- Joined
- Nov 23, 2011
- Messages
- 105
Good point Tony
-
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Ideas for Scroungers
- Thread starter KenS
- Start date
Good point Tony
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2012
- Messages
- 3,063
If you need large pieces of sheet metal, find a discarded hot water heater. A little scraping and you have a gold mine. I also ask businesses if they have a scrap pickup person. I have hauled off several tons of steel (bent racking, discarded displays) from the local Lowes. I also have an older man that has a welding shop down the block from my work, who will sell me cut offs and drops for a really good price. I have a few friends that own wrecking yards, and im planning a strip trip in a few weeks. Fasteners, relays, wire of all gauges and lengths, drive shafts for pipe, axels for hardened shafts, springs, gear motors out of electric windows, bearings and races, lights (imagine a 12 volt halogen work light on your machine, low beam and high beam) aluminum casting for smelting, cintrufugal fans that are ajustable for foundry work, steel and flexable brake lines, and just about anything else a inginuative guy can dream up. It pays to make friends with the junk guys!
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2012
- Messages
- 198
I have used rods from old mattress...there pretty tough
Used many drive shafts, think they are 4130?
Metal straps from lumber wraps, construction sites, stuff is very strong...hard to drill.
Charl
Used many drive shafts, think they are 4130?
Metal straps from lumber wraps, construction sites, stuff is very strong...hard to drill.
Charl
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2011
- Messages
- 4,142
How do you know the dot matrix or ink jet rods are DRILL ROD(hardenable tool steel) or do you mean they are just good mild steel shafting? Same for the strut rods?
Hi All,
Local Engineering Shops can be a good source of material, over the years I have gone into these places and spoken to the Manager or Owner and told them what I do and asked if I can have a rat-arround in there scrap bins for stock, most have been said go for it and I have found some great scrap and the odd machine at times. For the places that let me come and have a rumage on several occasions I bring some beer to say thanks and they appreciate it.
I have come away with some great stuff, most notable was a 6ft x 4 ft trailer full with nuts, bolts allenhead bolts, washers etc, they were having a cleanup and out they went, the other was a Foundry where I got a trailer load for bright bar and round. I am always on the lookout for places where I can get materials for free or next to no cost.
Regards,
Keith_W
Local Engineering Shops can be a good source of material, over the years I have gone into these places and spoken to the Manager or Owner and told them what I do and asked if I can have a rat-arround in there scrap bins for stock, most have been said go for it and I have found some great scrap and the odd machine at times. For the places that let me come and have a rumage on several occasions I bring some beer to say thanks and they appreciate it.
I have come away with some great stuff, most notable was a 6ft x 4 ft trailer full with nuts, bolts allenhead bolts, washers etc, they were having a cleanup and out they went, the other was a Foundry where I got a trailer load for bright bar and round. I am always on the lookout for places where I can get materials for free or next to no cost.
Regards,
Keith_W
I have bought some good stuff just outside of the scrap dealer who will not sell to the public. Just offer more than they will get across the scales. Aluminum round bar was a good find one day when I was selling aluminum cans.
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2011
- Messages
- 305
If you go to garage or estate sales don't spend ALL your time in the garage.
Kitchens provide old knives, cookie sheets, and lots of items that are useful in the shop.
Old cotton bed sheets and all kinds of towels go for scrap prices, and they make the best disposable shop rags.
Kitchens provide old knives, cookie sheets, and lots of items that are useful in the shop.
Old cotton bed sheets and all kinds of towels go for scrap prices, and they make the best disposable shop rags.
you'd be surprised how much stuff people throw out. I see lawnmowers, BBQ grills and bedframes on the street all the time; so much so in my area that people in pickup trucks have started to cruise the streets and load up with it, I'm assuming to take for scrap prices; so it's getting harder to beat them to the curb
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2012
- Messages
- 45
Re: Ideas for Scroungers - More ideas
Old appliances that no longer work can be a wealth of certain materials. For instance, a washer, dryer, fridge, freezer or stove can yield large panels of "enameled" steel that can be used for very weather resistant signage and other things. Two sides of a stove, carefully cut, put together with some wooden spacers and framed with some salvaged stainless channel stock served as my business sign for over 20 years of Northeastern winters. But you don't have to tear these finds apart to make use of them. For instance, an upright freezer or fridge can make a great dry, air-tight storage box, complete with shelves for storing things that you don't want to be exposed to moisture or oily air. A stove with a dead cooktop can be used as a tempering oven if it still works, and the racks and other pieces can also be salvaged. The stovetop "spiders" can be used as hotpads or trivets on you bench. Discarded exercise equipment can have a lot of tubing, as well as pulleys, shafts, and weights. Dishwashers, Washers and dryers, in addition to a couple square yards of salvageable enameled steel, can also give up motors, pulleys, belts, relays, and all sorts of other pieces. We once used an old dryer as a tumbler to soften the edges of wooden blocks for children's pull toys. Just throw in the blocks and some random pieces of sandpaper and let'er rumble. It is amazing what you can find on the edge of the road or in old barns. We once slavaged two old milkhouse pumps, added motors (which we acquired from the rubble of a mill fire) and had one compressor and one vacuum pump. And they were interchangeable! Low volume, but the tanks held either pressure and vacuum for what we needed. Old computers have small fans and electrical switches and cords that are useful. I once salvaged the gears and belts out of a "self-scooping" cat litter box. Don't think it was all that icky, it was new, but damaged in shipment. When I ordered the replacement, they told me to keep the old one. Here's a real find - drill chucks and gears from old, no-longer functional drills, corded or cordless. I have salvaged several small chucks, up to 3/8 capacity, attached to their precision shafts, which I can use as small drill or reamer holders for hand work or in my drill press, as a sort of "poor-man's quick-change" tooling. I also got some interesting bevel gears, reversing switches, bearings and other pieces as well.You gotta' think outside, and inside the box, and sometimes use the box too. My wife thinks I'm a packrat, but never ceases to be amazed when I rummage around in my junk box and come up with the right piece to fix something that would have had to be replaced otherwise.
Old appliances that no longer work can be a wealth of certain materials. For instance, a washer, dryer, fridge, freezer or stove can yield large panels of "enameled" steel that can be used for very weather resistant signage and other things. Two sides of a stove, carefully cut, put together with some wooden spacers and framed with some salvaged stainless channel stock served as my business sign for over 20 years of Northeastern winters. But you don't have to tear these finds apart to make use of them. For instance, an upright freezer or fridge can make a great dry, air-tight storage box, complete with shelves for storing things that you don't want to be exposed to moisture or oily air. A stove with a dead cooktop can be used as a tempering oven if it still works, and the racks and other pieces can also be salvaged. The stovetop "spiders" can be used as hotpads or trivets on you bench. Discarded exercise equipment can have a lot of tubing, as well as pulleys, shafts, and weights. Dishwashers, Washers and dryers, in addition to a couple square yards of salvageable enameled steel, can also give up motors, pulleys, belts, relays, and all sorts of other pieces. We once used an old dryer as a tumbler to soften the edges of wooden blocks for children's pull toys. Just throw in the blocks and some random pieces of sandpaper and let'er rumble. It is amazing what you can find on the edge of the road or in old barns. We once slavaged two old milkhouse pumps, added motors (which we acquired from the rubble of a mill fire) and had one compressor and one vacuum pump. And they were interchangeable! Low volume, but the tanks held either pressure and vacuum for what we needed. Old computers have small fans and electrical switches and cords that are useful. I once salvaged the gears and belts out of a "self-scooping" cat litter box. Don't think it was all that icky, it was new, but damaged in shipment. When I ordered the replacement, they told me to keep the old one. Here's a real find - drill chucks and gears from old, no-longer functional drills, corded or cordless. I have salvaged several small chucks, up to 3/8 capacity, attached to their precision shafts, which I can use as small drill or reamer holders for hand work or in my drill press, as a sort of "poor-man's quick-change" tooling. I also got some interesting bevel gears, reversing switches, bearings and other pieces as well.You gotta' think outside, and inside the box, and sometimes use the box too. My wife thinks I'm a packrat, but never ceases to be amazed when I rummage around in my junk box and come up with the right piece to fix something that would have had to be replaced otherwise.