Alley finds

Tom Dunlap

Tom Dunlap

Here from the beginning
Administrator
Location
Retired in Minneapolis
A couple of weeks ago I picked up a telescope from the alley. It looks cool! Wooden, telescoping legs like a surveyors tripod. Brass fittings and the telescope tube is brass too. Tonight I did a moon shot. Pretty cool! A bit hazy and a street light next to me. Full moon on Friday

This morning I brought garbage and recycling to the alley. A couple houses down I saw some potential. On my way to
Breakfast I drove down the alley. Hmmm

An air tank...that still had air in it. Smaller than the one I
Have but mine leaks

A chain saw and Echo strimmer

When I got home from errands I stashed the airtank. I'll look at it later. Mixed up a pint of gas and filled the saw. It's a 16" Green Machine...low expectations. 8-9 pulls and it as running fine. I'll put it in my garage sale pile or give it away to a friend

The Echo strimmer is pretty new. Fired up and runs great. I have to keep it choked just a little. Better than what I had...nothing!

Amazing what is thrown away!
 
Tom Dunlap said:
A couple of weeks ago I picked up a telescope from the alley. It looks cool! Wooden, telescoping legs like a surveyors tripod. Brass fittings and the telescope tube is brass too. Tonight I did a moon shot. Pretty cool! A bit hazy and a street light next to me. Full moon on Friday

This morning I brought garbage and recycling to the alley. A couple houses down I saw some potential. On my way to
Breakfast I drove down the alley. Hmmm

An air tank...that still had air in it. Smaller than the one I
Have but mine leaks

A chain saw and Echo strimmer

When I got home from errands I stashed the airtank. I'll look at it later. Mixed up a pint of gas and filled the saw. It's a 16" Green Machine...low expectations. 8-9 pulls and it as running fine. I'll put it in my garage sale pile or give it away to a friend

The Echo strimmer is pretty new. Fired up and runs great. I have to keep it choked just a little. Better than what I had...nothing!

Amazing what is thrown away!
Click to expand...
It always amazes me what gets tossed in the dumpsters. It's actually pretty sick, the waste in out society, but to some it's treasure! Hit up the International dorms on campuses, some of these kids are super rich and will throw out laptops etc!
 
Living in a college town has its perks when the students move out. They leave behind mini fridges as far as the eye can see. Office chairs just appear by the dumpsters. Any type of cooler you can think of. Stereos and TVs are also plentiful.

I have found that helping people move has landed me the best stuff. Things like a solder/hot air rework station, heaters, AC units, a dirt bike and even high amp DC power supplies.
 
My brother and I both worked at 'high rent' colleges. Terrible to see the dumpsters full of good goods

I look at Freecycle every day. It's a give away forum. You can post want ads too
 
Santiago Casanova said:
Living in a college town has its perks when the students move out. They leave behind mini fridges as far as the eye can see.
Click to expand...

One year in college I collected probably 8-10 minifridges from the trash piles. Cleaned them up, tested them, and re-sold them in the fall.

On the other hand, I have a barn full of electronics bits and pieces and old computers that I've collected for free over the years, and now I'm slowly ebaying stuff / giving it away / etc. Anyone need a late-80s supercomputer? :ROFLMAO:
 
I have a good friend from that removes gold from old electronic printed circuit board connections.
He melts the recovery to form small ingots ! ! !
 
Man I have found some great stuff in the trash!

Whirlpool front load washer ($500 range) needed a $74 door hinge.

You know this big whistle shaped blowers for drying floors like serv-pro uses after water damage? PERFECT condition, needed nothing, still using it 6-7 years after I found it.

Ladders galore, got me ladders of every size 2' - 28' and I've found so many more I've gave away, when I find one now days I just take it to the shop and put a free sign on it.

My buddy found what's now my daughters 48" LCD TV. When he found it he took it to his house, plugged it in, it didnt work, he probed around and ended up deciding it needed a power supply and he wasn't capable of a repair like that so he gave it to me [here's where this one gets good];it didn't need a power supply, the PS in this TV had a physical on/off switch you had to turn on before the power button would turn the TV on! "Fixed" it right up, stuck it in my girls room, they couldn't of been happier!
 
I pulled a tiny pancake air compressor out of
The dumpster. The college theater department tossed it because the cord cracked. And they have a licensed electrician on staff!!!! A couple of wirenuts and
Tape. Good to go. I used it until a month ago it made a noise and I looked at it and saw 'The Sacred Smoke' leak out. I'll scavenge parts and recycle. I did put a ceramic fuse in but no go. I'll keep using my 36 year old Campbell Housefield w/1 hp for now
 
GregManning said:
I have a good friend from that removes gold from old electronic printed circuit board connections.
He melts the recovery to form small ingots ! ! !
Click to expand...

Sounds hazardous to life expectancy. Not sure.

I watched a documentary about all of the electronic waste being shipped to poor countries and areas of same. People melting metal and burning off plastic right next to their homes. Often using the same pans they will cook their next meal in. The pictures of piles of electronic debris and stories of sickness were pretty horrible.
 
When I was young and taking tree debris to dumps in wealthy areas, like in the Silicon Valley, it was disappointing to see waste such as a contractors load come in with a bunch of nice 3/4 plywood and 8 or 10 nails in each sheet, half boxes of nails, and a 20 foot piece of new chain.

At that time an arb and his wife were visiting from Australia and she said if something got to the dump there no one would want it. That sounded so good to me then.

Now the dumps around me force recycling of usable items - thankfully.
 
I would agree to some extent.
This fellow is really, really smart. He uses acids & solvents to separate the gold.
However, this is done under the kitchen fume hood in his rented apartment ! ! !
 
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