Skip Raiding

[Steamport Southport]

17 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

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.

 

Actually true.

 

It's also an offence to put your items into someone else's skip or bin!

 

 

Jason

[jcm@gwr]

Most builders are okay with it, if you ask them first, assuming the stuff you want is easily accessible.

When I worked for a loft conversion company, the guys would quite often help them retrieve stuff!

One guy built a shed on his allotment using the old joists and rafters, and it meant we could put more

stuff in the skip before it needed emptying.

[Enterprisingwestern]

46 minutes ago, jcm@gwr said:

Most builders are okay with it, if you ask them first, assuming the stuff you want is easily accessible.

When I worked for a loft conversion company, the guys would quite often help them retrieve stuff!

One guy built a shed on his allotment using the old joists and rafters, and it meant we could put more

stuff in the skip before it needed emptying.

 

Once they are in the skip it is not the builder who can say whether or not they can be taken though, they are property of the skip company.

Taken to an extreme, skip companies would love every skip they hire out to come back empty as the contents have been fully recycled, they can charge £200 for delivering and collecting a clean skip, easy money!

 

Mike.

[Steamport Southport]

Yeah. Most aren't bothered.

 

Just be aware that some might be and you do get Jobsworths!

[kevinlms]

10 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Once they are in the skip it is not the builder who can say whether or not they can be taken though, they are property of the skip company.

Taken to an extreme, skip companies would love every skip they hire out to come back empty as the contents have been fully recycled, they can charge £200 for delivering and collecting a clean skip, easy money!

 

Mike.

The only time they might be bothered is if they were expecting something of value, perhaps scrap copper and having someone steal it, before they got a chance to sell it to a recycler.

[pH]

On 04/04/2024 at 14:27, J. S. Bach said:

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

Our town used to have an annual week where people could put out at the kerb items they no longer wanted but were still serviceable. At the end of the week, the town would gather up whatever was left and take it to the dump. The first morning always saw trucks belonging to second-hand stores and scrapyards rapidly touring the neighbourhoods. But there were often things worth picking up after that. I don’t know why the arrangement was stopped.

 

And there are garage/yard/moving sales in town most weekends. One son who is now a keen (and, according to those who know about these things, a very good) guitarist got his first electric guitar at a yard sale. It was a really cheap thing and he and his brothers played it to destruction over the years. However, he liked it so much that he bought another of the same model a couple of decades later, just for old times sake.

[DCB]

21 hours ago, kevinlms said:

No fuses in Australian electrical plugs.

Strewth, you blokes got a death wish or something?

[Oldddudders]

1 hour ago, DCB said:

Strewth, you blokes got a death wish or something?

European plugs don't have fuses, either. 

[kevinlms]

1 hour ago, DCB said:

Strewth, you blokes got a death wish or something?

The UK is almost unique in having fuses.

 

The reason is because only the UK appears to have a Ring Main, which would not be legal in most countries. The fuse is there to protect the mains CABLE, not the user.

 

https://www.morvantrading.co.uk/why-are-uk-plugs-fused/

[Enterprisingwestern]

8 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

European plugs don't have fuses, either. 

 

, and we can put our plugs in either way up, rather defeats the square pin one way only mantra!

 

Mike.

[2E Sub Shed]

1 minute ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

, and we can put our plugs in either way up, rather defeats the square pin one way only mantra!

 

Mike.

Need more than a single pole switch in the equipment to isolate it then.

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

Just now, 2E Sub Shed said:

Need more than a single pole switch in the equipment to isolate it then.

 

 

Switch??

Isolator??

Hahahaha!!

 

Mike.

[2E Sub Shed]

Just now, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Switch??

Isolator??

Hahahaha!!

 

Mike.

Old enough to remember those Government Information Films on TV urging us to unplug everything at night before retiring to bed. 

[Steamport Southport]

3 minutes ago, 2E Sub Shed said:

Old enough to remember those Government Information Films on TV urging us to unplug everything at night before retiring to bed. 

 

And that is why I was sacked from the Intensive Care Unit.....

 

 

 

Yep. I remember those adverts just before the National Anthem and later we started to get the Open University programmes through the night.

[tomparryharry]

I don't particularly go skip diving, but I've had my moments. My biggest 'haul' was in Havenstreet, IoW...

 

"Ere, Smithy, can you get some broken pallets for loco firewood?

"No problem, how many?

"Oh, about 20, a Transits worth'

 

Next day, Transport Manager. " I've got a lorry-load in the yard, which is full, about 400".

"I can't take that many!

He gripped my arm..

"It's either that, or eff-all!

Apparently, they lasted a year, and one or two railway members recovered quite a bit for garden fences, etc.

 

I forgot to say, the 'deal' included seconded driver, trailer & unit 

Edited April 10 by tomparryharry
More information.

[tomparryharry]

You might have heard about the late Malcolm Rowe; facilitator extraordinaire.... Also mentioned in Mojo & State of mind...

 

The phone call.. "Smithy,  do you think you can hire a 7.5 ton flatbed?

 

"yes, no problem. Why do you need me to hire a truck? 

 

"I've just had a 'donation' of 22,000 bricks from a building site in Llantrisant that's being cleared..

 

I thought I was very good at this sort of malarkey: In fact, I was just a pup... 

[Pacific231G]

On 06/04/2024 at 13:24, 2E Sub Shed said:

Old enough to remember those Government Information Films on TV urging us to unplug everything at night before retiring to bed. 

Anyone remember the acronym SIDE?* I know what it means (electrical engineering was part of my OND though we knew it as Magic) but I don't know why I can still recall it. I think it was in one of those OU programmes, something about HV electrical work,  that I sometimes ended up putting out on BBC-2. but that was over forty-five years ago. Clearly it was a very good acronym.  

* Switch off. Isolate, Dump, Earth. 

Edited April 9 by Pacific231G

[stewartingram]

WhenI was working (for a contractor) on the Underground, I was paired with another guy one night to do a job at Marble Arch station, accessing via the Oxford Street entrance. We had to park in a side street just round the corner, which was blocked off from Oxford Street, and had to come in from the back. At the blocked off end there was a skip, they were refurbing a hotel adjacent. My mate saw some marble worktop thrown in the skip, he soon had that loaded in the van. He was another "Trotter" who usually had some odd deals on the go ,and the van was well overloaded! We shot off rather quickly, to deposit the load at hiss place west just off the A40. We then went back to the station, we did have a job to do.

It took him months to sell that lot on, but made a tidy sum.

[tomparryharry]

Sometimes, with a site with restricted access, the project will be deliberately over ordered. After all, you can't really cart a 6 metre length of steel pipe around a city centre. We had 3 contractors in our plant room, one each for gas, fire, & solar/hot water. We, doing the solar part, was the last phase of the project. However, the earlier contractors just left whatever excess, and went to their next contract. My old boss was a bit new at this game, and couldn't believe how much was left. Suffice to say, the next job comprised about 50-60% of excess from the previous job. 

[The Johnster]

I have a Toshiba 32” tv with two HDMI sockets as well as other connection options, which has become a bit of a pita over time as first one, then the second, HDMIs ceased to function.  Both are needed, as there is a Virgin TIVO box and a Mac Mini computer feeding the tv.  These are now feeding the tv  by a single VGA/HDMI adaptor, not a satisfactory setup and a guaranteed eventual failure as these plugs don’t like excessive handling.  I’ve had a series of SDMI splitter boxes, none of which lasted very long or were reliable. 
 

Coming home from the shops on Tuesday, saw that someone had chucked a similar tv out on to the pavement, so checked it for HDMI sockets, box ticked, two of them present & correct…  As I had the 4-wheeler heavy duty shopping trolley with, no problem to load the tv on top of it for cartage home, only around the corner anyway.  Thinking was that, if this tv works, it can replace the existing problem child, and if it doesn’t there is little to lose by taking the backs off and replacing the HDMI sockets on the original tv, at least so long as I don’t have to go poking around where there might be loaded capacitors that can chuck me across the room…

 

The pavement model is also a Toshiba 32incher, similar to the problem child but in a white casing as opposed to black and with a built-in DVD player (remember them; ah, the good old days…), so it should work with my existing remote.  The chucker out had cut the mains cable, so the first task was to replace that, not difficult as it turned out since removing the little panel accessing the innards of this allowed me to tug about 6” out, plenty for a connection and a vindication of my habit of cutting the cables off electrical stuff I’m getting rid of and keeping them because they’ll come in handy one day, yay hoarding!

 

Replaced the fuse with the correct 5-amp, plugged it in, and… it lives!  Indicator led lit and normal blank screen.  Later today I’ll start connecting things to it to see what it’ll do, but things are looking pretty hopeful now just.  Watch this space for the next exciting episode of Pavement Toshiba!!!

[Hibelroad]

I once sold a house due to a skip. It was my late father in laws house and we were clearing it of accumulated junk (took 5 skips in the end !). We had had estate agents round to value it and of course they were keen to get us signed up so they could get a hefty fee. On morning a builder was working across the road replacing a house window. He came across and said look, it's a bit of a cheek but can I put the old frame in your skip. It was only a small window so I said no problem, then he started asking what we were doing with the house. It turns out he was looking for a house for his son and being a builder didn't mind a bit of a project. In the end we sold it directly to him and saved a couple of grand on estate agents fees. So if there is a moral to this story its be generous with your skip.

[tomparryharry]

4 hours ago, The Johnster said:

I have a Toshiba 32” tv with two HDMI sockets as well as other connection options, which has become a bit of a pita over time as first one, then the second, HDMIs ceased to function.  Both are needed, as there is a Virgin TIVO box and a Mac Mini computer feeding the tv.  These are now feeding the tv  by a single VGA/HDMI adaptor, not a satisfactory setup and a guaranteed eventual failure as these plugs don’t like excessive handling.  I’ve had a series of SDMI splitter boxes, none of which lasted very long or were reliable. 
 

Coming home from the shops on Tuesday, saw that someone had chucked a similar tv out on to the pavement, so checked it for HDMI sockets, box ticked, two of them present & correct…  As I had the 4-wheeler heavy duty shopping trolley with, no problem to load the tv on top of it for cartage home, only around the corner anyway.  Thinking was that, if this tv works, it can replace the existing problem child, and if it doesn’t there is little to lose by taking the backs off and replacing the HDMI sockets on the original tv, at least so long as I don’t have to go poking around where there might be loaded capacitors that can chuck me across the room…

 

The pavement model is also a Toshiba 32incher, similar to the problem child but in a white casing as opposed to black and with a built-in DVD player (remember them; ah, the good old days…), so it should work with my existing remote.  The chucker out had cut the mains cable, so the first task was to replace that, not difficult as it turned out since removing the little panel accessing the innards of this allowed me to tug about 6” out, plenty for a connection and a vindication of my habit of cutting the cables off electrical stuff I’m getting rid of and keeping them because they’ll come in handy one day, yay hoarding!

 

Replaced the fuse with the correct 5-amp, plugged it in, and… it lives!  Indicator led lit and normal blank screen.  Later today I’ll start connecting things to it to see what it’ll do, but things are looking pretty hopeful now just.  Watch this space for the next exciting episode of Pavement Toshiba!!!

Some white goods, being fitted with a fused plug means very early retirement for certain items. So it was with Mrs Smiths pressure washer, which was slated to go. "What's wrong with that?  It's only a few months old! Ah, sez her, "it won't work, cheap rubbish, I'll get another". Check fuse? yes, it's working. Hello, what's this? It turned that the spring fuse clips are too wide, meaning no contact through the live feed. 2 minutes with the plug, and hey presto! Live feed returned! I do wish my jobs were that simple. 

[33C]

4 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Pavement Toshiba!!

I can't wait!

[The Johnster]

Patience, padawan; EVRI delivered my new layout operating (office swivel) chair and I've got to assemble that and get rid of the old one first...

[TheQ]

I do the “Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment”  for our MRC, it hasn't been officially called PAT testing for many years. Technically there is no legal requirement for "PAT" testing, but there are legal requirements to have the equipment checked for safety. You can carry out such testing without a "PAT" tester, but actually need more test equipment to do so..

 

Don't have a personal certificate for it ( there's no requirement for that either, just to be properly trained), but I'm a technician engineer ( retired) that worked for one one the biggest manufacturers of test equipment , (including " PAT" testers ) in the world.

 

One year they " the management"  decided to hire in a 50p a throw tester, instead of us using our valuable time testing our own equipment... After he blew up several tens of thousand pounds worth of equipment he was quickly shown the door..

 

One mistake many make is thinking stuff needs to be tested every year,  if does if it's like a kettle , or a portable mains powered controller. But not if it's a fridge in the corner of the MRC and never unplugged. Once every 5 years will do for that.

 

The most common failure of stuff donated to the club second stall is of course the 13 amp fuse in a 3 amp at most controller, followed by frayed and damaged leads...

 

As for myself I was very good at intercepting stuff on the way to a skip, including the odd PC, a commercial microwave oven ( new) , a Datron 1061

And 6 tons of bricks and slabs..

 

That particular picture is stolen from the net, but I've almost certainly calibrated and tested the test equipment used to calibrate that 1061 at some point.

 

I've used all sorts of things, for strange purposes, the shroud plates on my  sailing boat are from inside a big air conditioner, the  gooseneck was made from small crane hooks,  the jib club is a former delicatessen hand rail from tescos, it's trailer from parts of a bomb trolley...

 

The model Railway shed has about 10 old sash windows used as individual panel windows. Old pine flooring from a factory that was being knocked down, a former sliding double glazed door, that is now a swing opener, and the old front door from our former house.

 

Edited April 11 by TheQ