Scrounging

[Doc Hickory]

I admit up front I love to scrounge for stuff. The thought of finding a good use for cast-off stuff just does my old heart good. In line with that, I've discovered a new resource, one you guys might also find usable. The new diesel truck engines require the injection of DEF (that's Diesel Exhaust Fluid, for the uninitiated). This substance is a blend of water and urea. It comes in really nifty 2 gallon jugs which have long, flexible filler nozzles and air vent holes to facilitate pouring. They are made of white plastic, not very strong but still good enough to keep what's inside on the inside. These jugs tend to accumulate on the fuel island at the truck stop, and they're free for the picking up. They'd make good jugs for water or lube on band mills, for saw gas, for a ton of uses and they're free! What's not to like about this picture? So, next time you're going near a truck stop, you may want to amble out by the fuel islands and see what's waiting there for free.

[Ironwood]

I am a professional scrounger, AND my lube bottle cap just broke on my Norwood, I think I will keep my eye out, Thanks


Ironwood

[SwampDonkey]

I did scrounge a grease barrel for a boiler for steam bending. ;D

I guess I scrounged the shop stove to. It would probably have been scrapped and sent to China by now. Not if I have anything to do with it. ;D

[pineywoods]

I'm 100% with Doc Hickory  ;D I love scrounging stuff and hearing scrounging stories. I learned at an early age. My brother and I learned early in life to make our own toys out of scrap wood. The real problem was obtaining nails to build our projects. We got into trouble several times for pulling nails out of the wooden siding of the house where we lived. The neighbors houses weren't safe either  :

[paul case]

i cant number the times that i have heard the story that many early settlers would have to leave a claim and would burn down the shack they lived in and gather up the nails so they could build another one wherever they landed again.  pc

[Ironwood]

We started as kids by finding bike parts in the trash, nieghbor kids got the new fancy ones, we built our from parts and out rode them. My brother was the paint man, Testor's Brand small spray cans from the Drug store, he was GOOD! Everyone wanted him to paint their bikes.
Well. my life's been trash ever since. Wifey will call me on her way with the kids to Daycare/ work/ school, on Wenesday letting me know if I need to run up the street to grab something "curbside" :D Her big outing is half off at Salvation Army once a month. : Shop the scrap yards, serve as a volunteer w/ a Non-profit used building material warehouse in Pittsburgh doing 1.3 million a year on others "trash".  ;) Yup, trash ever since. I could go on and on, we like to say "we're resourceful" , or "Daddy is an opportunist" we get ALOT of mileage out it. My grandpa, and  my father-in-law must smile down on us everyday.  

Ironwood

[redpowerd]

windstorm blew in my big 12x16 o.h. door a few years ago and instead of scrapping it, for some reason it ended up in the corner of the shed. well the bent panels made a nice roof system for a lean-to in the woods, the cable got used to suspend a paint curtian in the shop, pipe and cable drum cut up and used in various projects, and finally the track and wheels will be getting used on my flatbed project for two heavy duty full length sliding drawers. now that junk door is completely GONE.
thats not to say i dont throw things out. honestly if i had not built this flatbed for my truck those tracks and wheels would have been in the scrap pile by the end of spring. if i start tripping over things too much their usefulness for keeping wears out quickly.

ill keep my eye out for them jugs, thankfully we havent a need to run that stuff yet. i buy all my oil in bulk and need to keep several gallon jugs of oil handy.

[SwampDonkey]

I used insulated shed doors on the inside wall of my shop. ;D

[redpowerd]

I used insulated shed doors on the inside wall of my shop. ;D

yes these ones are insulated also, kinda a waste for a lean-to that gets used once or so a month.

[Papa1stuff]

This topic is right up my alley ,I have been a dumpster diver all my life ,glad I live on 10 acres need it all for my stuff.

Maybe the strangest thing I have gotten out of a dumpster was a carved(out of styrfoam) 8ft tall Moses ,Yes I said Moses.I was getting 3 in plastic pipe out of a dumpster at a church rebuild and low and behold , there was poor Moses laying in the bottom!

[DanG]

Did ya pick up any bullrushes while you were there, Papa? :D :D

I'm an inveterate scrounger too.  One thing I get a lot of use out of is coffee cans.  The blue Maxwell House ones make great feed scoops, and I use all kinds to store things in.  I even use a Folgers can for a rain guage. :

[ely]

guilty as charged your honor.

[SwampDonkey]

Mom's uncle smoked pipe and had cans the tobacco came in used for nails, screws, odd and ends on shelves he made in one end of his shop.  ;D I keep some plastic containers that ice cream or yogurt comes in, handy for cleaning brushes and mixing stuff.  8)

[sandhills]

Can't say I've ever "dumpster dived" but around here we have blowouts that the older generation dumped their stuff in to try and heal them up.  I can't say how many hours I've spent digging through them.  My neighbor owns a pasture with a large one in it and someone else had come a long and dumped out a load of old clothes so he starts digging through them and ends up leaving the shirt he was wearing there and wearing one he found, it actually was a nice shirt. :D :D

[ErikC]

 I am always on the lookout. It drives Sarah crazy sometimes, but she is as cheap as me, so usually she points things out I missed. :D

[Coon]

Guilty as charged, I dumpster dive too.  More so than that I go out to Seagull Mall, as we call it, and I have been known to bring back as much as I took out in the first place.  I seem to scrounge anything I that I can see myself using in the near future.  Heck, my log trailer that I am building is built out of steel and parts that I have scrounged up.  Going  out to the seagull mall sometime this this week..... will report what I find.  :D

[fuzzybear]

  We have no garbage collection here so we have to take everything to the dump ourselves. We are lucky that our land fill is very organized. We have a free store where every one brings stuff they no longer need. It is all good stuff.
  All metal goes into a separate area, as does all construction material. We go to the "mall" at least once a week and do some "shopping".  We have a neighbor that built his entire addition over one summer from the "junk" at the dump. 
   Parks Canada and the Yukon Government are the worst for waste. I have pulled at least 10 bails of new insulation from the construction pile. The only thing wrong was the bag was torn and got wet. I open it up and let it dry out and it's ready to use.  I got 45 sheets of 3/4" t&g ply wood all brand new, only thing wrong was they came as the top sheet and the edges were crushed slightly from the banding. The roof tin for my mill shed I collected over one summer one brand new piece at a time.
   Our highway department had a 7kw gen set on the back of a pickup and it fell off. they threw it out. The hour meter read 120hrs. A friend of mine happened to be there when they were going to dump it and just had it loaded into his truck. Only cost him $12 to replace the oil pressure sending unit that broke off.
   You got to love government waste. If your fast enough and at the dump at the right time you could build your entire house from the waste.  They cut 2' off of a 12'  2x6 and throw the rest out.
 

[ErikC]

 You have it too easy.  :D They stopped letting people go through the transfer stations here several years ago. Something about liability for people getting hurt I'm sure. But there are still things to scrounge all over the place, if you keep an eye out.

[Texas Ranger]

Another good source is school dumpsters at the end of the year, I pulled out a complete usable telephone system from our local dumpster.  Electronics and unopened boxes of copy paper.  Easier to throw it away than use it or sell it.

[Ironwood]

Leather office chair from local dormitory dumpster at he end of the year. NICE! and wAAYYY to much other stuff to mention :D

[SPIKER]

ya been there dived in that (eewwh whats on my shirt?  )  :

I scored 3 or 4 hundred 1/2" S.S. (316) round bars about 24" long.  & left a bunch in the dumpster.   (Was driving the car to work that day and figured I had hundred plus pounds of them.   I been using them things for about 3 or 4 years to hold stone patio blocks and for grade stakes ect.  hehehe.   I also scored several good PCs that ran when I hooked them up.   I also used to scrounge the junk bins at work, lots of good brass & copper wire/valves, AC motors ect tossed into the scrap hoppers at the factory.   These scrap hoppers we had were provided free by the big local scrap yard for the scrap just call when it was full or if ya were tearing out some stuff and they would happily bring ya all the empty hoppers ya wanted.   (Sawsall battery powered would take care of a brass ball valve pretty quick out of 1" or so old water lines. ;)

[Papa1stuff]

Like I said ,I have 10 acres to fill ,need something to leave to my kids! ;D ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Doesn't sound like the economy is hurting too bad.  :D Throw away and buy new. Recycle it the old way in our throw away societies. :D

[Coon]

If I didn't have all this junk I wouldn't have nothing at all.   ;D  :D

[sprucebunny]

Like Fuzzybear, we have a 'dumpstore'. I haven't bought new clothes in 20 years. Recently they installed containers that ship the clothes somewhere. It's OK; I have enough  :D

I've also been saving doors and windows for my next house.

Get furniture, metal things like roofing and fans and books.