# Saved from a dumpster, or Free finds.



## bud16415 (Jan 27, 2020)

Show us your find!


Yesterday morning I was looking thru Craigslist and saw a recent posting for a free snowblower. Most of the time these are clickbait to get you to look. I texted the number and got a reply to call for directions. I got a nice lady and she said there is a guy looking at it now and he must have thought we are asking too much because he passed on it. I told her sight unseen except the picture she posted that I would take it and I could be there in an hour. She said she would hold it and keep anyone else that calls number. I went over and picked up the 1974 beauty. It brought back memories of how much I would have liked having it back then. Well 46 years later I have one. Haha.


So my new project will be to do an antique restoration (maybe) and also have a working machine.


Not sure I might be crazy. What do you think.


Show us your free projects.


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## Jeff Handy (Jan 27, 2020)

I repaired an old Ariens much like that for a client, about 25 years ago. 

I got it running good, then a year or two later he bought a fancy new one, and gave me the old one. 

It still ran fine, but it steadily dripped a little gas from the carb if you did not keep the engine running full rpms, and the machine rolling and throwing snow. 

I tried to fix the drip, gave up, and used it for about six years like that. 
It always started, even if the gas was a little old.


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## Jeff Handy (Jan 27, 2020)

Great old-school pic on the cover of the manual. 

But the guy in the green coat should be smoking a pipe. 

The operator should be smoking a cig. 

The idiot in the red hat, with his foot an inch from the auger, should be wearing camo, with a hunting dog looking angry at the machine. 

Their wives and kids peeking safely from the sidewalk.


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## bud16415 (Jan 27, 2020)

Jeff Handy said:


> Great old-school pic on the cover of the manual.
> 
> But the guy in the green coat should be smoking a pipe.
> 
> ...




When I saw that picture I had to save it. Reminded me more of 1964 than 1974 but well could be 1974 I was so busy then I wasn’t paying attention.


My dad was out in the garage sawing and nailing something and he finished and yelled in to me to come out dressed for the weather. I get out there and he had built a giant 2 man or in my case a man and a boy snow shovel out of a sheet of 4x8 Masonite paneling. He nailed a wood strip down both 4’ sides and cut two hand holds.


We took it out and there was about 6” of new snow and we cleared that driveway in about 5 minutes flat and it about killed me. It wasn’t 2 minutes and those same guys in the snow blower photos were there watching and giving advice on what we were doing wrong.


You are right one guy smoking etc. and safety was never talked about. Everyone just knew you don’t stick your hand in the chute, but it was kind of ok to use a broom handle.


Now you walk over to the neighbor to check it out he goes in the house and calls the cops.


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## tuffy (Jan 28, 2020)

Nice find bud. Around here you would never find something like that. or if you did they would want a arm and leg for it. We have this family in town that all they do is watch market place and craigslist for deals and then give it a quick clean up and resell it at a much higher price. When they are not doing that they drive around town looking for something to be set out that they can grab. been arrested a few times for grabbing stuff from people that were just cleaning out there garage.


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## bud16415 (Jan 28, 2020)

tuffy said:


> Nice find bud. Around here you would never find something like that. or if you did they would want a arm and leg for it. We have this family in town that all they do is watch market place and craigslist for deals and then give it a quick clean up and resell it at a much higher price. When they are not doing that they drive around town looking for something to be set out that they can grab. been arrested a few times for grabbing stuff from people that were just cleaning out there garage.



The guy that had it did say it was given to him so when he no longer needed it he wanted too pay it forward. His wife said so someone can put it on CL the next day and make a 100 bucks. When I told her I was planning on repairing it and using it they seemed happy.


We have the same thing here if you have a garage sale the same few people come an hour early and try and cherry pick it. We had one old guy that went around with a old car and trailer and will take anything steel. I had a sign that said free and I would always make a pile of scrap steel and help him out. I haven’t seen him in a couple years so he must have moved on one way or another.


I hope others post what they saved from a dumpster or am I the only junk picker here?


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## Jeff Handy (Jan 28, 2020)

I pulled a full mismatched set of golf clubs out of my condo dumpster last summer. 
Even a putter, but no golf bag.


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## tuffy (Jan 28, 2020)

Not a dumpster, but when I managed the local salvage yard/recycling center we got all of the returns from the local Home depot. waterheaters ,stoves, lawn and garden ect usally nothing wrong with them either. I got a new cub cadet self propelled with a bag the only thing I could find wrong with it was the engine kill switch was out of adjustment. also a honda personal pace mower all that I coul;d find wrong with it was it was out of gas.The water heaters all looked new also. Took a 50 gallon natural gas home worked fine. And on the salvage yard side when the govt. was doing the cash for clunkers program we got all the cars from our local dealerships. A lot of nice cars there too but  we had to crush them within 30 days. What a shame!


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## bud16415 (Jan 29, 2020)

Jeff Handy said:


> I pulled a full mismatched set of golf clubs out of my condo dumpster last summer.
> Even a putter, but no golf bag.


Keep your eyes open in my life of scrounging stuff the mismatched golf bag that will match the mismatched clubs will show up on the curb in no time.


When my son was about 14 we were driving along and I noticed a guy sitting a really nice set of speakers to the curb. I started slowing down and he started screaming NO, NO. I said those speakers would be great in the garage and he said dad I know the girl that lives there. It would have been a form of social suicide for him, I guess to have stopped. I went by an hour later and they were long gone.


As a good note the gene skipped a generation as he doesn’t hang on to anything and only buys new. Kind of a reverse training I think.


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## bud16415 (Jan 29, 2020)

tuffy said:


> Not a dumpster, but when I managed the local salvage yard/recycling center we got all of the returns from the local Home depot. waterheaters ,stoves, lawn and garden ect usally nothing wrong with them either. I got a new cub cadet self propelled with a bag the only thing I could find wrong with it was the engine kill switch was out of adjustment. also a honda personal pace mower all that I coul;d find wrong with it was it was out of gas.The water heaters all looked new also. Took a 50 gallon natural gas home worked fine. And on the salvage yard side when the govt. was doing the cash for clunkers program we got all the cars from our local dealerships. A lot of nice cars there too but  we had to crush them within 30 days. What a shame!



You got me beat new lawn equipment is even better. I hate that aspect of these big box stores.


As to Cash for Clunkers there was never a more wasteful government program IMO. My buddy has a wrecker and was hauling for cash for clunkers and I would ride along to keep him company once in a while. We both saw way nicer cars getting crushed a couple beautiful caddies that looked like new inside made me sick. Then we picked up a really nice Dodge truck and as we were pulling away a mechanic came running out and told my friend I will give you 500 bucks to drop that truck at his house and pick it up the next morning. He said he needed the tranny and the owner just had it put in the month before. He said it will have his old tranny in it in the morning. He rolled up the window and we talked about the offer. He said I don’t know this guy and could he be a plant to get him in trouble he didn’t want to risk his business on 500 bucks. I said lets go. He told the guy he was sorry. I quite going after that it actually made me sick seeing the waste and that people were conned into thinking they were saving the planet when all it did was make used car prices go up along with junk yard parts.


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## Jeff Handy (Jan 30, 2020)

My best buddy lives in a fairly affluent yuppie neighborhood. 

A few years ago, his yuppie neighbor had a garage sale. 
He had a nice lawn mower for sale, but refused my friend’s offer. 
Likewise refused his offer on a nice fancy driver and golf bag with a hand cart. 
The Monday after the sale, everything was at the curb, along with a full matched set of expensive golf clubs.


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## bud16415 (Jan 30, 2020)

Jeff Handy said:


> My best buddy lives in a fairly affluent yuppie neighborhood.
> 
> A few years ago, his yuppie neighbor had a garage sale.
> He had a nice lawn mower for sale, but refused my friend’s offer.
> ...



Go figure it’s human nature I guess. I was at a neighborhood garage sale back in the day of audio CDs and the guy had his whole collection of about 500 for sale for a buck each. He had a sign that said at 2:00 you could buy them all for 20 bucks. I looked at my watch as I had picked out 10 that I wanted and the time was 1:45 and I told him they all go for $20 in 15 minutes. He said yep. I said I will give you 6 bucks then for 10. He said nope buck each till 2:00. I wasn’t about to wait 15 minutes so I tossed them back in the pile. As I left I saw a guy pack up the whole that was about to wait the 15 minutes. I just scratched my head.


Another time there was a kid about 10 years old collecting stuff and his parents were roaming around I saw something marked 10 cents and I told the kid I don’t have 10 cents will you take a quarter? He said wait I have to ask my dad. The dad came over and said sorry a quarter will be fine and we haven’t taught him about money too good we only use cards. Man when I was 10 I would have snatched my offer up fast.


Speaking of golf. I was at a yard sale and the guy had a 22 degree utility iron really expensive club and I was looking at it and he came over and told me he had bought 2 of them a 22 and a 27. he said he loves the 27 it is his rescue club and he can’t hit the 22 to save his life. I bought the 22 for five bucks and put it in my golf bag. When I pulled it out a couple days later and took the 22 head cover off it was the 27. I went back trying to find the house but in a modern subdivision they all look the same. I think about it every time I hit the club.


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## tuffy (Jan 31, 2020)

You can't believe how many golf clubs we got at the recycling center,but I know nothing about golf. We would use them to hit the balls around that was until I hit one and broke the front window out of our excavator. The owner was not happy made us use it all year long that way. boy was that seat cold when it had snow on it.


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## pjones (Jan 31, 2020)

tuffy said:


> You can't believe how many golf clubs we got at the recycling center,but I know nothing about golf. We would use them to hit the balls around that was until I hit one and broke the front window out of our excavator. The owner was not happy made us use it all year long that way. boy was that seat cold when it had snow on it.



Sounds like they just want to play a game. I recommend next time filing a safety complaint. What would happen if a can of whipping cream went off and hit the driver? Could be catastrophic! That’s a WCB complaint for sure! They’ll have that window fixed in no time flat


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## rokosz (Jan 31, 2020)

one man's trash... sorry "person's"     Not dumpster diving but kind of.  Many decades ago I was walking back to my car (66 bug) with a friend on  the west side of Manhattan in the early AM.  Hey, what's that?  Turns out its a1930s maybe 20s filing cabinet.  I managed to get friend and cabinet in the bug.  Peculiar design: the top drawer isn't a drawer: the top of the cabinet is a lid for that top drawer space.  Perfect formy 45s.    It even had the original alphabet dividers (heavy paper board with the tabs edged in black metal).   It has stood me well.  When it gets too full I know its time to recycle the oldest paper.

The 22 and 27 golf club reminds me, just a year or two ago I Craigs'd a 98 Infiniti.  Obvious scrap dealer bought, I signed over the docs. He said he'd be back to pick up the 98.  I get a call about 20 minutes later from him.  I signed over the wrong docs:  I signed over my wifes '13 Infiniti.  Holy Shdoodoo!  What a mess.  I drove to where he was, refunded his cash and he gave me the docs.  Ultimately donated the 98 -- once I got proper replacement docs...


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## joecaption (Feb 3, 2020)

In the off season I get calls to clean out garages, sheds, houses so they can sell the house ASAP and have been told everything goes.
I've found unopened  rolls of wiring, unopened boxes of B&S parts, Qt's of  Mobile One oil, A Howdy Duty doll in the original box, new spark plugs and oil filters, and hundreds of other items.
One mans trash is another mans treasure.


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## Jeff Handy (Feb 3, 2020)

I was doing that same job, cleaning out an old garage for a house being sold by the estate, children all lived far away. 

In the garage I found a big can of DDT. 
About a quart. 
Waste Management picked it up for free, along with other hazardous stuff. 

Years earlier, same situation, I found a small squeeze bottle full of mercury. 
About a few liquid ounces, but it weighed about a pound. 
Someone else on the cleanup job wanted it, fine with me.


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## zannej (Feb 4, 2020)

I'll post pictures later, but my friend pulled a stainless steel wall-mount napkin holder out of the trash at the hospital. There appeared to be nothing wrong with it and he cleaned it with clorox. I teased him that it was the ebola napkin holder.

Another time, when my elderly carpenter friend was still alive, I saw that someone across the street was throwing out a wooden chair. He asked me to go look at it. I brought it back to him & it was solid oak & only problem was the seat had cracked. Fixed the seat, sanded it, stained it, and it looked great. Another (now late) elderly friend wanted it. I wish I'd claimed it because I loved that chair.


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## zannej (Feb 5, 2020)

This is the napkin holder he pulled out of the trash. I got the whiteboard for him because the pantry side just looked too bare.


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## bud16415 (Feb 5, 2020)

Our microwave blew out the other day and I carried the old one out to the garage to cut the power cord off (you never know when you will need a cord). The thing looks like brand new even though it is about 5 years old. My dad would have hated the wastefulness of our throw away society, as he felt a toaster was something to be rebuilt and should last a lifetime. I wondered if my weld helmet would fit inside it and it does along with my weld gloves and some other weld items I want to keep clean.


So instead of the junk guy getting it I set it on the shelf in the weld shop area and got rid of cardboard box that was looking ratty. Easy to open and close and sealed up.


Saved from the dumpster!


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## zannej (Feb 5, 2020)

I'm glad you saved it, Bud. I still have my old Montgomery Ward 3.0 cu ft convection microwave with faux wood pattern. It's down at the workshop & I keep holding out hope that one day we can repurpose it. I wonder if it is possible to upgrade it to have more watts & still be a convection microwave. The size on the outside is about the same as a lot of the modern microwaves but it has a lot more space inside. Wish I had the skill to Frankenstein it to have a new control panel, cover it in faux stainless steel wrap, and get it working at like 1200watts.


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## mabloodhound (Feb 6, 2020)

bud16415 said:


> Our microwave blew out the other day and I carried the old one out to the garage to cut the power cord off (you never know when you will need a cord). The thing looks like brand new even though it is about 5 years old. My dad would have hated the wastefulness of our throw away society, as he felt a toaster was something to be rebuilt and should last a lifetime. I wondered if my weld helmet would fit inside it and it does along with my weld gloves and some other weld items I want to keep clean.
> !



Many times it's just the fuse in the microwave that goes.  Remove the cover and find the bus fuse and check it to see if it's OK.  Easy to replace; got mine at ACE Hardware.


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## bud16415 (Feb 6, 2020)

mabloodhound said:


> Many times it's just the fuse in the microwave that goes.  Remove the cover and find the bus fuse and check it to see if it's OK.  Easy to replace; got mine at ACE Hardware.




This one shot some serious sparks inside behind a little cover plate and the plate had a melt down. I figured it was not worth it.


I will check that in the future though. Thanks for the tip.


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## raymond- (Feb 6, 2020)

The past year, I've scored pretty good items: Henry Miller Aeron chair ($1000 new), contractor table saw, wood router, thermostat controlled attic vent fan, unused stainless steel 3 flu chimney cap, 100 sq feet new pavers, etc.  It's nice that I have a truck, and keep an eye out for goodies.  Even the 4 boxes of latex gloves are great for garage repair use.


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## mabloodhound (Feb 6, 2020)

Yeah, if it was shooting sparks then the mag was gone.  Good use as a storage cupboard.


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## thebuilder20 (Apr 1, 2020)

Not exactly a dumpster but I did save an old treadmill my brother no longer wanted, which is being used a lot of now since most of us are not keen going outside. Better for my knees as supported by this article, and also a way to keep active even when we're just staying indoors. Can also work on some furniture from scraps I kept from all places... plenty of time now but thankfully with enough activities to keep me from being bored.


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## Michael Armstrong (Apr 4, 2020)

I saw guys at work pitching a Bosch Bulldog rotary hammer drill into the dumpster - said it didn't work, and they got OK to buy a new one. I took it home, found the power cord had bent too many times at the strain relief, and wouldn't let the electricity in any more. I pulled the cord into the tool about 6", cut it at the fault, and reconnected. Works great.


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## nealtw (Apr 8, 2020)

rokosz said:


> View attachment 23211
> one man's trash... sorry "person's"     Not dumpster diving but kind of.  Many decades ago I was walking back to my car (66 bug) with a friend on  the west side of Manhattan in the early AM.  Hey, what's that?  Turns out its a1930s maybe 20s filing cabinet.  I managed to get friend and cabinet in the bug.  Peculiar design: the top drawer isn't a drawer: the top of the cabinet is a lid for that top drawer space.  Perfect formy 45s.    It even had the original alphabet dividers (heavy paper board with the tabs edged in black metal).   It has stood me well.  When it gets too full I know its time to recycle the oldest paper.
> 
> The 22 and 27 golf club reminds me, just a year or two ago I Craigs'd a 98 Infiniti.  Obvious scrap dealer bought, I signed over the docs. He said he'd be back to pick up the 98.  I get a call about 20 minutes later from him.  I signed over the wrong docs:  I signed over my wifes '13 Infiniti.  Holy Shdoodoo!  What a mess.  I drove to where he was, refunded his cash and he gave me the docs.  Ultimately donated the 98 -- once I got proper replacement docs...


When I had a wood shop, we dressed a few up with pine and alder much like this one.


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