Hardware..stuff you collect that others throw...

All,

This a spinoff of the previous hardware topic. What do you keep that may be considered "extra" thrifty?

I save all the oil filter rubber rings from used filters. I also save the dehumidifier water for filling batteries.

Sound off fellow scrimpers!

D.
 
Fanbelts and inner tubes.

I have probably two dozen belts hanging on a couple of spikes in the garage. I use them for various Rube Goldberg projects and have on occasion even found one to fit a tractor or truck.

The inner tubes are mostly bicycle or motorcycle sized and get used when I need a piece of rubber for vibration damping or to keep something from rubbing on paint.
 
Battery terminal caps and hyd hose caps get saved for plugging hyd hoses, cyl ports to leave less mess. I still have plastic sleeves from when I bred cows.....they make excellent gloves for switching oil filters, wrap and dispose. Lacking them, I"d use bread bags. Again, less oily mess.
 
Where do I start?? I save just about everything. And I am pretty particular about keeping organized.

Just today I installed a cutoff switch on my pickup. The switch I'd bought on a bargain some years back. The battery cable, two small bolts, and short spacer pipes were all materials I 'd scrounged over the years. Installation looks "factory".

I have a 14 x 14 one wnd a half story cabin in the back yard and a 16 x 30 addition I built on my shop.

Both buildings are very well built and I have under $1000 total into them.
 
Hubs,axles and bearings. A worn out bearing and hub will last for years as the turnstile/pivot in a project. Strong/smooth operating and easy to lube or disassemble and move.
A lady asked me to save used nails a few years ago. When she picked them up,I offed about 4 lbs of new nails in various size mixed togeather. She declined them,laughed and invited me by her shop to see what the nails were for. Never stopped to think how labor intensive it is to make a new nail appear old for use in rustic craft items. She sells rusty barn tin for $4.50 per square foot.
 
I have 4 atv tires I kept when I had new ones installed (for more "bite"). I think they'd make great tires for a small trailer but I haven't found wheels for them yet.
 
I have saved the cord from every electrical device/appliance I've ever used up. I've a box full of them now. Came in handy once.
 
Oh for God's sakes, you had to start a stupid thread like this to make me realize how pathetic I am. I save almost anything that I have the ridiculous idea that I will use in the next 20 years. I have to conciously make an effort throw stuff out and I feel bad about it. I save power cords, scrap steel, and roller bearings to make the list short.
 
JF,

It took some willpower to "recycle" 1700 pound of steel a few weeks ago.

If you stepped into my shop, you'd never know the difference!?

I seemingly try to obtain the title of most-recycled/saved/accumulated/repurposed/irritatedmywife person I know.

D.

Meant in humor.
 
Saw a stack of ATV tires at Sam's Club a couple days ago. Deep lugs on the tires; priced at $125 each.
 
I also save most things I can easily salvage from something I'm throwing out, and actively hunt for such things at garage sales and such. Many's the time a "box for a buck" of miscellaneous gunk has had a few items worth ten to a hundred times the asking price buried in with the rest. Doesn't take a lot of brass fittings, grade-8 bolts, or other smallish stuff to add up to folding money! One other use I've found for inner tubes is making "ranger bands"--cut crosswise chunks off from them and use them for rubber bands. Varying the angle of cut will vary the size of the band somewhat, and of course the width can be chosen to fit whatever's needed. A decent inner tube is better rubber than most rubber bands and a different compound as well--one that typically doesn't degrade as easily in heat, cold, sunlight, etc. as most cheap rubber bands do.
 
My BIL kept everything even used plow bolts. After he died I helped my nephew clean out the shop. From an old machine shed he had boxes of used plow bolts and in the new shop he had boxes of new plow bolts. Nephew gave me a box of the new ones because he no longer has a moldboard plow. If course a do not use one either but may use the bolts for something else. The nuts will come in handy
 
I wrote this a few years ago,sent it into Poetry.com
they said I won a cup of some sort, but I had to pay my way to New York to receive it at some convention.
I told them to keep it.
Nuts and Bolts, a Dilemma
Nuts, bolts and gadgets, I have so many.
Big ones and little ones and some kinda skinny.
All sorted and stacked in jars on the shelves,
And many just lying there on the tables by themselves.
This and that taken by methodical extractions
From worn out junks and tossed out contraptions.
These come in handy for projects and chores
But always with additionals brought from the stores.
Oh I have stacked them, repacked them and gleaned them,
And yielded to my wife to finally clean them(out).
But only into the next week do I sadly remember,
That I threw out that one just exact needed member.
Raymond Moczygemba 2002
 
well my dad been gone several years now while cleaning out shop started to pickup a bucket of hyd oil and could not move it pryed the lid off and it was full of oil and gears (RTO-9918 I think) as was 10 more buckets all of them were junk had missing teeth and why did he save them ?
also found a case of Houadaille shock oil (quart bottles priced 59 cents )
and at my BIL shop after he passed the big shocker was S hooks that come off rubber tarp straps , he worked at GP for 40 years and when some trucker would break a strap and toss it he would take the two hooks and put them in a drum
we hauled about 6 tons away from there and my sister wanted all the drums back !
 
Screws, nuts, bolts and nails. I try and throw things away, but had a setback recently. I installed a new(new to me used) sink and vanity in my daughters bathroom. I had every fastener, fitting, plumbing part etc. that I needed in my shop. So now I'm afraid to toss anything away again.
 
I'll tell you something modern innertubes arn't good for. Making a ,,,,, one of those things where you cut a nice forked stick to attach 2 strips of rubber and an old shoe tounge to launch small rocks at high velocity. How long has it been since you saw a boy with one in his hip pocket?
 
Ray, with your permission (and proper attribution, of course) I will print that out, frame it and hang it in my garage.

If I can find wall space...
 
i worked at a place and they were re doing the conveyors a couple of times the construction boys has buckets of mixed hardware that they were going to pitch into the dumpster.I managed to grab a couple of pails of their mixed hardware,and that winter when I wasnt doing much I would sit down and sort through the hardware I got a pile of bins that stack togethet and filled em up that has saved me many trips to the hardware store
 
Slingshots. And like Daniel Boone we carved notches for every bird we killed .
Surgical tubing if you could cumshaw it somewhere.
 
I save only what is usable.
No use saving a bolt or nut with damaged treads or a used bearing or a cracked belt or worn to the hilt part.
 
I sure do save the nuts and bolts along with miscellaneous other hardware. Seems like the minute you throw something away, you need it within a week. Never fails.
 
(quoted from post at 10:13:14 03/24/14) A cracked belt makes a great "handle" when nailed to a cribbing block (short 6x6 post) to make it easier to move/position/pickup/store.
ep, til it breaks and you're flat on your back :shock:
 
You guys are the best therapists! I feel better now that I'm not the only one to 'hang on to stuff because I might need it'. My son is a new blacksmith, so my old mower blades are going to him...I never found a use for them.
 
2 liter pop bottles filled with water. Isn't as strange as it sounds. They temper the temperature swings from my solar heater. OK it is weird.
 

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