Happy as pig in mud! Steel bit's.

[AdrianH]

I may well be a bit simple for this train of thought but what ever.

I decided to pay a visit to a local fabricators place close to work, I have been there before, hope to go there again.

Walked to the main door to see the main chap busy rushing around with the phone glued to his head, taking the odd measurement and speaking to, I assumed a member of staff. I smiled and waited patently by the door for him to be free.

When he could he came over and apologised for the delay, after saying what I was after, showing him what I was doing with the bits and passing over £10 brew money, I asked if would they mind if I searched the scrap bin for bits of use to me, He took from the stock pile two reasonable lengths of what I was after and would fit in the back of the car easily and I was still allowed to pull useful parts from the scrap bin, with bits of plate ranging from 3 to 15 mm in thickness.

There was a lump of what looked like 100 mm box around a metre long, when I tried to pick it up it was a strain so left it, must have been around 8 or 10mm wall.


The pile here is probably not much to look at but to me this is pure gold, bits that I will probably not find a use for in the next few months, but some bit I can have fun with instantly. I am happy.
Some times wonder when the family asks me what I want for birthdays father day etc, I should send them round the local fabrication shops, but doubt it would ever happen.

Are there other guy's/gal's on here that enjoy this simple pleasure?

Adrian

 

[eSCHEn]

Very much so Adrian ^_^

 

[bricol]

For ten years I worked as a Design Engineer in a general engineering company. I still miss the ability to go rummage in the scrap - not all of it of my design ;-)
Not allowed to rummage in current company skips as someone in the USA injured themselves doing just that and then sued them!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Very much so Adrian ^_^

x 2

 

[AdrianH]

Not allowed to rummage in current company skips as someone in the USA injured themselves doing just that and then sued them!

I know I may well have to deal with H&S in my role, but what a prat!

Adrian

 

[Wedg1e]

Shame you're not 120 miles northeast, I've got all sorts of bits you could have.

 

[magnet]

Me too

 

[AdrianH]

Shame you're not 120 miles northeast, I've got all sorts of bits you could have.

Tempting, I did used to drive passed there in the kit car, Saturn sports cars used to be in Hartlepool and in good weather was a nice run over the tops as I like to call it, the A19 was not a bad road.

Assuming I have the correct area?

Adrian

 

[Bill Edwards]

I may well be a bit simple for this train of thought but what ever.

I decided to pay a visit to a local fabricators place close to work, I have been there before, hope to go there again.

Walked to the main door to see the main chap busy rushing around with the phone glued to his head, taking the odd measurement and speaking to, I assumed a member of staff. I smiled and waited patently by the door for him to be free.

When he could he came over and apologised for the delay, after saying what I was after, showing him what I was doing with the bits and passing over £10 brew money, I asked if would they mind if I searched the scrap bin for bits of use to me, He took from the stock pile two reasonable lengths of what I was after and would fit in the back of the car easily and I was still allowed to pull useful parts from the scrap bin, with bits of plate ranging from 3 to 15 mm in thickness.

There was a lump of what looked like 100 mm box around a metre long, when I tried to pick it up it was a strain so left it, must have been around 8 or 10mm wall.

View attachment 118954
The pile here is probably not much to look at but to me this is pure gold, bits that I will probably not find a use for in the next few months, but some bit I can have fun with instantly. I am happy.
Some times wonder when the family asks me what I want for birthdays father day etc, I should send them round the local fabrication shops, but doubt it would ever happen.

Are there other guy's/gal's on here that enjoy this simple pleasure?

Adrian

It's not just you!
Always short of such bits of metal regardless of what new stuff is bought in.

 

[God mode restorations]

I use to raid my local machine shop skip. It's great for a while. Then you get bigger jobs to do. And eventually have a faffing huge heap of it. I just scrapped a good heap of off cuts ECT. Totally forgot to Ser if anyone wanted it. There is only so much you can store.

 

[rtcosic]

It's all a question of scale.

When building a new house you have a vast pile of cutoffs of large section timber, so anything just the size of a 'could make a useful wheel chock' get binned, or ceremoniously burned on 5th November.
Fast forward 5 years and you have to buy a length of 19x38 at the DIY shed.

I have a couple of small plastic crates - supermarket vegetable things - full of tiny offcuts. One of plate and one of RHS. Surprising how many times some of them have been recycled whilst making a crude one-off tool or jig.

My last 'big' project was a couple of gate posts and frame for the garden, so if I need anything bigger than my hand now I have to buy it!

 

[GW8IZR]

For ten years I worked as a Design Engineer in a general engineering company. I still miss the ability to go rummage in the scrap - not all of it of my design ;-)
Not allowed to rummage in current company skips as someone in the USA injured themselves doing just that and then sued them!

I've still got lots of useful stuff from our skips - I made it a rule never to pick up anything I'd put in there for obvious reasons, it never ceased to amaze me what was disposed of from fully repairable test equipment to lengths of construction hardware. Its worth remembering it all belongs to someone even if its in a skip.

Funnily enough only yesterday I was using some plates acquired about ten years ago :-) an ancient project equipment upgrade, new modules fitted where 150 x 75 mm x 2mm steel blanks once resided, perfect paint finish so still as good as new. Those blanks are so useful as general plate for jobs yet they either got left on site or skipped unless I saw them!

 

[Wedg1e]

Tempting, I did used to drive passed there in the kit car, Saturn sports cars used to be in Hartlepool and in good weather was a nice run over the tops as I like to call it, the A19 was not a bad road.

Assuming I have the correct area?

Adrian

Spot on. You'd have passed within yards of my house as well

 

[Fintray]

Some times wonder when the family asks me what I want for birthdays father day etc,

I'm the same, a gift voucher for the local scrapyard would suit me.

 

[RichardM]

One mans junk is another mans treasure, I'm not adverse to a bit of skip diving when I see something useful / interesting, it makes the work day seem worthwhile

 

[AdrianH]

Made a few more tea-lights with some of the metal I picked up, wasted a few as well! Some of the plate will have a purpose soon as I can find a 90 degree bevel gearbox hidden in the depths of the garage, I have the table section from a rotary I knackered in about a week from purchase.

All good.

Adrian