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Glad to see other folks using material headed for the scrap yard. I keep thinking why am I hanging on to this stuff, then as soon as I discard it I turn right around and need it for another project I am working on. Keep on keeping on with all those ideas you guys are coming up with. :idea:
I think the key is to have at least 100 projects underway simultaneously this way when a project is paused to look through the scrap pile you nearly always see something that you realise will be perfect for another project which was paused several months ago waiting for inspiration/the right bit of scrap. i dont throw stuff away unless it is attracting flies or made of a material i dont like or is too rusty to weld then it goes to the scrapyard and gets traded for something else.
Most of the commercial scrap yards around wont let you in for that purpose! It sucks really because there is a large manufacturing base here and companies are too lazy to try to sell their old stuff. Or they are afraid of liability.
As far as my own scrap heaps, im in the process of cleaning my basement and frankly it is difficult as you cant clean and organize without throwing stuff out. Funny thin is i did find some stuff i needed. However much is dumpstered or donated. In the end the space is needed to build more stuff (tools & a railroad).
the big yards are impossible to deal with, ive always tried really hard to find little "satalite" yards, my current favoutire is Boswel's, they dont give very good money for scrap which is fine as ive never really had enough for it to be worthwhile on the money side, but they keep useful looking stuff to one side.
Mr Boswel's daughter deals with the money, her husband keeps the yard in shape and Mr Boswel himself AKA "king of the gypsies" looks after his heavy horses and gypsy wagons.
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I feel for you my friend, throwing stuff out is never nice but i'm sure you feel a'new now you have a bit of elbow space and you obviously have your priorities in order as there isnt much point holding onto stuff if it means having no space to build anything with it.
The other side of the coin is challenging too: when should you buy new? When should you throw something away?
I always haul my scrap pieces of steel to the scrap yard. It is my way in to trade off scrap for better scrap that I can use. I just have to watch my weight because one time I weighed out heavier then when I went in. The yard I go to allows me to do this as long as I go across the scale and don't weigh more going out then when I went in. Nothing beats a good scrap pile to dig threw for your next project.
Most of my tools & other stuff is made from recycled materials. That's the way I was brought up. Make do & mend.
As an alternative denizen of this disposable society, I can source almost any material, for free, from places like: freecycle, freegle, refuse skips, friends, neighbours, industrial estates & stuff left in the streets. For a few sheckles more: gumtree & ebay are good sources.
I grow my own wood for turning and ask for wind fall/cuttings and from places where I know they will be getting rid of it (neighbours are a good source here).
Casting metals are entirely from stripped goods.
Electronics components from an endless stream of thrown out consumables.
I buy new only when I have no alternative. If it's a tool, I'm buying, I try to buy the best I can afford.
Prices here (in England) for materials are on the floor, such is their availability.
The flip side is that apprentice engineers are on the decline & working at home is getting more difficult because it's becoming socially unacceptable (abnormal) to make & fix things.
With a little bit of imagination & common sense you could make all sorts of usable tools from a scrap pile. I love it!!!!
I love to recycle materials but sadly I do not have the space to store very much. Couple this with the fact that local scrap yards do not allow/encourage you to visit them other than to sell and it makes it hard. I recover what I can from free facebook pages or just stuff I find on the streets but again space becomes the issue.
