope, and similar products.  Large rope, wire, and cable hangs in the trusses. 

Every time I have to go to the metal dumpster, I keep my eyes peeled for anything useful.  Occasionally, I find hardened steel that's good for knife making material.  Every once in a while, I find other stuff that is worth keeping.  Probably the 2 best things I've found were the 2 vises that I posted here on the forum.  I also found a railroad jack once.

[ThomasPowers]

My German combat boots came with extra long laces; my shop pair now has extra short laces with a knot in each end to keep them from going back through the eyelets when I'm putting them on.  Dropped a hot piece of steel; luckily it only cut through one side and I could rethread the lace and continue on.

[bluerooster]

I usually end up tieing them together at the break, and continue on. Until they end up with too many knots in them, then get new laces.

No, I don't save shoestrings. By the time I get done with them, they are unusable for anything.

[bigfootnampa]

Following up on the bootlaces: my cats have inspired me to develop expertise in repairing the tips!  They are obsessed with chewing them off for me!  I have acquired a kit of various diameters of clear heat shrink tubing.  I can easily retip my laces or make replacements from 550 paracord!  
BTW I’ve learned that those very long laces on military style boots are pretty handy because you can loosen them without pulling any through the eyes.  Never having to relace  them saves lots of time!  I use an extra tuck on the bow knots and then tye another bow with the doubled bow ends.  That uses up all that extra lace and stays tied all day!  

[Malleus]

I was able to salvage all this roller chain today.  The smaller chain is #50, and the larger is #80.  Maybe I can use it to make some knife blades someday. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Malleus]

Found a few more goodies today at work...

 

[Daswulf]

That all is some good stuff Malleus. Ever think of taking up scrap metal art? 

[JHCC]

Does that have any bearing on the subject at hand?

[Malleus]

 

17 hours ago, Daswulf said:

That all is some good stuff Malleus. Ever think of taking up scrap metal art? 

Thanks.  No, I've just never had an interest in it.  I was hoping to use the bearings in some Canister Damascus.

On 3/5/2022 at 6:46 PM, Glenn said:

What did you pull from the resource center (scrap pile) for a project ?  Things that may have been there waiting for a opportunity to save you a trip into town or save a couple of dollars from leaving your wallet.  

I thought this was pretty clear...  No one seemed to mind talking about boot laces.

[JHCC]

11 minutes ago, Malleus said:

I was hoping to use the bearings in some Canister Damascus.

That could make an interesting combination with some of the roller chain.

[Malleus]

I have seen it done, but have heard it's not easy.  I have no clue, as I have yet to try Canister Damascus.  I don't want to waste a bunch of time and material, so I'm trying to learn all I can before I give it a go.  I'm not sure if I would mix the roller chain in on my first attempt, but maybe once I got a feel for it.