Skip Raiding

[The Johnster]

I am an inveterate recycler of other peoples' throwaways, sourced from skips or left outside on the pavement for council collection, sometimes even labelled 'please take'.  Most of my crockery has come from this activity, for example; it is of no consequence to me that nothing matches, though it drives The Squeeze up the wall.  I 'return the favour' whenever I dispose of anything that might be of use to someone, putting on the front wall with a 'please take' note; this is not a wealthy area and there are plenty folks locally who can use the stuff, and it is usually gone in a few hours.

 

My two best results so far have been a Corby trouser press, about three years ago, perfect working order and from the early 70s if the styling is anything to go by, and, day before yesterday, a Montpellier worktop tumble dryer in what looked like almost new condition, an MTD25P model.  My last tumbler, bought secondhand, died of old age some two years ago though still funtions as a repostitory for clothes awaiting washing, and I intend one day to removed the drum to use as a patio firebowl.  The Monty works perfectly and max consuimption is 700W, as opposed to the 2KW of the old dead Candy, so it'll be less costly to run, bit quieter as well.  Can't imagine why it's previous owner chucked it, but with it was a completely mirrored dressing table with fake gold trim, which I left where it was; I have some taste!

 

The flat has a patio which is handy on good drying days like today, but in poor weather drying has to take place indoors on a clothes horse, as the terms of the tenancy very sensibly forbid drying clothes on the radiators, but in a small room it gets in the way a bit.  So Monty will be very useful at such times.  He is a bit more technically advanced than the Candy, and has settings for cold air airing of clothes as well as a cool cycle so that they are not too hot when you take them out.

 

Anyone else had good finds of this sort?

[Oldddudders]

A late friend was IT Manager for BRB Director, Financial Planning. So he created a distributed database for planning expenditure and lots of other goodies, all of which worked. One of the brightest - but most fun - people I have ever met, at lunchtime in fair weather he would roam the streets on his bike, and more than once picked up others' discarded IT kit, typically in skips, which he quickly licked into shape. A dot-matrix plotter comes to mind. This was the early '90s, so recycling wasn't the industry it has now become. 

[The White Rabbit]

Someone I knew at university was a bit of an IT geek and he got himself a top of the range set up for virtually nothing by being lucky enough to pass a skip when an office was having a clear-out/upgrade of their IT. He asked and was told help yourself. I think he had to pay a little for some software but otherwise saved himself what would have been a sizeable four figure sum in today's money. 

 

Personally I use Freecycle, both to give away and acquire. The most recent acquisition is a dining room table, it had some very slight damage on one side but was easily repairable, I can barely find the spot now. Very nice condition, had for a couple of pounds' petrol. 

[33C]

A Fender Telecaster, 1981/2, numbers matching and fully banded, old gold beige.....

 

....under a thick coat of black paint! 

3 days to get it all off and after some TLC, fully useable.

Since sold.

 

Also, on the same street, a massive collection of Airfix model 'planes, just chucked in from a loft conversion. 

 

Many years ago, when I was in demolition, a lot of boxed, Hornby, tinplate models fell out of a chimney flue on the top floor of an old victorian house that was coming down. Weird!

[Oldddudders]

41 minutes ago, 33C said:

Many years ago, when I was in demolition, a lot of boxed, Hornby, tinplate models fell out of a chimney flue on the top floor of an old victorian house that was coming down. Weird!

The lengths some people go to, to avoid the wife discovering their indulgence!

[J. S. Bach]

Over here it is called "dumpster diving".

 

"Dumpster" was the trade name used by the Dempsey Dumpster Co. many years ago and "dumpster" became a commonly used name to indicate any of the large stationary, truck-dumped trash receptacles; similar to making a "xerox" copy, even if you are using a Canon copier.

[jjb1970]

In my far off days as a civil servant we skipped 23 PCs, at a time when PCs were still a big ticket purchase (late 90's). They were a year old and still decent specification. Apparently that was more cost effective than giving them to a local school or worthy cause. 

[ess1uk]

32 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

In my far off days as a civil servant we skipped 23 PCs, at a time when PCs were still a big ticket purchase (late 90's). They were a year old and still decent specification. Apparently that was more cost effective than giving them to a local school or worthy cause. 

We once rescued a load of computers that were being thrown out by GCHQ. they had no hard disks (destroyed/sensitive) but we had budget to replace them. This enabled a cascade of upgrades where every pc on camp was swapped for a better one and the spare parts were made up into working systems and given to the base primary school.

 

[hmrspaul]

I had a skip out the back being filled up with the usual junk one accumulates in life. As usually happens the neighbours added to this in the dark hours. This included a rather nice projector screen. So I got my old and very battered one that was torn and didn't hold up properly anymore, bought when I was a teenager, put that in the skip and kept the "new" one. 

 

Paul

[The Johnster]

An item I have found to never, ever, be worth the bother of picking up is those electric heaters with the very bright elements.  They are always broken at the hinge where the automatic turning bit is, and will inevitably have at least one element that does not work.  Don't bother. 

 

A good find about two months ago was a bright red microwave, better than the previous skip-raided popty-ping, though this one's actually a popty-beep.  If you're skipraiding these things, check that the outer casing is securely fitted and not damaged as they are prone to leakage of microwaves which are not good for you and will apparently fry your brain (not applicable to those who have already fried their brains with 'certain substances' back in the 70s).  I am looking for a microwave bed, that will give me 8 hours sleep in 15 minutes...

 

My toaster is the latest in a series of 'found items' as well; works perfectly.  Of course, anything electrical must be dried out thoroughly before you attempt to use it, I usually keep it in the understairs cupboard for a week if it's at all likely to be wet inside. 

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Pedantically, and being a boring old fart, skip raiding is actually stealing unless you have the skip owners consent.

Remembered from a mate who worked for Biffa!

 

Mike.

[Oldddudders]

5 hours ago, The Johnster said:

I usually keep it in the understairs cupboard for a week if it's at all likely to be wet inside. 

Such locations used to be referred to as Glory Holes, but these days that term has been hijacked.....

[The White Rabbit]

One item I acquired (with full consent of the owner) was a vegetable rack/low table on casters - technically not a skip raid or dumpster dive as it never actually got there... It was from when I ran a model shop and one day came out of the door at close of play to see the neighbouring cafe owner walking towards the bins with this in his arms. I made a casual flippant comment and he said it was too tatty and small and he had replaced it. I asked if I could have it and he was only too pleased for me to have it. Half an hour's cleaning up and it's fine. I've had it for over 15 years now and it's been very useful, whether to take with me to store some bits at exhibitions when I've been demonstrating or for my own modelling. At the moment my father's borrowed it for use as a bedside table! 

[J. S. Bach]

Dumpster diving/skip raiding is another form of recycling. 😅

[GrumpyPenguin]

8 hours ago, The Johnster said:

My toaster is the latest in a series of 'found items' as well; works perfectly.  Of course, anything electrical must be dried out thoroughly before you attempt to use it, I usually keep it in the understairs cupboard for a week if it's at all likely to be wet inside. 

Skipped electrical items may be there because they have failed a PAT ...........................

[The Johnster]

Probably less likely in residential areas, but a good point.  Never had a problem so far touch wood. 
 

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

Dumpster diving/skip raiding is another form of recycling. 😅

In the same way that I describe my innate laziness and apathy as ‘energy conservation’!

[J. S. Bach]

1 hour ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

Skipped electrical items may be there because they have failed a PAT ...........................

True, but maybe some parts are still functional to keep another out of the landfills.  arts such as trim, knobs, etc. But then I have no idea what a PAT is (other than some kind of test)  and what is tested.

[The Johnster]

Portable Appliance Test, a certificated test of general safety for domestic mains electrical equipment, including visual inspection,  condition of wiring, plug, earth leakage and faults, and residual current faults.  Secondhand and charity shops selling used equipment are obliged to use it as a safety certificate, as are private landlords, hoteliers, guest houses, and providers of holiday lets, caravans, or chalets.  

[kevinlms]

2 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

Portable Appliance Test, a certificated test of general safety for domestic mains electrical equipment, including visual inspection,  condition of wiring, plug, earth leakage and faults, and residual current faults.  Secondhand and charity shops selling used equipment are obliged to use it as a safety certificate, as are private landlords, hoteliers, guest houses, and providers of holiday lets, caravans, or chalets.  

You can add to that, any business hiring out electrical equipment, which MUST be tested before each hire - at least that's the case in Australia, and I would expect the UK too.

 

Many charity shops won't accept electrical goods, because of PAT requirements. Not worth their while, unless they have access to a tame tester.

[DCB]

3 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

True, but maybe some parts are still functional to keep another out of the landfills.  arts such as trim, knobs, etc. But then I have no idea what a PAT is (other than some kind of test)  and what is tested.

I don't think half the testers do either, they check the cord, earth leakage etc but I keep finding 13 amp fuses where there should be 5 amp  cords attached by the wires not the outer casing and freshly PAT tested items which don't actually work.   And of course bare wires inside the casing, normally on 19700s controllers.   It's a nice little earner, 2 day course to get qualified.    Fancy doing it myself actually.

[kevinlms]

2 hours ago, DCB said:

I don't think half the testers do either, they check the cord, earth leakage etc but I keep finding 13 amp fuses where there should be 5 amp  cords attached by the wires not the outer casing and freshly PAT tested items which don't actually work.   And of course bare wires inside the casing, normally on 19700s controllers.   It's a nice little earner, 2 day course to get qualified.    Fancy doing it myself actually.

You've misunderstood the purpose of PAT, it's a safety test, not a test to see if it functions.

Also the cover doesn't come off.

 

No fuses in Australian electrical plugs.

[Hibelroad]

PAT testing can be misunderstood. I once worked in an office where a new bossy manager discovered that the equipment hadn’t been tested for some years. Fortunately her boyfriend was an electrician who did testing so it became a nice little earner for them. At Christmas one young girl decided to decorate her computer monitor with a string of usb powered fairy lights. Bossy manager demanded that they were removed as they hadn’t been PAT tested, so she didn’t understand either. 

[kevinlms]

23 minutes ago, Hibelroad said:

PAT testing can be misunderstood. I once worked in an office where a new bossy manager discovered that the equipment hadn’t been tested for some years. Fortunately her boyfriend was an electrician who did testing so it became a nice little earner for them. At Christmas one young girl decided to decorate her computer monitor with a string of usb powered fairy lights. Bossy manager demanded that they were removed as they hadn’t been PAT tested, so she didn’t understand either. 

LoL. Before I did PAT testing, at work one of the guys got talked into doing the course. Soon after he had to test all our tools.

We all ended up with new soldering irons, because he couldn't test the Earth on our double insulated irons. It didn't occur to him that they all tested the same!

[GrumpyPenguin]

5 hours ago, DCB said:

I don't think half the testers do either, they check the cord, earth leakage etc but I keep finding 13 amp fuses where there should be 5 amp  cords attached by the wires not the outer casing and freshly PAT tested items which don't actually work.   And of course bare wires inside the casing, normally on 19700s controllers.   It's a nice little earner, 2 day course to get qualified.    Fancy doing it myself actually.

As another member stated a PAT may not indicate if something actually works.

My PATester has a function to actually "run" an item, - I use this where I can, but of course it requires a little more time per item.

 

As for a 2-day course..............

There is no substitute for experience & the fact that I fail many items that have previously been passed by "Two Day Wonders" says it all really.

 

Appliance cases are not normally removed (a little like your cars MOT) although plug tops are & of course the fuse rating checked.

 

It's actually a mind-numbingly boring job, I used to do it as a service for regular customers & other customers who wanted it done "properly" & not by the "Two Day Wonder"/50p an item brigade.

[kevinlms]

2 hours ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

 

It's actually a mind-numbingly boring job, I used to do it as a service for regular customers & other customers who wanted it done "properly" & not by the "Two Day Wonder"/50p an item brigade.

Exactly so. I've got a club with I think about 160 items to do, which has many more items added since last time I did it.

 

The hardest part is tracking down all the items, because they are spread amongst 9 buildings/sheds and the items often get swapped from one location to another. Sometimes items disappear for a test one year, then reappear next time or the time after - which of course means someone took them off site and brought them back, but I still wasted time looking for them! Best done with 2, me testing and an assistant entering the details on a laptop and preparing labels. Both of us hunting for items. I can think of better ways to amuse myself!

 

Yet at the same time, many members think it's BS. Judging by the way our public liability insurance is going up, the club should be thankful, I'm doing the testing for the cost of the labels!

 

A professional tester only bloke I met, told me about a primary school with hundreds of items. The principal came up to him on the 3rd morning and asked why he was taking so long.

Apparently the previous guy having done it for 2 or 3 years, just changed the labels and took him 1 day each time!