Dumpster diving

+1 for college campuses, though dorms typically don't yield the best stuff, and are hit most often. The hot ticket is to talk to local Pizza delivery drivers. They'll tell you which apartments/condos the "rich kids" live in. Those berkeleyers throw all KINDS of good E36 M3 away, and if it's gated, most folks won't go to the effort of getting in to dumpster dive. I've grabbed WORKING TV's, nice furniture, framed artwork, etc., etc. When the rich kids move into a new place, they throw the "old" stuff away and buy new stuff. Crazy.

Reminds me of that one episode of Seinfeld...

I'd forgotten about that one. I was expecting the one where Kramer found the Merv Griffin set in the dumpster and used it to furnish his apartment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxhs-O_9BLc

Bob

Gotta agree with the Pizza delivery guy option. I am a Pizza delivery guy! Imagine 40 hours a week just cruising the city and a lot of the country too. I have the advantage of having money to buy these castoff and forgotten items (Thank you Dave Ramsey!)

Found my $500 Miata that way! (Sold the hardtop for $900) Will the engine from my 91 Capri XR2 turbo ($200) fit in the Miata? Both my daily drivers were broken "sitters" 91 Escort with a bad clutch for $250....130,000 miles ago! 89 Ranger truck..$500 with a broken shifter part...free from the Pick and pull.

I actually find so much stuff that we have a term "unpurchased inventory" for the great stuff I have no room for.

Got a nice "Moggie" spotted...need a cheap lathe?? How about a Dixie Chopper? Travel trailers, riding mowers, all kinds of stuff!

Plus we see ALL the garage sales and such.

Bruce

By far the best dumpster diving I've ever come across was when I was living in Colorado. The ski resort towns at the end of the season had dumpsters full of treasures. Vail was lucrative, but Aspen was ridiculous! The rich folks stock up for the winter season, and then dump all their stuff when the summer comes. We snagged a bunch of great albums, a good mountain bike, and all kinds of stuff. It's crazy what people throw away.

I wish this town had good dumpsters to dive. It's cool if you want crap, but that's about all you're going to get.

i never find anything cool around here cheap or tossaway doing pizza driving. cant even keep up with the beills right now..sigh.....

The neighbor kid threw away his old mountain bike. It was in great shape, except for a bent wheel and a broken shift lever. One kid's trash is another kid's treasure.

Bent wheel and broken shifter are easy to replace.

Around here, I tend to drive around a bit on "large garbage" collection days. That's the only time I come up with anything worth using anymore. All of the "good" stuff gets trashed by the stores here. Our Wal-Mart tends to knock $5 off of something and put it on "clearance" instead of tossing it.

i found a 23pack of coke outside of my local shoppers, and my first tv i found in the trash.

I keep looking for a steel mountain bike frame, I need the 'quick release' clamp and the tubing for the seat post for a lil' project rattling around my head. Nobody has chucked one out recently, though.

I've never put anything large-ish out, no matter how crappy, without somebody coming by and picking it up. In fact, I make bets with my wife about how long things will last. Usually it's under 4 hours. I figure it's yet another way to recycle.

My old house in Ontario was great for that. It was on a fairly busy arterial street rather than in a subdivision so it got lots of drive-by traffic. I once threw out an old kitchen cupboard which was just some rotten pieces of pressboard held together with nails and a single broken drawer slider, and sombody took that. I couldn't believe it!

I guess there's a market for everything if it's free.

And then there was the time I threw out a small TV, and, unbeknownst to me, my dad drove by on his way home from work and picked it up. Guess it runs in the family...

J

Jensenman wrote: I keep looking for a steel mountain bike frame, I need the 'quick release' clamp and the tubing for the seat post for a lil' project rattling around my head. Nobody has chucked one out recently, though. I have several sitting in the back of the shop right now that I would not mind taking a hacksaw to LOL

I might be able to hook you up. Do you have any specific inside diameter that you are looking for? Most steel frames are 27.2mm inside diameter and some have a separate collar with the quick release part. I can cut the tube out of the frame if that's all you need.

EastCoastMojo wrote:

Jensenman wrote: I keep looking for a steel mountain bike frame, I need the 'quick release' clamp and the tubing for the seat post for a lil' project rattling around my head. Nobody has chucked one out recently, though. I have several sitting in the back of the shop right now that I would not mind taking a hacksaw to LOL

I might be able to hook you up. Do you have any specific inside diameter that you are looking for? Most steel frames are 27.2mm inside diameter and some have a separate collar with the quick release part. I can cut the tube out of the frame if that's all you need.

Hey, that will work. I'm making a quick adjust seat back brace, so I'd need the seat mount tube and the frame section it slides into; the larger the better for rigidity. I'm planning to use the 'flip lever' type of quick clamp, like this: < The idea is: the Abomination gets passed around like a doobie at a Phish concert and some of my co drivers are vertically challenged. This way the seat could be moved back and forth quickly with no tools.

The large tube needs to be steel so I can weld it to a clamp that will attach to the rollbar diagonal brace. It needs to be around 6" long so I can experiment a bit with positioning. I'd prefer the inner tube to be steel as well, so I can weld a piece of small diameter tubing crossways at the end for a bolt to go through.

I'll PM my treemail addy, be glad to drop some bux for shipping and etc.

It's your lucky day! This frame is definately long enough to get 6" of seat tube and it does have a steel seatpost in it. They are usually aluminum, so bonus, and I made sure that it was not frozen inside the seat tube, double bonus. I got your e-mail, so I will cut this thing up and get it in the mail to you by the weekend.

Damn. How cool is that? Feel the GRM love...

Sweet! Thanksabunch, Mojo!

You betcha! Extraction complete. The best part was watching the customers faces as I am in the back of the shop sawing the berkeley out of that frame. Then, the service manager comes back from lunch and just about drops his soda when he spots me. I just calmly said, "His check bounced".

Good times all around.

EastCoastMojo wrote: You betcha! Extraction complete. The best part was watching the customers faces as I am in the back of the shop sawing the berkeley out of that frame. Then, the service manager comes back from lunch and just about drops his soda when he spots me. I just calmly said, "His check bounced". Good times all around.

I would have paid to see his face.

Jensenman wrote: I would have paid to see his face.

I really had him going too because we did just have a check come back from the bank. My comedic timing is rarely that good.

Duke wrote: I've never put anything large-ish out, no matter how crappy, without somebody coming by and picking it up. In fact, I make bets with my wife about how long things will last. Usually it's under 4 hours. I figure it's yet another way to recycle.

Joe said his old neighborhood was like a goat.