Dumpster treasures

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ragtopfury

ragtopfury

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Manchester, MD
My latest treasure was found this past weekend. We were camping with 3 other families and our sites just happened to be about 300 yards from the trash dumpster. Saw a guy walk over and leave something red and black at the corner of it. 2 hours later, he never came back, so I went to check it out. All I did was plug it in and turn it on - SCORE! My guess is he kept popping the breaker in his camper, or at the power ped, and assumed the motor was going bad. It had 90 lbs of air in it - can't believe he threw the air away with it LOLOLOLOL. It works just like it should. Will be great for airing up the occasional tire, raft, pool tube/toys.

20190831_085730.jpg
 
Nice score!

I routinely go to our local junk/recycling yard and find many great things. Even many brand new things. I once found a brand new, never used 220V air compressor (60 gallon?). I didn’t take it because I don’t have 220V in my garage. My wife goes with me too. She found a stack of brand new wire mesh baskets. She bought about 8 of them and is using them to keep our linen closet organized. She even found a brand new Cuisenart stainless pot. Cost her $3. She found a stack of new, wrapped chrome serving trays. She bought about 12 of those too.

My neighbor has found new chainsaws and even a new wood chipper there. Many of the new items are missing one or more parts, so know what you are looking at before you pay $0.50 to $1.25 per pound for these items.

The best things I bought were 3 super heavy duty dollies. They all had CVS tags on them and were probably merchandise display dollies, used in store aisle ways. These dollies can probably handle 1,000 pounds each. I use them to stack my yard chairs and folding tables on (we have a lot of summer family parties). I have 52 stackable chairs and 8 folding tables. I stack them on the dollies and push them into my carport between parties. They save a lot of time moving these heavy items back and forth.
 
Just picked up a dozen cans of Sterno from the neighbor's trash. And a wire rack for the wife's closet. Win!
 
I work at a landfill... Don't even get me started on the things I find... I love my job!
 
Reed and Barton Sterling silver Christmas ornaments... 72, 73, 74 and 75... Yeah, not cheap, around $75 each on eBay... I need to get rid of the 72, and 74. I need a 71. Be one for each of my mom's kids. But I can't believe someone three them out.
 
My recycling yard usually has 4-5 40"+ LCD TV's stacked in the corner next to all the other e-waste. 9 out of 10 times the TV won't turn on is a .50 capacitor on the power board. We can't buy anything at ours though.
 
pishta said:
My recycling yard usually has 4-5 40"+ LCD TV's stacked in the corner next to all the other e-waste. 9 out of 10 times the TV won't turn on is a .50 capacitor on the power board. We can't buy anything at ours though.
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That sucks. Pretty much anything I find at work I can take, as long as no one else has claimed it. I just got a 32" flatscreen that I put in my living room, a blue ray player, and a 26"? Flatscreen that is going in my camper. I walked out with 2 big Rubbermaid totes full of tools about a month and a half ago.
 
If anyone is interested, I have several threads titled "Guess what I found in the dumpster" over on the B body side.

Some of the stuff is quite interesting.

One of the strangest was a nearly complete mazda rx7 twin turbo setup!

I'm still trying to figure out a way to mount that on my 318.
 
pishta said:
My recycling yard usually has 4-5 40"+ LCD TV's stacked in the corner next to all the other e-waste. 9 out of 10 times the TV won't turn on is a .50 capacitor on the power board. We can't buy anything at ours though.
Click to expand...

Which one? Got one in the garage.
 
kgip2k said:
That sucks. Pretty much anything I find at work I can take, as long as no one else has claimed it. I just got a 32" flatscreen that I put in my living room, a blue ray player, and a 26"? Flatscreen that is going in my camper. I walked out with 2 big Rubbermaid totes full of tools about a month and a half ago.
Click to expand...

I work at a landfill as well and I’d say over half my tools came out of “the trash” at work!
 
I find good stuff in the dumpster at work all the time. My best 1/2 impact came from there, I'm amazed at the stuff they throw away.
 
My biggest find was at work. Took home a flat head 4 cylinder Kohler generator/compressor module they were dumping from a wrecked manhole truck.
 
Set it up at my 1st house for power outages . When I moved, I gave it to a buddy to power his lawn tractor modified for pulling. His 14 yr old daughter competed at the county fair back then.
 
jos51700 said:
Which one? Got one in the garage.
Click to expand...
Does your little power/status LED just flash and the TV wont turn on? All of em....put you out about $4.50. Usually the ones that go bad are bulging at the 'stamped cross' end. If it has the slightest bulge, replace it. But without an ESR tester, your spitballing. Just replace them all. You can get kits prebundled on Ebay for a particular makers powerboard but they are 5X what the bare caps would cost you in a better electronics store where you tell the guy at the counter what you need and he comes back with the bulk capacitors, none of this .89/pc blister pack nonsense. Most are polarized so remember where the stripe is when you desolder it. Its usually marked on the PCB with a solid side of the circle outline. If you send me the power board only, Ill replace all the caps at cost.
 
pishta said:
Does your little power/status LED just flash and the TV wont turn on? All of em....put you out about $4.50. Usually the ones that go bad are bulging at the 'stamped cross' end. If it has the slightest bulge, replace it. But without an ESR tester, your spitballing. Just replace them all. You can get kits prebundled on Ebay for a particular makers powerboard but they are 5X what the bare caps would cost you in a better electronics store where you tell the guy at the counter what you need and he comes back with the bulk capacitors, none of this .89/pc blister pack nonsense. Most are polarized so remember where the stripe is when you desolder it. Its usually marked on the PCB with a solid side of the circle outline. If you send me the power board only, Ill replace all the caps at cost.
Click to expand...
I'll have to dig it out and check. I know one day it just wouldn't power up. I pulled it apart to check the board for wee fuses but found none.
 
Of course I didn't get it, but someone just brought in a 16' tandem axle enclosed trailer... WTF??? A d I guess supposed to be bringing another trailer of some sort.
 
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