Tax payer dollars at work ...

[BROCKWOOD]

Much better fate than the tons of equipment dumped in the Pacific after WWII. At least these are salvageable.

 

[Superburban]

Much better fate than the tons of equipment dumped in the Pacific after WWII. At least these are salvageable.

That goes for any war. The cost to ship stuff back, is not cheap. Our military supply system, is designed to issue stuff to the user, not so good at returning good unused stock from supply units. After Desert storm, the supply units were told they could not go home, until their stocks were down to zero, so a lot of stuff got burned, and buried, Was simpler then doing the paperwork, and getting transportation to return the stuff to the port.

 

[john.k]

i once had a shop full of exWW2 USN machines .......still have a Landis 16x72 universal,and a few smaller bits and pieces...........if the stuff was offered for sale,I find it strange there wasnt some local demand.......even the most backward places have fishing boats ,earthmoving equiptment and trucks needing repair and maintenance......Often machine tools sell for a fortune in such places due to cost of transportation.

 

[NortonDommi]

Don't ever work in a scrap yard, the amount of machinery that gets broken for scrap will make you cry.

 

[john.k]

Local uni here scrapped a lot of 70 and 80s machines ,some not ever out of the crates, the stuff was to make those lovley stainless steel chambers and things for laser and particle physics research......A Colchester Mascot still in the shipping crate bearers went into a bin......not before being hit with a hammer.cause it "was noncompliant"....all was condemned by a millenial "risk management consultant"and a female "WHSO expert."...........but mainly the victims of a battle between Law and Physics...............one faculty expanding ,one shrinking....and a decision to distance the uni from "nuclear weapons research"...............when you re a YUMM...(young upwardly mobile moron).....you dont want any skeletons that can drag you down the greasy pole and nothing kills careers with millenials like nuclear...or as Homer would say.....nucular......its pronounced nucular..

 

[Moper361]

Local uni here scrapped a lot of 70 and 80s machines ,some not ever out of the crates, the stuff was to make those lovley stainless steel chambers and things for laser and particle physics research......A Colchester Mascot still in the shipping crate bearers went into a bin......not before being hit with a hammer.cause it "was noncompliant"....all was condemned by a millenial "risk management consultant"and a female "WHSO expert."...........but mainly the victims of a battle between Law and Physics...............one faculty expanding ,one shrinking....and a decision to distance the uni from "nuclear weapons research"...............when you re a YUMM...(young upwardly mobile moron).....you dont want any skeletons that can drag you down the greasy pole and nothing kills careers with millenials like nuclear...or as Homer would say.....nucular......its pronounced nucular..

I did some work commisioning a new floating productiin platform last year i wont mention names but it was built in korea
It had a workshop all fitted out with new lathe mill etc etc never been used however the machines never complied whith like you say work place safety due to a guard or 2 not fitted .the whole lot was cut up and replaced with nothing any safer really
The mind boggles at times

 

[pontiac428]

Now that DRMO, the branch of the US military responsible for disposition of materiel, has been given to contractors, they aren't even taking old iron. I've seen equipment with names like LeBlond, Gorton, and Powermatic thrown into dumpsters for bulk salvage. Some of the nice stuff (I watched them load a larger Hardinge the other day) goes to auction. Either way, it's outta my hands and probably never going to be seen again. The machine shop where I work is 40 acres, so equipment turnover is happening all the time. I can't even tell you what I saw when the tool room was purged this spring... Okay, it involved a half dozen pallets of 55 gallon drums... filled with Starret and similar loot... and a career-ending threat to anyone caught picking through it.

 

[john.k]

The airforce here did a similar analysis about thirty years ago.........to send an item for disposal at the govt auction cost 10x the return at auction...........to have a tender sale on the base cost was as for a major security exercise......despite civilian contractors and day hires coming and going through an un manned open main gate.............they also had a few auctions on the base ,but that was for large quantities of mobile plant and machinery...scrapers ,dozers and trucks...........And that was when terrorism was not a consideration.

 

[Shootymacshootface]

Don't ever work in a scrap yard, the amount of machinery that gets broken for scrap will make you cry.

Oh man, I would love to work in a scrap yard. I would take so much stuff home! But seriously, my property would end up being condemned, and I would be institutionalized.

 

[john.k]

i reckon Im fortunate in some respects.......I lived thru the golden age of junk collecting when you could buy old harleys and Indians for $20,and moved on to the army and govt auctions in the late 60s when tons of WW2 stuff was still coming thru.....we thought the good times would never end.....but they did around 1992 when the govt began to economize and cut costs,and stopped buying so much stuff for the army and airforce.The last big defence sales of WW2 stuff was when the Navy was cleared out of Randwick in Sydney.........why would you be saving dozens of new V12 Hall Scott engines in 1996.?All gone now,and Im too old to care.