The things you find

[toesup]

I know you can find a vast array of useful items in dumpters (skip's, for our UK viewers)... wood, electrical items that provide motors, etc etc...

I've just seen a full set of golf clubs go in to the local dumpster and am trying desperatly to think of a reason (not) to go and retrieve them.... There has to be a use for them (and NOT golf! :p )

[green-boat]

We used to have a thread around here somewhere that delt with this very thing.

My theory is grab it now even though you don't have a use for it because later on you will find that use and kick yourself for not grabbing it. We live in such a throw away society.

[Rex R]

guess one could use a driver as a boat retrival tool :) or a launcher for a boat.

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

The old timing belt from my car, and the the drive belt from my disc sander...

:rolleyes:

[green-boat]

Umi,

Don't give away all your secrets now. :rolleyes:

[der kapitan]

There can be a down side to dumpster diving, and saving all that stuff that's "too good to throw away"---. ;)

It can clog up your storage space, and lead to strange hoarding behavior, bordering on a mental condition---. :o

There's an old guy down the road who seems to collect all kinds of junk, and
stashes it away in his house. :p

Recently, he finally filled up his garage, and has resorted to piling things on his front porch. His car now sits outside---. :eek:

I can imagine what it looks like inside, probably no room to move---. :D

[Kmot]

Just imagine all the treasures he has! :D

[dreadnought]

If there is a 2 iron keep it for golfing in the rain.. Not even god can hit a two iron.

[LtDoc]

der kapitan,
Oh, people laugh now, but you just wait! Some day that ol'geezer will kick off and someone will have to clean out all that 'junk'. If that 'someone' has an ounce of brains, he/she will take a close look before he/she starts dumping that junk. Think of all the treasure packed away in there! Remember one of those thingys that you could never remember the name of but you wanted so bad? What would you really give for one? How about a 1/4" thick plastic sign face, oh, about 6' by 8', can you imagine the formers you could make out'a that? Heh, heh, heh... got one! Or the wiring harness from an old aircraft radio circa 1950 something? Got one! Or a stand for a rotary lawn mower blade sharpening thingy? And, NO, you can't have it! (I'm just biding my time! Some day...$$$)
- 'Doc


Wouldn't need 5 or 6 five gallon buckets half filled with pickle juice, would you? No, I don't. But I know where to get'em!

[Tugboat Andy]

A few months before I discovered Springers, I threw out a "POWER WHEELS" jeep. Two perfectly good 550 motors and two batteries.....argh! :mad:

[der kapitan]

der kapitan,
Oh, people laugh now, but you just wait! Some day that ol'geezer will kick off and someone will have to clean out all that 'junk'.
Doc, About ten years ago, I sold my schnellboot to a guy from Chicago, who it turns out is also an incurable packrat. Useless junk everywhere, and there are only aisles through each room for you to navigate. :eek:

On a side table, there are some really nice models that he's acquired, just kind of stacked there. You have to look hard to see them, though---. :)

When he kicks off, whoever is charged to clean out that rather lovely house, will indiscriminately toss out EVERYTHING---. :eek:

[Capt Cal]

my wife and I got the honor of cleaning out an uncles house, a nice small 1940's house,800 sq.ft 7-20 yd dumpsters later. the house was stacked with old news papers,magazines just plain junk he never threw anything away on the bright side I did get a new weed wacker only a few years old but still in the box :)

[Predreadnut]

If you've seen what some old paper advertising has gone for (another hobby of mine) you'd go through the old magazines before you threw them out too. A few years ago, someone went threw an old warehouse in St Louis. There were 90+year old light bulbs still in the fixtures.Also, large stacks of advertising cards that where displayed on the sides of streetcars. I managed to get one of each. They are in like-new condition.

[Aerominded]

Treasures, things of value, etc... all may be true but the pack-rats I have encountered don't take any particular care in how they 'store' things... most of it eventually get steped on or otherwise destroyed... Sad really...

grab the golf clubs only if the shafts are CF... perhaps the 'woods' are be made of interesting, er, wood...

otherwise... ;)

[785boats]

As a kid, there are two things I remember my dad saying as he stored another 'find' away.
"That will come in handy one day even if I never use it". Or.
"If you have'nt used it, you have'nt kept it long enough".
I guess the humour was lost on a 10 or 12 year old kid. But now, as an almost 50 year old scratch build modeler, it all makes perfect sense. I find myself muttering those words to myself sometimes as I store away another item that I can see no apparent use for. Yet.
Paul.

[green-boat]

Treasures, things of value, etc... pack-rat
I resemble that remark :rolleyes:

A couple of my best finds have been a set of Mopar cylinder heads from a 1970 340 TA Challenger. The other is a Certificate of Priority that was packed in a case of Budwieser that was from the first batch of beer brewed after the repeal of Prohibition. I also have a B/W photo of August Busch putting a Certificate in a case that went to the President. I found the Certificate stuck in the pages of a leather bound book wrote in German about the 1904 St. Louis Words Fair that was going to be thrown away.

[ropanach]

I was at one time one of those save it I might need it some day kinda guy's, but after 3 moves latter I don't have much left, I was in another town will'e the wife was packing, with each move less and less got to come, but I did save the WWII trainning slide for a P-47, and my hand plane (rowtor) Spelling!! witch is dated 1894

[Ford_63]

I must confess I'm a pack-rat and a dumpster diver.
But, hey, it's where I get all my best building materials.
That hovercraft I built two years ago, I got all the materials from a dumpster by a loading dock. The only thing I bought was duct tape.
But when we moved last year I mananaged to fill two dumpsters with all the stuff I had collected, and that freaked me out! So now everytime I try and go looking again I think about those two dumpsters full of junk.
Of course now that I have a new pick-up that old habit surfaces again from time to time.
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x126/ford_63_photos/th_11-9-2007-05.jpg (http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x126/ford_63_photos/11-9-2007-05.jpg)
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x126/ford_63_photos/th_11-9-2007-03.jpg (http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x126/ford_63_photos/11-9-2007-03.jpg)

[mr.boat]

I must admit to being a bit of skip diver too. Sometimes you find things, others you do not, but you never know, unless you look.
As was the case with the SQ I'm restoring, it WAS thrown out on to a skip, when somebody was doing a clearance of their garage.
Saw that they had thrown it, asked if I could take it, was told help yourself, so I did.
There where some pieces missing (which have been replaced or are in the process of replacing), but its been given a new lease of life.

[Ford_63]

Mr. Boat,
What does 'SQ' mean, please?

Do you have any pictures you could post?

As Red Green says "Old junk is good junk to somebody."

[Huntsman]

When I was growing up during WW2 I spent a lot of time with my Granpa. The wartime shortages meant that everything was scarce.

I learnt to straighten old nails and how to pull them out without bending them too much; we saved string, nuts and bolts, you name it we hoarded it.

It has been the ruination of me. Instead of buying a list of materials for a job I have "made do", utilising old stuff and generally making a lashup of things.

My wife, God Bless her, has tolerated this without much complaint and the stuff got done eventually to a good standard.

I decided to re vamp our bathroom; I used a Microsoft programme to plan the whole thing, when stuff was needed, when the water would be cut off etc etc. Then she went with me and we bought the whole shebang and had it scheduled in. What a difference. The job was done, and I thought of all the hassle I'd had over the years to make do and mend.

I don't even bother to clean paint brushes these days..bin them

Now that I got to the end of this little piece I'm in two minds as to if I should post it or not.. well here goes...

Buy new ..leave the rubbish in the bin..

:)

[mr.boat]

Mr. Boat,
What does 'SQ' mean, please?

Do you have any pictures you could post?

As Red Green says "Old junk is good junk to somebody."

Ford _63 SQ = Sea Queen. Pictures of which are in the Build log "Restoration of a Aerokits SQ"