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Old 31st Oct 2020, 10:17 pm   #101
Oldcodger
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Default Re: Skip Useful Finds

ref #7 - it's a case of who you know at local tip . My light box . When I made it I couldn't find tube holders at a reasonable price. Quick word with my mate and I got a stack, complete with starter holders.
Word of caution on "diving" into skips and bins. In some places/areas, this is a "convenient " delivery point for other deliveries.
Rec#87 -gas cylinder. No need to worry if it's safe. Exchange it for a refill.
As for leaving stuff out for the scrap folks. Please do not encourage them as the more unscrupulous ones see any metal in gardens as fair game. Got gates on your drive. You take them off ,turn your back and gates go straight into the back of their wagon. Old fridge freezer- placed out for them to take away. Not any more .The will up lift it , remove the copper and dump it on the street. Who pays for removal - you ,via council tax as LA have to remove the carcase. ( admin- apologies for rant, but we NHW folks are trying to make folk see sense).
And it makes sense to weigh it in yourself at local scrappie. I always do it with old batteries ,be it mobility scooter or car. e.g. pair of 12v 15Ah batteries -cost circa £50 / replacement car battery, circa £65 - average scrap value circa £6-10 .
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Old 31st Oct 2020, 10:46 pm   #102
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Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
Round here the charity-shops/operations run-away-screaming if you suggest they 'come-over and maybe collect' 70s/80s/90s G-Plan |Waring&Gillow or Ercol woodies.
I don't know about the others, but Ercol stuff is generally very saleable.

My parents downsized a few years ago and so had a couple of tatty Ercol armchairs going spare which they were going to dump. The webbing was knackered and the cushions tired. On eBay, I got £170 the pair and the collector was delighted with them. Not bad seeing as they'd come from the local charity shop originally.

Similarly, a c.1980 Ercol 2-seater sofa, also a charity shop find, though in very good condition, became surplus to requirements when we had the kitchen door moved, and got me £360 (much to my wife's astonishment!).
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Old 1st Nov 2020, 1:19 am   #103
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Default Re: Skip Useful Finds

In some of the more 'fashionable' antique shops they are selling G plan sideboards at the upper hundreds of euros, and the armchairs well into the hundreds also.
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Old 1st Nov 2020, 1:29 am   #104
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Two posts entirely about furniture in succession?
Consider this a moderately strong nudge towards the radio and TV department.

David
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Old 1st Nov 2020, 9:40 am   #105
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Sorry David.
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Old 14th Nov 2020, 7:48 pm   #106
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An Ultra Lynx console ! all complete bar speaker...some years ago when victorian buildings being renovated in central Mcr, since transferred to a member in Rugby
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Old 22nd Nov 2020, 10:00 am   #107
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Love skips but not very common here - my best score was 2 fishing rods complete with reels, a door, a saw table (uses a circular saw), 6 pieces of corrugated iron and a Phillips K9 colour TV that worked. All from the one skip.
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Old 23rd Nov 2020, 12:48 am   #108
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Most of my electrical skip acquisitions have been from the skips at the various Plessey and Marconi sites I used to work at. The exception is a twin 5' fluorescent fitting that has now been providing the main illumination in my loft for more than three decades.

Useful hint about the scrap value of lead batteries: our electric bikes use three 12V 12Ah SLA batteries each. I have been simply taking the old ones to the local authority dump, and do have some old ones to dispose of at the moment, so may try the local scrap merchant instead: he's closer than the dump anyway.
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Old 23rd Nov 2020, 10:13 am   #109
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At a local customer where I visited frequently, an electrical wholesaler van arrived to deliver a new replacement twin tube 8ft fitting complete with diffuser. He was given the (unused, boxed) one it was replacing and he then asked if he could put that in their skip just outside the door, which he then did.
After he had gone, I asked my customer if I could have it. Yes, was the reply. So, I obtained a brand new, boxed and working fitting.
Why was it dumped you may ask?
There was a tiny amount of damage to the box resulting in very small dents in the steel casing of the fitting. This was not acceptable to the customer. It was to me though!
Rob
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Old 24th Nov 2020, 10:06 pm   #110
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Yesterday while out walking with my wife, walked past 4 skips, had a quick look and absolutely nothing of interest, I am still surprised / even amazed at what people come across.

David
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Old 24th Nov 2020, 10:10 pm   #111
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You do have to strike lucky with roadside skips. The good ones are company skips, out of bounds to us retirees!
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Old 24th Nov 2020, 10:12 pm   #112
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Today - two bits of bright mild steel slab, wood for about one night's heat, some straw for the primary school Christmas stable, and some 'interesting bits of wire' with banana plugs on the end

Most recent electrical find - a string of 20 240v weatherproof festoon light fittings, British made, apparently sells for about 100 quid, and apparently new. People are very strange.

(But David - sometimes yes it's just soil and broken bricks!)
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Old 26th Nov 2020, 4:40 pm   #113
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A while ago we needed to hire an industrial vacuum cleaner. The hire shop apologised, but they'd just thrown it in the skip. My (persuasive) partner asked if she could have it anyway so they dug deep and got it out for her. It was a Karcher with tools. It worked perfectly, but someone had written 'Dave' on it in indelible marker, so it wasn't deemed rentable.
Dave, as it became known, became a very valuable asset in our renovations, and saved us a lot in hire fees!
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Old 26th Nov 2020, 7:15 pm   #114
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Simple, rename the shop "Daves Hire". This https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=173446 OK caught before the skip and now going to good homes.
 
Old 28th Nov 2020, 12:54 am   #115
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On my travels I have fallen into many skips and pulled out the following that I can remember:- A hospital Equipment sprung arm which I now use to mount a scope on, several satellite dishes ranging from a 2m dia to 30cm and TV LNBs to 30ghz internet transceiver, a nice lockable steel cabinet x 2, 20m fireproof cable, 40m armoured cable, 200 3M face masks ( been very useful this year although the elastic bands are a bit iffy ), large roll of fibreglass matting, 300w pir outside lamp, KB ER30 ( chassis ok , cabinet firewood ), a ladder, various lengths and sizes of plastic tube/pipe, several square fluorescent ceiling lights ( now lighting the sheds ), four 3 phase DC stepper motors ( flipping heavy ), a large HENE laser tube, two scanners, a laser printer, several PC's and monitors, large box of boxes chocolate ( around 20kg! ), a push bike ( just needed tyres pumping up! ), a GPS receiver , bags of screws, nails, cable ties and various useful bits of metal.
I sometimes wonder why some stuff gets skipped when it is still in the sealed bag/box as new.

Mark
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Old 28th Nov 2020, 12:17 pm   #116
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Tme is money and storage space costs money, so if it's cheaper to pay for a skip than have someone spend time not doing their usual work due to trying to find someone willing to pay for unwanted stuff, it makes economic sense to dump it.
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Old 28th Nov 2020, 1:43 pm   #117
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Tme is money and storage space costs money, so if it's cheaper to pay for a skip than have someone spend time not doing their usual work due to trying to find someone willing to pay for unwanted stuff, it makes economic sense to dump it.
Our place (university) does much worse than that - they have meeting after meeting about disposal policies which never comes to fruition, they store loads and loads of stuff for years because no-one will make a decision about it, and then they throw it away anyway in the most wasteful ways imaginable. If they can think of ways to incur costs for no benefit, they do. So it is actually in your and my tax-payer interests to subvert the system and find new homes for things

(I might add that that's why I do sales for charity - if I were making money out it, there'd be something corrupt about it).
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Old 28th Nov 2020, 2:39 pm   #118
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It's a shame the Greek oikonomikos has been debased into meaning only monetary considerations rather than the original sense of household management (oikos + nemein). With that meaning, redistributing this stuff and taking the larger considerations of energy use, sustainability, raw materials, and even the intangible benefits of allowing those who would otherwise be unable to access such materials and equipment the opportunity to do so, it's hardly uneconomic any more!

Mark's experience seems a classic institutional way of dealing with things. It appears completely idiotic to every individual member, but sensible for the committee.
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Old 28th Nov 2020, 5:51 pm   #119
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It seems to be something that tends to affect institutions rather than private companies. The place I worked at before retiring used to write off outstanding month-end bills for less than about £25. They reckoned it cost this much for the accounts department to raise and chase invoices, and amounts owed by clients at the end of accounting periods were treated as an asset that attracted tax. They were in central London where the overheads were high. Conversely in the 1970's for the best part of a year a friend used to get monthly letters from his local council, each with a 10p postage stamp, chasing a 3p shortfall in his rates payment.

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Old 28th Nov 2020, 6:40 pm   #120
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It seems to be something that tends to affect institutions rather than private companies.
Yes: in the late-80s I designed/installed an early PC client/server LAN setup [PC/XTs, WordPerfect, Novell Netware, thinwire Ethernet] for a then Public Sector client - it was to replace dedicated non-networked Philips/Wang word-processors. Everything went smoothly - but - nobody was prepared to sign-off-as-scrap the old word-processors, which sat in an unused part of the office for several further years. They were still all on maintenance-contracts too!

In the end the lease came up on the building, and they moved out - leaving the old kit and all the old office-furniture as the landlord's problem. Skip-time!
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