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Folks Of Interest What's the coolest thing you have found dumpster diving?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Robert J. Palmer, Jun 20, 2015.

  1. Not a true dumpster dive but a Lawn mover complete with bag out on garbage day- put in a new plug and still using 17 years later- wife did dumpster dive for son's retainer thrown out when out dining- I said I'd pay for another before I'm get in there- she found it-
     
  2. 59Apachegail
    Joined: Apr 30, 2011
    Posts: 1,504

    59Apachegail
    Member
    from New York

    My neighbor promised me his post war Lionel train collection he knew his kids would just dump it all. His wife refused to allow me to take them. He passed, She sold the house and left all the bins out for trash collection before the new folks moved in. Lucky for me I knew what was in those bins. Great score and lucky I was off work that day.

    ... now the on topic stuff
    I also got a bunch of old cheap Japan tools he probably collected from the cheap bins at the auto parts.

    Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
     
    belair likes this.
  3. I had a close friend who worked for a company that went out and serviced and repaired large city generators out in the bush villages here in Alaska and were subsidized by the feds . One year , the company was being audited by the feds. My friend and his co worker were instructed to throw out all the new shop tools that were still in packaging. These were already written off to a job but were not to be found on the premises. So these two guys threw in the dumpster , 3 complete journeymen sets of new craftsman tools . Well after work , these 2 guys climbed into the dumpster and retrieved all these tools out and one set found its way in my shop for Christmas.
    I was a happy camper.
    Vic
     

  4. What a bitch.
     
    59Apachegail and falcongeorge like this.
  5. paul55
    Joined: Dec 1, 2010
    Posts: 3,490

    paul55
    Member
    from michigan

    Just reading thru this thread and thought I'd jump in. We have a local recycling center operated by the city. I make frequent trips there, as I have lots of trees. I always check the metal bins. I have scored model T fenders, early Impala bucket seats, Model A grill shell, and a pair of American mags. Also scored a complete 1948 Lionel train set with transformers, track, accessories, etc.
     
    jxnslotcar likes this.
  6. junkyardgenius
    Joined: Dec 29, 2005
    Posts: 886

    junkyardgenius
    Member
    from Kernow

    Got a pilar drill from the local dump around 15 years ago still works great.Was just lying on the floor .I asked one of the workers why it was there he said his boss dumped it because it was no good.Found the boss he said it was one year old but was no good,looked and felt ok to me so once again I asked what was wrong with it and he said.... it,s no good because there is no chuck key with it.
     
    clem and pat59 like this.
  7. LilBlue82
    Joined: Dec 16, 2015
    Posts: 102

    LilBlue82

    A Superior Performance 500 steering wheel, An old Craftsman Tool box ( 60's i think), Old Road signs.
     
  8. partsdawg
    Joined: Feb 12, 2006
    Posts: 3,503

    partsdawg
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Minnesota

    A sideways dumpster dive story.
    For the last 20 years I watch for for community clean up days.Usually do 5-10 a year.
    Pick a town and head over with truck and trailer,pick a spot off to the side near the tail end of the line up
    and walk the line.These clean up days are each towns effort to beautify their town and even though they charge for some items...like anything with a engine,refrigerators,the townsfolk always drag out stuff.
    Over the years I have picked up(for free!!)vintage car parts,1930's-60's bicycles,motorcycles,minibikes and more.
    A handful of business cards and a smile with some friendly patter has led to some very nice scores over the years at local homes and farms away from the drop off.
    There have been a few sorehead people in charge of the cleanups that have insisted I leave but it's a public event held at a public location on a public road so I point that out and hold my ground.
    I image my luck this year will change after posting this but hey...there is always more towns and there can't be a HAMB'r at every one of them.
     
    Truck64 likes this.
  9. LilBlue82
    Joined: Dec 16, 2015
    Posts: 102

    LilBlue82

    A bunch of old Playboy Mags from the 70's
     
  10. bigdog
    Joined: Oct 30, 2002
    Posts: 761

    bigdog
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Back in the late '70s the dealership I was working at threw out all the old factory repair manuals because they were changing to michrofische manuals.(anybody remember those?) I got a complete set of Porsche factory manuals, Some '60s Ford books, and Datsun manuals from early '60s up to the mid '70s. Sold the Porsche books since I wouldn't ever afford one of those, kept the others.
     
  11. oldwood
    Joined: Mar 13, 2010
    Posts: 1,056

    oldwood
    Member
    from arkansas

    I was inside a dumpster yrs ago and a lady pulled up and opened up the back of her suburban. I stood up in the dumpster and she was staring at me. I asked what she was throwing away and she said her freezer just went out and was throwing away a whole side of beef away. I crawled out and loaded that side of beef in my car. I fed mother and brothers and friends. It was all still frozen.
     
  12. firebrrat
    Joined: Jun 26, 2010
    Posts: 100

    firebrrat
    Member
    from Payson Az

    Very cool.. want to sale them?

    Sent from my SM-G900V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
     
  13. firebrrat
    Joined: Jun 26, 2010
    Posts: 100

    firebrrat
    Member
    from Payson Az

    I found this old oil pump!! $100 later made it look beautiful.. [​IMG]

    Sent from my SM-G900V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
    [​IMG]
     
  14. brasscarguy
    Joined: Jun 12, 2010
    Posts: 184

    brasscarguy
    Member
    from seattle

    Not dumpster diving but living here on Puget Sound we are used to seeing the Nukes coming down the Straights of Juan Defuca. Once they reach the straights they stop and hold an overboard party. All tools, food and any replaceable materials are pitched overboard.

    A good friend served as an officer aboard and they reasoned by over boarding the tools and supplies they were guaranteed get all new before their next deployment. Typical of Government waste that us tax payers are obligated to pay for.

    My fav place to haunt was the old Boeing surplus center that closed a few years back. All kinds of materials and equipment was for sale there. Aluminum blocks for machining for scrap prices, machining tooling machine tools were there at scrap prices. I used to buy 96" fluorescent tubes in case lots for 50 cents a tube. Yes they were used but most worked and it was a lot cheaper than retail;/.

    My best buy was a 50 ton push pull Dake electro hydraulic press. Brand new still on the factory pallet. The day I bought it was 50% off the tag price. I purchased the press for $800.00. When I called the factory for a manual. They guy asked for the serial number which I gave him. He asked how I obtained it. I told him Boeing Surplus, he told me Boeing special ordered it as it was a push and pull rated at 50 tons. He also told me Boeing paid $13,000.00 for it 1 year before.

    just sayin'

    brasscarguy
     
  15. Puka
    Joined: Dec 29, 2011
    Posts: 42

    Puka
    Member
    from Arkansas

  16. My neighbor does real estate clean-outs. I go preview the bigger ones to give him ideas on value or everything would end up in the dumpster. This is what I hauled home last month. He made several thousand on the items I priced for him. I love it when he calls.

    DSC08680.JPG
     
  17. DDDenny
    Joined: Feb 6, 2015
    Posts: 19,139

    DDDenny
    Member
    from oregon

    Sounds like what I've posted on another thread here.
    When I was a kid my friends older brother told of having an "overboard party" when he was in the USN in the mid 60's.
    They dumped a pallet of new GMC 6-71 blowers in San Diego bay.
     
  18. Truck64
    Joined: Oct 18, 2015
    Posts: 5,325

    Truck64
    Member
    from Ioway

    Guess I don't understand, do I have this right? There are folks who don't want you to pick up some thing someone else has thrown away?
     
  19. Truck64
    Joined: Oct 18, 2015
    Posts: 5,325

    Truck64
    Member
    from Ioway

    Huh. My dad served on a Diesel boat. He said one of the first things they did after getting underway was throwing all the cutters and canners grade Beef over the side.

    To make this topical somebody had "found" a nickel slot machine and they kept it in the control room.
     
  20. cfmvw
    Joined: Aug 24, 2015
    Posts: 977

    cfmvw
    Member

    Kind of like the place I used to work at; they would often throw away parts, supplies, and equipment, but wouldn't let anyone take any of it home. My favorite one was the safety idiot who "discovered" that the load rating decal on all the step ladders were suddenly missing, rendering them "unsafe" to use. They bought $4000 worth of brand new ladders to replaced the new ones that were missing the decal (and you could see where they had been peeled off) and were about to destroy them when someone in upper management got wind of it. They returned the ladders to Grainger (and paid a hefty restocking fee) and purchased new load rating stickers for $20.
     
  21. partsdawg
    Joined: Feb 12, 2006
    Posts: 3,503

    partsdawg
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Minnesota

    I pick the stuff before it's thrown away.I walk the line getting the stuff from the folks waiting in line to get in.In most of the instances when I was told to leave the staff running the clean up is from a local scrapyard.They see free money being taken away from them and don't like it.
     
  22. mr.chevrolet
    Joined: Jul 19, 2006
    Posts: 8,860

    mr.chevrolet
    Member

    not a story of what I found, but what I missed. long ago Yenko Chevrolet was moving from Canonsburg to a new location with more traffic, I stopped up to see if I could get anything Yenko related and was told " you shoulda been here yesterday, 2 dumpsters full of Yenko paperwork and supercar stuff was just hauled away".
     
  23. Truck64
    Joined: Oct 18, 2015
    Posts: 5,325

    Truck64
    Member
    from Ioway

    Ah, that makes sense. Too bad for them is all I can say.

    ,
     
  24. Jibs
    Joined: May 19, 2006
    Posts: 1,893

    Jibs
    Member

  25. ford dealer sold and being gutted. i got to dumpster dive in the last one. i missed the first 5 or 6. Paid 200$ since he said it had scrap valve . The best score was the watervilt planishing hammer and dies. IMG_0221.JPG IMG_0281.jpg
     
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  26. Bird man
    Joined: Dec 28, 2009
    Posts: 894

    Bird man
    Member
    from Milwaukee

    Do we have a winner yet?
    Found this old block of hardwood. Has 16 holes drilled in it, nothing special.
    Maybe it held lifters or something? Maybe lifters that won on the beach @ Daytona or set records at Indy or won at Talladega?
    Maybe lifters for cars driven by Parsons or Foyt or Don White,Unser, Penske, Goldsmith?
    Not saying where it came from....
    But the second photo may yield some light :)
    P1010608.JPG P1010609.JPG

    I love this tread!
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2017
  27. jxnslotcar
    Joined: Apr 26, 2009
    Posts: 321

    jxnslotcar
    Member

    That bike with the banana seat and sissy bar kinda looks like the one I had in 1970. Had a lot of fun with that bike.
     
  28. Are those white floor mats for sale?
     
  29. One of my friends that worked for the state got a complete set of Snap-on carburetor tools in the original Snap-on box from the dumpster behind the state garage. I now use them to work on Stromberg 48,81,97 carburetors as well as Ford / Holley type 2 barrel carbs.
     
  30. I woulda thought the NOS V8-60 Ardun heads I found would have gotten a bit of attention, but not even a flinch. Tough room :D

    I saled those bomber seats to BobK in 2005. Those actually were in the dumpster, I climbed in and rescued them. If I hadn't been on-site that day the Ardun heads would have gone in too.
     

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