Ideas for Scroungers

[John Hasler]

I had an old set of 2 bottom pull type plows parked many years ago. I studied them for a few minutes and pictured how I thought I could transform them. Attached is a picture of my hammer made mostly from those plows.

That makes me think about making such a hammer out of one of my dead balers. It already has a big flywheel, a stout gearbox, a big crank arm, and a piston.

 

[Dave Smith]

Re: Cement nails

Cement nails are pretty good steel (tough and hold an edge). Seems to me that one could grind one into a mini boring tool for example.
It would be great to hear from someone who has tried making cutting tools from cement nails.

the cement nails and the round super hardened nails used in guns for nailing in steel I beams are excellant for slowly grinding the end for tiny pin and taper punches.

 

[lawlessman]

Just a few new thoughts for scroungers. I end up with a lot of small pieces of aluminum in odd, unuseable shapes that I eventually take to the scrap yard. If you've ever tried to wrestle one of those 55 gal drums that they give you at the scrapyard onto a truck or trailer, you know how unwieldy they can be. Even half full of small pieces of scrap aluminum, they can weigh 150 lbs or more. My preference is 5 gallon buckets with handles. A 5-gallon bucket full of aluminum scrap weighs about 35- 40 lbs, which is about as much as I want to carry. One nice aspect to them is that the scrap yard has no use for them, so I always get back my own containers instead of some rustbucket drums. One of my favorite sources for these buckets, other than the ones that I occasionally empty myself, is my neighbor who uses scoopable litter and buys the stuff in nice 8x12 buckets that hold about 5 gallons. They have a wider handle than most industrial buckets (customer comfort) and the handle is quite strong. The rectangular ones pack together nicely on my trailer, too. They have an attached lid.which helps to keep stray trash out of the container, and allows for stacking full ones. The same neighbor is into recycling and saves cans and bottles and such, but for some reason, can't be bothered to take returnables back to the store. So, along with a couple 5-gal. buckets a month, I also get a trashbag full of water, soda, and other returnable deposit containers just for carrying them away.
Here is a recycling no-no, at least at my scrapyard - I once mixed washed and label-free aluminum (cat food) cans in with my scrap aluminum. I ended having to sort out every can because the scrap yard wouldn't accept them unless they were crushed. Un-crushed, they said they were garbage, not recyclable scrap. The strange thing is that I have seen the local recycling company pull into the same scrap yard with truckloads of the same type of cans and just dump them in a big heap. Go figure.