Nice Stuff in the Garbage

I have just had a friend walk in the door and tell me that the UK utility he works for (ultimately owned apparently by Warren Buffet) has just thrown 6 honda powered hydraulic breaker power packs in a skip, because they have no further use for them They are virtually unused!!
 
The same sort of thing happened at Online Metals, here in Seattle. They used to have a "drops shelf" where they would put short pieces of almost anything, sold by the pound.

One day, gone. I was told the local bums would come in and clean it out when nobody was at the front desk, and take it to the recyclers for dope money.

So, no more.
 
The shop I worked at pitched everything once the job was complete. All types of metal and tooling plus fixtures. They let anyone in the shop take whatever they wanted for their own use. My boss got to the point of asking me if I wanted it before tossing it in the dumpster. We also had full use of the shop at lunchtime on any piece of equipment that wasn't setup for a job. Needless to say I'm fully stocked and tooled for the rest of my days. Sure miss that place.
 
I bet that was a ma and pop organization.
I worked for a school bus company for some time. Three brothers built it up to a very wealthy company. I had a key to the place and I was welcome to come in on nights and weekends and have full use of the shop. The only requirement was to clean up after yourself and make sure all the tools were put where I found them. Between runs I'd talk turkey with the mechanic and jack up a bus here and there. Well, the owners were getting up in the years and sold the whole operation to one of the largest transportation companies in the world. Needless to say all that stopped right quick. They painted a line on the garage floor that we couldn't cross it was ridiculous and a nice environment turned to crap. Heck I even stored my motorcycle there sometimes. Oh well, all good things must come to an end I guess.
 
My employer (large aerospace) regularly disposes of old but very high quality (Agilent, Tektronix) electronic instrumentation... oscilloscopes, network analyzers, power meters, etc. They go to a used equipment dealer who pays pennies on the dollar, or less. My employer will not sell directly to employees because of liability issues. The used equipment dealer is bonded and insured.
 
A few years ago I asked our lab manager if I could take some cut-offs from a re-cycling bin.
He said "No! No one is allowed to take things out of the recycling, we have a company that sorts everything and sells the scrap. However if they were in the garbage can over here, you could take them."
As he said it he moved the parts from the recycling bin to the garbage can and walked away. ;)

-brino
 
Today there is a nice little Kennedy box in the trash. Looks like a box to keep screws sorted. I've never seen one before.
 
Doesn't need refinishing. It looks perfect. Maybe I'll try to sneak a photo.
 
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