Re: Scavenging: Interesting post from another group (long but good)

Check out alt.dumpster

Lots of folks there do this stuff all the time.

Regards,
Joe - VROC #8013 - '86 VN750 - joe @ yunx .com - 973.571.1456 24/7

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http://www.youthelate.com/the_ride.htm

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"jitney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Interesting post, this guy could make a fortune selling some of his
> stash on ebay. There are other good posts in the same thread, if you
> want to look it up.
>  Anyway, here it goes:
>
> From: Bob G ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
> Subject: Re: Scavenging for fun and profit
> View: Complete Thread (17 articles)
> Original Format
> Newsgroups: misc.survivalism
> Date: 2003-10-03 04:33:34 PST
>
>
> On 02 Oct 2003 00:23:40 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Mark Pilcher) wrote:
>
> >Went through a trash pile when a neighbor moved out and found 1)never
> used
> >dehydrator unit, 2) Garcia-Mitchell 402 saltwater spinning reel, 3)
> brand new
> >fingernail clippers, 4) music CD's in jewel cases. What I can't use
> will be
> >bartered for something I can use. Most pawn shops will pay a buck a
> copy for
> >CD's with cases. This got me thinking, "Why not start a thread on
> misc.surv of
> >all the neat items you can obtain for free, if you put your mind to
> it."
> >For instance, I scrounge for brass at a local shooting range, and
> have formed a
> >sort of Co-op with some friends for particular calibers. For pistol
> bullets, my
> >mechanic has thoughtfully donated no less than four 5 gallon buckets
> of wheel
> >weights. There's a guy down the street with a pool cleaning business
> who always
> >has 5 and 10 gallon plastic buckets with lids that he gives away.
> >Feel free to add in any ideas that you have found productive.
> >People sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men
> stand ready to
> >do violence on their behalf......George Orwell.
>
> Well, I can't say that I sell much of anything.  And scaveging might
> not be an accurate word to use for what I do.
>
> I'm an unrepetent pack rat.  Throwing away something that's still
> useful, or might be, is difficult for me to do.  I mean ... it takes a
> deliberate act of effort to just toss something in the trash if my
> mind comes up with some way in which it might be used.
>
> I think it started when I was a youth.  We were poor.  Really poor,
> not what we call poor today in the U.S.
>
> There was almost never any such thing as leftovers thrown out.  They
> were eaten, as is, at another meal, or made into something else.
> Chuckle, Grandma often made what she'd call "Potluck" stew.  I asked
> what that meant.  She replied that if you were lucky enough to have
> anything to throw into the pot, yah made stew out of it.  And called
> yourself lucky and enjoyed it.  Savored every bite.
>
> <G> A habit I still have to this day.  I remember the day my daughter
> and a gal friend of hers was here to have dinner with my wife and I.
> Daughter and her friend announced that since they'd done no cooking,
> they'd put things away and wash the dishes.  Her friend was staring at
> maybe half a cup of leftover corn, about the same of peas, ad a spare
> baked potato.  Anounced this wasn't enough to be worth saving, she'd
> just toss it.  My daughter quickly said "No, dad will have a fit.  But
> it in the fridge."  Her friend asked why.  My daughter proceded to
> show her a chicken drumstick, half bowl of noodles, etc in the fridge
> already. "Leftovers, we keep em.  When there is enough, dad will
> probably toss it all together, slice up the potato, skin and all,
> debone the chicken, add some fresh onion and bell pepper and some hot
> peppers and make one of his concoctions.  Warm it all mixed together
> in a skillet, or toss it in a pan and add water and make a stew or
> soup.  Then eat it for breakfast or lunch.  He's always done that.  He
> won't open something new, or make something new, if there are
> leftovers of any kind in the fridge.  We almost never have leftovers
> which get thrown away.  And he likes it.  Says it's always different.
> No recipe, just whatever he finds in the fridge."
>
> And mostly if we had toys when I was young, they were homemade. Ohh,
> we got a new thing sometimes. Maybe once a year.  But it was mostly
> homemade toys.  Scraps of wood, pieces of cloth from old clothes,
> buttons, beads, anything that'd look like a eye for a doll, or
> something useable as a piece of a toy was kept.  And toys made.
>
> Mom and the other ladies always kept all old cloth and worn out
> clothing, any cotton batting, etc.  It'd all turn up again.  As
> blanket, pillow, quilt, hat, gloves. dish rags or towels, curtain, or
> new item of clothing. i.e. I am several years older that my next
> oldest sibling.  But I was a scrawny, thin kid.  And she'd get all
> excited when I could no longer squeeze into a pair of jeans, or when
> the knees of the things had worn thru so many times my mother decided
> they could no longer be usefully patched.  Sis got a new pair of
> shorts.
>
> I think you get the idea.  Anyway, it is a thing with me.
>
> My wife first found out when we were newly weds.  She stared as I kept
> some wine bottles after they were emptied.  Then watched as I'd soak
> off labels, etch along top below thin throat, then snap off the top.
> Then I'd sit and use fine emery cloth to smooth lip nice and smooth,
> and we'd have a new drinking glass.  Or I'd turn old bottle into
> flower vase, etc.
>
> Chuckle, I was ... am ... terrible.  I saved all sorts of "junk", as
> she called it. Old or found nuts, bolts, screws, nails, etc.  Bottles
> of all sorts.  Feathers, leather, old belts, old shoes, beads,
> trinkets, buttons ... just about you name it, I stashed it away.
>
> Sort of pissed her off at first.  Then she saw that I kept the stuff
> sorted and neatly stashed away.  And then she saw me making stuff.  Or
> fixing stuff.  Using things from my "junkyard".  i.e. Some scraps of
> cedar a neighbor had left over from a project, and assorted pieces of
> leather from old shoes and belts got turned into a jewelry case for
> her.  Patchwork leather of different shades on the outside, carefully
> fitted so as to appear seamless, glued onto newly made cedar box, then
> laquered over.  Piece of wood and front cover picture from a magazine
> got turned into a decopauge (sp?).  Plastic bottle with bottom cut off
> and scrap piece of hose got turned into handy funnel for use when I
> changed oil on the car, etc.  I wouldn't even hazard a guess as to how
> many things I've made over the years.  Some we still have and use.
>
> And I discovered garage and yard sales.  Was forever buying that baby
> food jar full of assorted left over screws and nails, the odd piece of
> hardware people end up with, and so forth.  And I'd always sort the
> stuff and put it away.
>
> My wife didn't like this much until she began to realize that about
> every time we needed a fuse, a flashlight bulb, or a specific type
> nail or screw to fix something ... I almost never had to go to the
> store. It was like this one day a neighbor came over complaining about
> a radio which no longer worked.  I took it, checked it over, rummaged
> around in my stuff and produced the parts to fix it.  Chuckle, even
> when it came to radioes, TVs, electric appliances and such, if they
> were not repairable I had a habit of taking em apart and removing all
> the parts I thought to be useable, and keeping them.  Neighbor looked
> surprised.  My wife grinned and said something like, "Chances are that
> if Bob hasn't got it squirreled away somewhere, it ain't made."
>
> Chuckle, I make a decent living, I'm comfortable, maybe a bit more
> than that.  But haven't managed to cure my addiction yet.  I quite
> literally have a broader selection of nuts, bolts, screw, tacks,
> nails, etc than most any hardware store most folks have seen.  All
> sorted and stored neatly in bins and those parts cabinets with the
> little drawers.  Some bought new.  But often enough, spares someone
> had left over from some job and they didn't want to keep.  And that's
> a small part of my collection.  I have hundreds of bins, tubs, etc.
> Pretty normal occurance for me to do a sizeable project, make
> something, and never have to go buy anything to get it done.
>
> i.e. Most of my "stash", the stuff which won't be harmed by freezing,
> is out in my work/tool shed.  I was forced to put one up since, if I
> used our 3 car garage, it'd not be nearly big enough.  Even if filled
> with shelving from floor to ceiling spaced just wide enough to walk
> thru aisles.
>
> Anyway, my work shed does have a large number of racks and shelves.
> Mostly made from scrap this and that.  Set up neatly to maximize space
> usage, of half the shed.  As I have work benches, table saw, drill
> press, small lathe, etc set up in the other half.  Well lit, with this
> assortment of various type lighting fixtures, stuff somebody was
> tossing out that I grabbed. Ample load center, and plenty of
> electrical receptacles, placed all around so I never have to overload
> one or stretch extention cords here and there. The electrical
> distribution all being in conduit, with proper junction boxes, etc.
>
> Of course, practically no two junction boxes match exactly.  Exact
> design and look of couplings, adaptors, and other conduit fittings
> represent a sampling from about every manufacturer of such things.  A
> sizeable amount of wiring in that shed as I did a complete job and put
> in all the conveniences.  But I doubt if I actually paid more than 5
> or 10 dollars for the stuff used to do it.  I even piped water out to
> it, and put in a sink, and an indoor and outdoor faucet.  Scrap
> materials someone was tossing or had put out at a garage sale and sold
> to me really cheap.  My shed now even has some windows. As you might
> guess, a neighbor was having old windows replaced with new and I just
> HAD to stop by his place and inquire as to his plans for the old ones.
>
> So now if I'm figuring out new plan for a project, I can sit on what
> was a thrown away office chair.  Bracket on bottom was broke, I tack
> welded it.  Rummaged thru other throw aways to find a set of the best
> wheels to put on this one.  Solid, comfy chair, tho the upholstery o
> it is a bit worn.  Sit at a desk, that's probably 40 years old, at a
> minimum.  One of those BIG, old, built solid as a rock metal desks.
> That's weighs a friggin ton.  It was a government desk, ugly and
> utilitarian.  Friends and neighbors know me.  So when one friend who
> works for the county saw the thing, on it's way to the garbage heap
> because it was not needed or wanted, and was older than most of the
> workers in that office building.  She called me.  Said she'd spotted
> it, inspected it, and when she climbed on top and jumped up and down a
> few times and it didn't so much as wiggle, she figured it was a shame
> to toss away something so well made.  Then had the thought, Bob would
> like to have this.
>
> So I can sit at my chair and desk and doodle at a drawing for new
> project.  And instead of reaching to turn on overhead, hanging
> florescent light somebody had been gonna toss out, or turning on desk
> mounted light mounted to pivoting, articulated arm, if it's daylight I
> can work by sunlight.  Cold?  Not a problem, hanging gas fired unit
> heater I salvaged and refurbished kicks on and keeps me comfy.
> Obviously previous owner has no clue about checking a run capacitor to
> see if it's the reason the motor doesn't work.  And he warned me that
> it firing at all was an iffy thing at best.  Uh huh, I suppose he'd
> never heard of cleaning orifices every now and then.  Old beastie, but
> it works fine.  And if I want some background noise or music, I can
> flip on my entertainment system.  Which used to be a car stereo, and
> which is hooked up to an assortment of speakers, no two of which match
> in looks.  Or flip on the salvaged CB, which is hooked to the tall,
> homemade (out of scrap) antenna extending up from the shed roof.  Said
> CB having been slightly altered by a friend such that it operates on
> more frequencies than originally designed to do.
>
> Of course, I can also keep entertained by doing what I did a short
> time ago.  My wife has a new XP desktop computer.  I have a new  XP
> laptop which I use for work, almost exclusively.  I'm careful with it,
> take no chances of getting a virus, or loading questionable software
> which might muck up it's proper operation. It's one of the tools with
> which I make a living.  So for general usage, playing around with,
> experimenting with, going on the net and visiting as yet uknown and
> not trusted sites, and so forth I'd been using an old 133 megahertz
> Pentium laptop.  Which has been much used and abused since ... ohhhh
> ... 1997, or so.  Tossed about, frozen, dropped several times, rainned
> upon, spilled upon, millions of keystrokes entered, etc.  <G> I found
> out that hot glue is useful to fix cracks in the casing.  And once
> when I dropped it (again), whole chunk of a corner of the case flew
> off. Broken in such a way that the pieces weren't useable again.
> Hmmmm .... I rummaged around.  Finally took the snips and an aluminum
> can and cut some flat pieces of aluminum.  Hand fitted and formed to
> make a mold that fit into area of broken off casing.  Filled with hot
> glue.  Let set.  Peeled off aluminum. Set piece in place and hot glued
> around edges to attach it to rest of case and seal up nicely.  Broke
> out the Dremmel and smoothed everything out nice and neat and make
> repair look like old missing section.  Except the color  was
> different.  But who cared?
>
> Anyway, old trusty finally bit the dust about a week ago, a bit more
> than that.  Keyboard had become totally unuseable.  I'd plugged in a
> standard separate keyboard, just to keep using it. But finally the
> power supply died.
>
> I started to take it apart to fix it, then wondered what the heck was
> I doing.  Old sucker had done good service, but she'd been much used
> and abused.  Something else was likely to soon fail, anyway.
>
> So I went to my basement storeroom, where I keep some stuff I don't
> want exposed to ambient weather conditions, and rummaged around.
> Found this huge tower case.  Which used to be the housing for a server
> on an officer Lan system.  When the owners had upgraded, had simply
> bought whole new server.  Were gonna throw the tower out.  I snatched
> it.  Old pentium motherboard in it.  I don't think it was even 100
> MHz. Didn't give a rip about that.  But casing is nice and big and
> solid.  Bay space for about any extra accessories you'd ever need.
> Power supply just about big enough to power a computer room.  Okay, a
> start.  Rummaged more came up with 3 1/2 ad 5.25 floppy drives, old
> Connor tape backup I'd forgotten I had.  36X CD drive a friend had
> been gonna toss because he bought a new CD-RW.  Box of assorted cards,
> conectors, and cables I'd collected here and there.  Somebody had
> upgraded, had been going to toss card.  Or whole computer, and I'd
> stripped thing of all useable inside parts.  Soon had assembled port
> cards, NIC, and this and that.  Plus old, weighs 50 pounds Zenith
> super VGA monitor.  Someone I know who works in an office had upgraded
> some years back to a new, fancy, higher resolution monitor with a
> really big screen.  Had been looking for a home for this beast, so I'd
> taken it.  Finally I wandered over to a nearby town, to a 2 man
> computer shop/repair service.  Know the guys. I asked, they pointed to
> back room and said rummage away.  I found a 333 MHz Pentium knockoff
> motherboard they'd pulled from some customer's machine when doing an
> upgrade.  Found plastic parts bin in which they'd tossed old, removed,
> but still working ram assemblies.  Found the ones that'd work on
> motherboard I'd grabbed.  Spotted old modem.  33.6 but recognized name
> and model number.  A Supra which had been made so it could be flash
> upgraded to 56k.  Hauled stuff to guy and asked if he had drivers,
> manual for motherboard, etc.  He didn't.  I then asked about a new
> hard drive, wanted at least 20 gig, fastest he had.  Slow motherboard,
> but a fast HD would help speed things up.  He charged regular price
> for harddrive, then said as how he didn't really have a lot of use for
> the other stuff (he had piles of such things), how about $5 more and I
> buy him a cup of coffee sometime, and he'd call us even.
>
> I hauled stuff home, did some Net searches and located PDFs of manuals
> for motherboard and modem.  Located drivers that'd work for everything
> I assembled.  Lots of places on the Net have old drivers archived for
> just about anything.
>
> As said, I don't throw much out. Looked in file cabinet drawer where I
> keep such things.  Have originals of DOS 3.3, 5.0, 6.0, 6.22, Win
> 3.11, 95. 98, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP.  Chose 98.  Partitioned and
> formatted, loaded up software, and away I went.
>
> Chuckle, it all works fine.  With lots of ram and cache memory, zippy
> hard drive and so forth, this thing is more than zippy enough.  Then I
> was at a flea market and saw old CD-RW drive, no-name, no driver.  Guy
> said he'd salvaged it out of old puter somebody was tossing. Ower had
> said it'd still worked when last used, but motherboard on puter had
> failed.  So I picked it up for $5, on a chance.  Copied down markings,
> did Net search.  Turns out it was made by Mitsusu.  Located driver,
> installed in spare bay under CDR.  Works just fine, on this machine.
> Since this unit has no trouble with the DOS only driver.
>
> Yep, chuckle, scavenging can be fun.
>
> Bob