Any dumpster divers here?

rlp in Co.

Well-known Member
Sometimes I go to the dump and come back
with more than I took. I found this shop
vac with the cord cutoff and thought it
couldn't possibly be good, but guess what?
The only thing wrong was the plastic lever
on the switch was broke off. You can even
still turn it off and on with a
screwdriver! What have you found in the dump?

cvphoto72091.jpg
 
Back when I was around 7 years old my dad took some trash to the Winfield KS city dump and found a toy truck. It was old when he found it and he told me to take care of it because it could be worth a lot. Well I still have it and have had the value checked and it is worth around $1500.
 

The scrap yard I go to is on the way to the dump . A better class of junk is found there :)

The man that runs it lets me have stuff for free sometimes , the best thing so far has been a 12 volt powered jockey wheel for my trailer . I'm starting to build a few new rooms at home , so far this little device has moved my trailer full of soil , bricks , broken concrete and roof tiles without any trouble at all . To places I could never have backed into with a car . Best free thing I've got in ages , just needed a solenoid and a wired control switch , I used one from an old winch .
 
I used to get teased at work about bringing back more from the scrap metal dumpster than I took out! I built a lot of things out of scrap metal, a lot of it was stainless.
 
I used to go to dumps and scrap yards whenever I could. Sadly, most are now closed to scroungers. Back when I could still visit those places, my finds included a close-ratio Muncie four-speed with two ears missing from the case but perfect gears inside; two pairs of fixable '55-66 Chevy pickup rear fenders (new ones are several hundred dollars each); and a '56 Chevy car differential that I now have in my '55 Chevy pickup. I used to be able to buy brand-new steel pieces (square tubing, channel, pipe, etc.) brought to the scrap yard by local manufacturers -- 10 cents a pound. Then the insurance company told the yard no more scroungers allowed. I miss those days.
 

Our landfill put up a metal building for people to leave good stuff they didn't want. Then it got to where a dozen scroungers would park over there all day to get stuff as it came in. They closed it.
 
My grandpa and I used to go scrounging at the dump. Till my mom put a stop to it. We still went, just had to hide the loot at grandpa's instead. We found an old double barrel shotgun at the dump. Grandpa told me its not safe to shoot but I cleaned it up, still have it. Smile every time I look at it.

I've never understood the recycling people. They say recycling is the thing to do. But if I see something I can use in the pile they say I can't have it, can't even buy it from them. Like a few years ago when dealerships were seizing up perfectly good engines in cars to get the government "cash for clunkers" money. Some people ain't happy unless they are destroying something to keep it from benefiting someone else.
 
When I was on the road. I would stop at the rest stops and check out the dumpsters. I found everything from cash to items that were still good. I found a pair of Red Wing boots. New still in the box. People thought I was nuts. But they sure liked some of the items I found.
 
I was at the recycle center when a guy was unloading some scrap metal. He asked me where the steel T-posts should go. I helped him put them in the back of my truck. I think they were new.
 
What I hate seeing is building that are still good being ripped apart and put in truck going to the land fill. Back when I was still driving dump truck I had job one day to do just that. They use an Excavator to destroy a hose. The water heater wasn't even a year old but yet I had to take the whole load to the land fill
 
Its been years since we've had a public dump where you could scrounge for stuff. Back in the 70s when we did, I was also accused of bringing back more than I took. My best find was a model A pickup box complete with tailgate which I quickly turned into a trailer for my garden tractor. The good thing.....that trailer has been "shedded" ever since so it's not gettin' any rustier.
 
When I worked construction I checked the dumpster almost daily. A lot of lumber got wasted and I was always picking through for steel. I beams and channel and pipe got thrown away. The prevalent concept being that the material was already charged to the job and it was easier to pitch it than haul it back to the shop and unload it. I haven't worked construction since 2011 and still have a lot of useful project material in the hay loft. Ellis
 
I check the dumpster at work regularly. (nearly every time I go by.)

(I think I have most of the staff trained to just offer me their better 'trash' before they even go to the dumpster.)

I got a garden hose from there since Christmas. I count that as number six coming out of that dumpster in the last 12 years. (One needed the female end. Only one had holes in it.) There was even a boat in there once. But it had been cut up with a Sawsall.

We had an associate who used to put really good stuff in there right after Christmas. But you know, his dumpster leavings are one of the only things I really miss about him.
 
I haul all kinds of stuff home when I find it . I use to have a huge collection of metric bolts fittings and anything else you could think of from working at the new holland dealer
 
I cannot recall all the good stuff I've scored from dumpsters!

A few highlights: A bunch of lawnmowers including a nice Honda Harmony push mower, 2.5 and 3.5 kw generators, 15 ft aluminum canoe, 5 horse Mercury and 18 horse Evinude outboard motors, bikes for my kids/grandkids, a fully functional "searchlight" railroad signal (one of these will bring $500+ on eBay!), some illuminated Christmas inflatables, 24ft aluminum extension ladder, several hydraulic jacks, a 2 ton chain hoist, 400 watt metal halide streetlight, a Honda-powered pressure washer, a couple "pancake" air compressors.......the list goes on.

All required minor repair. But once fixed I keep/use some items. Other stuff I've given to kids/friends; the rest I sell.
I get a perverse pleasure doing this and it helps keep me busy - especially during this seemingly endless isolation of the pandemic. Also it provides a little "off budget" money to spend however I want.
 
Only once. When I was about six or seven. My cousin lived next door. They were moving and cleaning out the garage. I saw my cousin's mom put his John Deere Toys ( 7520, folding disk, and wagon) in the trash pile.

After they packed up, Said good bye and the Uhaul was out of sight. I had dad go with me to their house and dig the toys out of the pile. I still have them.

About thirty years a go at grandma's Christmas party. My cousin said they never should have tossed those toys, They would be worth money today. I didn't say a word. When we were little. He would steal my Hot Wheels cars.
 
The biggest thing I drug home was a 48X48 fan with the motor,the cord was bad and it is in the top of the shed now. The A/C company convinced my work that the whole unit was junk(the cord was bad)Whole new roof mount heating and air .
 
Landfills around here forbid taking anything. With lumber cost high,loads are taken to landfills every day. I am able to buy stuff I find at a recycle yard. In the last year I've got 4 welding gas bottles,new hydraulic pumps,spool valves and cylinders plus majority of structrial steel I've needed. I hit the jackpot 3 years ago when a man alowed me to take material from a house before it was demoed. The walls were 1x8,1x10 and 1x12 Redwood. I sold several hundered dollars worth to a boat yard in Galveston plus one to five hundered here and there. My kids don't approve.
 
Only since I was old enough to be let outdoors unsupervised...

Lost track of all the good "stuff" I've lugged home. Literally tons of "scrap" steel for sure, power tools, furniture, lumber...if I can foresee a use for it, it goes in the back of the pickup.
 
Rule #1, Never go by a dumpster without looking in!
Perhaps my best find was an E-Z Up commercial grade canopy, some of it still in the wrappers. A few tubes bent, perfect top. Somewhere else, pickup another for the parts.
Lots of other good to me stuff, of all kinds, over the last 50 years.
 
I've done my fair share!!! The best recent one is a heavy 50' extension cord that the electrical contractor at work ran over the end with a man lift. They can't replace the end, so he threw it away. Somehow it ended up in my pickup, don't know how it got there!!!
 
I worked in and was in charge of a small city Public Works department. The junk pile of stuff we hauled into the yard was a goldmine. When I became the boss, my policy was "If you see something in the junk pile you want or need, be sure to get it before I do". Pumps, engines, transmissions, welders, torches, washing machine,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,just on and on. If you needed something, just wait. It will come into the junk pile if you have patience. I used to dig computers out of the pile, put together working ones from pieces and parts, and give them to the employees to take home. Many got pretty low wages and couldn't afford such things. It is just amazing what people will throw away.
 
That's great! An electrical contractor/electrician not allowed to replace the end on a cord. I guess that wasn't one of the regulations that got cut.
 
A forced hot air furnace looking new with the energy saving stickers still on it, it heats my garage/ work shop now. A 6" x 24" Atlas metal lathe. Craftsman air compressor needed a check valve under $10.00, a 10" Delta table saw/metal stand needed a handle to raise and lower blade, a 12' craftsman radial arm saw needed a table and stand. The Snap-On dealer lives up the road from me and often would toss other brand tools that were traded in on new ones I grabbed a Blue point and a Rigid 1/2" impact drivers and Mac 3/8", 1/2" and 1/4" air wrenches as well as a Mac Torque wrench. Angle Iron, flat and round stock the list goes on. sadly now it is much harder to get anything because steel now goes into a large dumpster located in a pit.
 

We used to have a landfill where I lived before they started trucking everything 100 plus miles to the BIG LANDFILL!!!! We ahd what was called "The Drop and Swap" where anything potentially usable could be left for whomever needed it. Good conservative thinking! They outlawed that of course and where I'm at now we have a transfer station where you have to pay to dump anything and it all gets sent 60 miles away and if you try to take anything decent they'll call the police on you.

Where I grew up we had an old style dump. Most people would leave anything good at the edge of the lot for anyone who wanted it. I've seen miserable people take perfectly good looking items and smash them so no one else could make of them- things like lamps, chairs, windows, etc. Some people are just jerks.
 
It's awful what contractors have to throw away because they can't repair stuff and reuse it. I have a 36 foot ladder that the lower end was mashed up in shipping. The company boss I worked for sez, "You gonna drop that off at the landfill on the way home and save us the expense, right"? wink,wink. "Yes Sir, I sure am". I ended up with a 34 foot, commercial duty extension ladder...........
 
It's a shame that a lot of good stuff gets
burried in huge mountains of trash! All
these recycle do gooders are hypocrites by
not allowing people to reclaim stuff that
is thrown away!
 
That was the rule where I worked.

I salvaged a bunch of 25 - 50 ft cords with crushed ends from the scrap tub - including a couple AWG #10 cords. A quick visit to Home Depot for replacement connectors then a few minutes with a wire stripper resulted in nice, heavy duty extension cords.
 

I retired from construction 20 years ago. At that time we could not repair cord, but we could put a new end on.

Dusty
 
It just occurred to me. The chair I am in here at the computer came out of that same dumpster. . .
 
Way back in the time line....maybe 1960-65. Had "Operation Big Lift" where our planes left full of army guys and flew non stop to Germany in a drill. When they came back word circulated around the avionics shop guys that the GIs didn't eat their C rations on the trip back and the dumpsters were full of unopened C rations.

Being an avid fisherman at the time, C rations would be the perfect take along food that wasn't perishable or smashable or dunkable. Must have been 10 PM when I heard about it, was home, got dressed and lit out for the base. Filled 2 big garbage bags with goodies and ate like a king for years on my trips. Did make it for roll call the next morning...a bit red-eyed, but passed inspection.

I don't know if the APs would have caught us in there whether or not we would have been cited....but we took our chances and it was a lot of fun....like going to junk yards when you had kids growing up, getting their driver's licenses and needing "Rent-A-Wrecks" for transportation....but that was a way to enjoy a Saturday morning....when you weren't fishing.
 
Extension cords must be thrown away if the plug is bad; another thing often falsely blamed on OSHA. OSHA and individual company policies are two different things. Some contractors and employers do not allow such repairs, by their company policies. OSHA allows the replacement of cord ends, there is plenty of info available in the standards books and on the web about their standards and rulings on replacing end caps, and some allowable cord repairs as well. Our small tool repair people and electricians commonly replaced damaged/bad cord caps, with proper UL approved replacement caps. We had no issues with such on OSHA inspections.
 
I knew a guy who ran the compactor loader rig at our local landfill. They used to build a three-sided box off to the side for the weekly arrival of the dumpster from the local super store. Apparently, company policy was to toss most of the returned goods from the Customer Service desk into the dumpster rather than return them to the shelves or sell as "open Box". The dump crew could take their time and sift through the pile over time rather than bury some nice, new stuff. As with many things too good to be true, it also had some downers. The kids were heartbroken upon opening the X-Box package to find the original purchaser had merely filled the box with enough books to weigh correctly, then returned the box of books for a full refund and kept the game. No free lunch that day.
 
I have not been in a few years but the last time I did it was in front of Notre-Dame basilica. They were in the process of installing a new pipe organ and ripped out some of the original flooring. I dove in and pulled out several pieces of cut and broken up floor boards. I ended up make two crosses out the boards. The wood was old growth maple. When I cut it you could smell the incents that were burnt during services. I removed several square nails and reinstall them when done. I only wish I had took the time to get more. There are truly holy crosses.
 

Please JL Ray , a photograph would be a blessing .
What an amazing find and appropriate purpose !


Closest I've ever got to something like this were a few tiles taken off the roof of the Sydney Opera House . While looking at them a Japanese tourist asked me for them . I handed them over , then perhaps an hour later saw him breaking them into small pieces and selling each piece for $5 to his fellow bus passengers !!
 
In 1945 my grandfather picked up a 1932 model A truck from the junk yard, it had been in a wreck, no doors/cab, just the windshield and the rest forward, flat bed diamond plate body. I have a B&W picture of him, my dad and uncles with it piled high with tomato baskets, they were high yield growers that year in NJ. My dad relocated to MD eastern shore, brought eh truck with him. It sat in the barn for years, then when I was about twelve, I asked if I could get it running. A few copper straps to the spark plugs, cleaned up the points, fresh gas and away she ent. I learned to drive on it. Sadly sold at auction when we had to close down the farm.

I've down a lot of salvaging and scrounging since.
Once tried to save some good 2x4s for a duck blind from a dumpster at a Federal Lab, almost got arrested for stealing "Federal Property"!
 
I’ve got a Krag-Jorgensen rifle (30-40 Krag) that was pulled from a dumpster, old barn was being torn down and the laborers threw it in the dumpster. Been offered $800 for it, could be worth as much as $1200
 

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