'What's in your rubbish'

[ace]

Hi all

Having been made redundant from my previous job as supervisor in the workshop where I work, I no longer have access to the off cuts of steel, ally or brass etc and so often I have to buy it in. but over the last year I have managed to obtain metals from a variety of sources, including my own general waste such as the kitchen cupboards, the ally hand rail was cut out and I have used it as new runners for my drawers in the shed. I have used the metal from tin cans for shimming steel under my tool bits and only last week cut up my lads old steel bunk bed and now have a good supply of round tubing and box section. I also keep the springs out of old pens as they are often the same size. I have always stripped down old electrical goods and saved useful bits including the screws and nuts, thats what got me into the mechanics game in the first place. My most recent prize was the two strips of brass angle 1/8 x 1/4 x 1/6 thick at 1-1/2 ft long from the back of an old PC that I have stripped. Not bad for nothing so its worth checking before ya bin it.

ACE

[SteveW]

ACE,

I've got odd bits I've rescued over that last forty years or so. I've also found cycling to be a useful source of exciting bits. Not from shredding bikes but what can be found in the gutter.

A while back I spotted a nearly new rubber glove just lying there. Not a lot of use on its own but about fifty yards further on was its mate. This new find gave rise to the humble 'U' turn followed by another to resume my journey. Then there's the odd bits of scaffolding, box section, wheel balance weights, nuts, bolts, etc.

Generally I view bits rescued as a sort of insurance against ever needing them. Time and time again when storage space becomes at a premium and I discard something I find I need it about a week later.

Ultimately the cost of all these items is the space needed to keep them safe and sound. Having saved an item I'm usually reluctant to use it in something trivial preferring to save it for a better cause.

[ilvaporista]

I am also an avid collector and re-cycler of things found lying about and stripped from broken or discarded household effects.

Having moved house 8 times in 15 years of marriage the wife always moans about the increasing number of boxes of bits that we have to move around. She may have a point but it would break my heart to throw them away..

The largest part recovered so far was an old scooter which was turned in to a go-kart (for the kids!!) the only new parts purchased were the ball joints for the steering. The seat is the roof off a childs car, wheels from a trolley.

Pictures of this and other projects are on my website www.ilvaporista.it The text is italian but I've added in multi-lingual photos...

[ace]

Nice to know I'm not the only one then!.
I did a while ago buy a second hand cordless drill for a fiver that had no charger, the wife said 'what a load of rubbish' but what I saw was a hefty 20volt motor and variable control switch. Just the job for running a small model. Plus the bearings, small gears and metal plates from inside ended up in the to keep boxes. If ya ever get ya hands on an old fax machine there great for bits, small plastic gears, chrome shafts, rubber tubing and plastic tubing etc. Not to mention the small bits of metal plates, great fun. ;D

ACE

[Tel]

'atta boy Ace - you are coming along nicely - now repeat after me the Modeller's Creed .... NEVER THROW NOTHINK AWAY EVER

[abby]

lol!

[ace]

Sorry Tel
But there are somethings I do, like .... Uhmm .... Oh ..... Arrr ... 'strewth' I'm a hoarder! ;D ;D ;D


ACE

[yorkshireman]

Old PC Printers and Photocopiers are a wealth of materials!
Occasionally, I pass by the hardware support of e.g. training centres and pick up an old printer.
It is a bit messy to disassamble a broken printer, but it pays. Please be careful, remove all residual toner in the garden using a hoover (when the boss is out...)
Johannes

[ron]

Steve, my best find when out cycling was an unopened bottle of Chesterton synthetic cutting and tapping fluid lying in the gutter in an industrial estate, I'm still using it!
Anyway as Tel posted, never throw anything away-----------try flogging it on Ebay first ;D
Ron

[havoc]

I have pieces of 19" racks, 3mm Al plates, boxes of pc material, etc all from the skip. Even parts of the old screen wipers of your car are re-usable (nice springy inox strips). Then there are springs from ball pens, but also from those dispensers of liquid soap. Got a few meter of old lead pipe around somewhere. Printers are indeed a nice supply of bars, motors, gears etc.

[ace]

Hi Ron

Just moments ago I removed the ball from my mouse off my old PC and hey presto a nice shiny steel ball I found under the rubber and approx 18mm in diameter. This will come in handy for those handle jobs. Just two more to find and I can have new handles on my miller. Just looking at the other desks in the office and wondering....... no better not.

Steve

[Noddy]

Hi Ace,
You're quickly getting there!

You know when you're really there; when some one empties a bin over the top of you while you're skip diving....

I've a big sheet of 1" thick black mild steel plate hidden behind the office that I found on a roadside in Donegal...

The scrap bin at the back of a garage is a good place for "good stuff" like half shafts, torsion bars, old shock absorbers, and the fitter is often pleased to let you have it for free.

I do a lot of work in quarries, which often have spectacular scrap piles; large diameter bearings for parallells, mild steel shafting from worn conveyor parts, and sometimes real goodies like bright mild steel offcuts.

A lot of the stuff in a Quarry scrap pile is Austenitic Manganese steel, from bucket wear plates, bucket teeth and rock crusher wearing parts. The stuff is absolutely un machineable, but makes brilliant plates for protecting locks from theives (any abraision or deformation and the stuff work hardens to give a seriously hard martesitic skin, with the tough austenite inner).

You might also find the carbide buttoned heads of rock drills, although I've never worked out how to salvage that lovely carbide.

If you get to speak to the quarry manager or even better the foreman / deputy (think officer and NCO /Sergent), they are often glad to let you help yourself, just remember to take a hard hat, Hi Viz jacket and steel toed boots (lace ups, not riggers if it is Tarmac's quarry).

You've probably gathered I'm in Ireland at present. It typically costs €15 to get the bin emptied once! so there is a lot of fly tipping, from old bikes and prams to stainless steel cabinets and work surfaces....

A word of caution though, almost every urban site I've ever worked on has had syringes and needles on it. I wear steel sole protected boots...
Some of the critters who leave the needles seem to put them where they think someone might accidentally prick themselves with it (in a glove for example)..
you do not want to accidentally stick yourself...

Happy hunting
Keith

[havoc]

You might also find the carbide buttoned heads of rock drills, although I've never worked out how to salvage that lovely carbide.

According to some at the club you need a "green stone" to work carbide. Have no idea myself what it is. But these guys make all sorts of lathe tools from cheap carbide saw blades. The work the carbide tips with a "green stone" in the grinder.

When I can I visit the skip at a metal merchant. Sometimes they ask something for their coffee box, mostly they don't bother.

[simonwass]

I strip aerosols down to get the ali for weighing in, steel cans go in the recycle bin. The top with the valve is usually steel and is ripped out in the vise (after depressurising the can!). I realised there was a spring in the valve somewhere so hammered out the valve. There are some nice springs to be had, Lynx cans have a good size one I'm sure would make axlebox springs for 2 1/2" or Tich size locos. If they prove to be stainless other makers cans which all have different size springs should be a good source of clack springs, safety valve springs etc.
I rummage the bins in the locker room at work to get a good supply and also take home bottles to wash out and recycle, I sound like a right one! ;D
I also have a good supply of 10 litre plastic bottles, 5 litre bottles, small (2" square x 3" tall) screwtop bottles (contained 132g of L-ascorbic acid powder), assorted sizes of resealable bags, all of which go in the bin.
Our stores is heaven, we even still have some BA nuts & bolts!
The scrap bins are amazing, the quality of stuff thrown away disgraces me, but anything is available for £1 nominal fee.

[Tel]

Aerosol cans springs! That brings back some memories. When I was at the spring factory many moons ago we used to make those things by the 44 gallon drum full - generally about two drums a week. They were a little 'barrel' spring - ie the ends tapered down to a smaller diameter than the middle. Not stainless, regrettably, they were made from tinned piano wire.

[abby]

Years ago I worked for a scrap metal company who purchased a great deal of scrap from the coal mining industry, the TC tipped cutting picks were processed by suspending them in a vat of nitric acid (10%). The braze was dissolved and the tips would fall into a stainless steel basket for retrieval.
If you can get in with your local scrap metal yard and have a mooch around , during lunch is good , you will find some amazing stuff , but you need good boots and gloves , and eyes in the back of your head , almost everything is sharp and make sure people know you are there , as machine drivers have restricted visibilty and won't be able to hear you scream.

[havoc]

These days it is impossible to go into the scrap merchants domain. You are not allowed on the premises because of safety regulations. I tried and was send away with a flea in my ear.

[Tel]

Time you moved to Sunny Orstralia then matey - I can pick thru the local scrappies goodies to me heart's content. You might have to become a bit 'known' to them tho' - go back and try again, this time with steel capped boots and a hard hat.

[havoc]

Isn't this thread mislabeled? I mean, who of us has rubbish, it are all parts in transit...

[Tel]

.... or, at the very worst, JUNQUE.