The Art of Scrounging

jhiggins

jhiggins

Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Messages
3,258
Yes indeed there is a certain art to it. We scroungers look with eyes big as saucers into dumpsters and junkyards. We howl with delight over each others finds as if that old leaf spring or railroad spike is a treasure beyond imagination. I found a box full of old paper-slitting wheels a few days ago and called the company that was etched into the sides. They said those wheels were 52100!!! You should have seen me do a little jig!

So what I intend with this thread is for a place for folks to learn about good places to scrouge for stuff - even good places to buy needed items cheaply. I'll start:

I like my shop neat and clean. An old military boy - I got to have everything in its place and all that. One of my favorite places to look for workbenches, parts cabinets, shop stools, even machinery sometimes (!) is used office-equipment resellers. Typically if a business goes out of business, they will call in someone to bid on all their office goods. These resellers make big money out of offering a small price for an entire plant full of goods. The attractive upside to the selling company is that they have immediately liquidated all their material assets and they don't have to pay for removal of any of the equipment.

I've bought all kinds of stuff at these places. Heck, last year I got a call from a friend who bought a Hardinge toolroom lathe off one reseller... FOR $500!!! I'm still jealous about that.


So anyone care to share their favorite finds? Any places out there you think are great resources for hard-to-find items or materials? Any good money-saving tips out there?
 
I'm not sure if this falls in the "scrounge" category or not, but I found a Car/Truck spring manufacturer that sells their 5160 scrap for $10 for all you can carry.:D

The scrap is the end cuts from when they make the springs. Lots of wide and thick 5160. I had to really search for stuff that was close to 1/4" thick and not closer to 3/8" thick. I'm still working on some of that steel that I picked up many months ago.

Hope this helps.

- Mike
 
I am still working with 01 but am aquiring a big pile of spring steel. Your local farmer will go ape... if you tell him your enterested in buying something out of his old rust pile. He probably won't charge at all. I made the mistake of telling him I would trade him a knife for a bunch of springs, OH BOY:rolleyes: ... lesson learned.
 
I don't even know where to start here. I enjoy the scrounging as much as I enjoy making knives.

1. Boat graveyards....Lots of bronze and brass and mahogany and some good steel in the shafts.

2.Municipal surplus sales. Machines, cabinets...you'll love this one, the long springs on desk chairs that hold the back to the bottom, make GREAT machettes...cost 0.50 each in Henri co County the third Thursday of every month.

3.Tractor repair centers. Hay rake tines, drive shafts, etc.

4. Kitchen counter makers....great source for Corian scraps.

5. Flea Markets....old files, wrenches, ax heads.

6. Large Machine shops....you couldn't imagine the good scraps they throw out.

7.Gunsmiths....steel, files, metal working machines.

The list goes on
 
Well, working for a construction company allows me to scrounge all sorts of wood for handle materials and shop implements. I get alot of rebar for blacksmithing projects as well. I do get a little high carbon toolsteel now and then with small saw blades and files. Where I used to live was right by the railroad tracks so I have rr spikes a plenty....

Tim

P.S. I should also mention I've scrounged off of e-bay. Gotten heavy pewter items for $1 plus shipping.... Almost free and a cheap way to get your hands on pewter.
 
Great ideas here!

Sharpening businesses usually have a lot of old saw blades and just about anything that needs sharpening. The guy that sharpens the cutters for the printing presses where I work throws me a bone once in a while.

Now here's the really big question: Who knows a cheap source of 6AL4V titanium?
 
Everyone thought I was mad - I went to a demolition site and picked up some awesomely figured Curly Jarrah - a fiddleback timber that is hard to come by - about 12 foot of the stuff - it had been used in the wall studs of an old building - reckon 150years at least.

I get heaps of gear - old files esp. from flea markets.

Got my anvil at a flea market - an antique with broken corners, must be at least 120-150years old too. Paid $50 ($35-40US) for it and its seen some action over the last year.

I'm too cheap ... the list goes on, and on... Jason.
 
I am a pretty good scrounger, as Dave Larsen can testify! 'Ol Dave has been been on the receiving end of my overflow! Hey, on the Ti,I have some Ti printing machine parts coming from a local newspaper. One of my sons runs the press there. He says they just throw away the old parts ones and buy new ones. It might be worth checking with your local newspaper. The titanium parts are flat stock, resembling knife blades. I can't hold a candle to some of you scroungers, though!
 
My best, scrounge come cheap Bas$#@D effort was I was looking in the local paper and saw some guy with an add "wanted to buy an Anvil"
I rang him up and asked if he had got any he said yes I told him my story and asked if he got any more offers to consider buying and onselling to me. He got another offer and told me about it did not want to take any cut. I got 219 lb anvil for $80 Australian about $50 us at the time.
 
You gotta be careful when scrounging like this. A pile of scrap spring steel that some bubba couldnt pay somebody to haul off suddenly becomes worth a $500 Bowie when he finds out you are a knifemaker.
 
I've found highly figured and even spalted cherry and maple scraps as well as white oak, walnut, basswood and Phillipine mahogany from custom cabinet shop dumpsters.

The downside to dumpsters is that hazardous chemicals like solvents used in small shops are often thrown away as well, not to mention the dust you raise when digging through a pile of shop sweepings and cut offs.

I've scrounged many broken bandsaw blades from another cabinet shop that has a small portable mill.

Coil and leaf springs, scrap angle and channel iron, old bed frames and giant u-bolts from junk piles in the woods, cast aside rail road track cutoffs and railroad spikes from abandoned spurs especially where the tracks were taken up smooth over a road crossing.

Cast off empty freon tanks and large pipe cut offs for forge bodies.

A couple hundred pounds of Charcoal from tree burning piles where a new subdiviison was being built (in the afternoon they have to bank the fires by piling dirt up around them with dozers).

Scrounging is fun, it's like treasure hunting, but you can end up with a bunch of junk you may never use! I haven't used any of this coil or leaf spring steel yet.:D
 
The big steel fabricators up here usually are pretty cool about letting you scrounge in their dumpsters. One that I go to all the time lets me get steel plate as thick as 3" if I want. Definitely all the steel I need for my next press project will be coming from there. I already have a killer 18x6 I-beam ready for that, and a base of that 3 inch steel.

Ironically, the scrap yard folks are really uptight about letting anyone scrounge, even if it means you buy from them.
 
Sometime you can try the dumpster at pool supply stores. If they do repairs it is even better. You can get firebricks from old heaters and sometimes they will replace old filters that had stainless steel tanks. I have seen 24" across and 72" high tanks before. I wish I had known then what I know know. I still check every time I drive by.
 
Originally posted by XRAYED
You gotta be careful when scrounging like this. A pile of scrap spring steel that some bubba couldnt pay somebody to haul off suddenly becomes worth a $500 Bowie when he finds out you are a knifemaker.
Click to expand...

:eek: Its happened to you too ??? :barf:

On a more positive note, I mentioned to a work colleague what I did in my free time. Next week, she brings in a box I can barely lift - its full of old files - and GOOD ONES too !! Must've been 40-45 of them, all 10-14inch pieces. A lot more work than bar stock but huge fun, challenging and those files have 30-40years of history in them !

Turns out her father was a hobby metal/ wood worker who had tried some knifemaking decades ago before health problems overtook him. :( Seems he was more than happy to let someone else run with it. I made him a knife for his consideration and generosity. Thats still one of my better feel-good stories from my "restore faith in human kindness" file.

Or an "accidental" scrounging story. ;) :D Jason.
 
I was showing a knife to a friend from church. When she found out it was Redwood she said her dad had some left over chucks that were too curly for furniture - decades old.

Next thing I know she dropped off a piece 2' by 3' by 2-3". Has a wonderful wave pattern in it.

Steve

PS anyone have something to trade?
 
Another place to check out is estate auctions. Sometimes you can find worthwhile tools and steel that no one else there happens to be interested in. Or, like in the case of a machinist's estate sale last year, the buyers come, but there is just so much stuff that has to be sold, by the end of the day you can pick up a whole box full of cutters for $1 because everyone else already bought more than they can use.

My best score in a while- I went to the estate sale of a watchmaker, (keep in mind I specialize in miniature knives) and bought two tiny vices, (one with glass faced jaws to prevent marring) some super fine needle files, gravers, hinge reamers, etc. for about $20. These were super high quality precision tools; perfect for working on tiny knives. I'm betting just the vices would cost around $60-$100 each new.
 
While we are on this subject,I have a question. Near here is a factory that makes fireplace liners. The liners are of different sizes,steel mesh re-enforced, kiln fired,H-A-R-D, and heavy. One side smooth,aprox.2" thick, and the edges beveled 45 degrees. They run as large as about 2'square,and FREE. They give away the blocks that they think have a cosmetic flaw. I was there back in the 80's and got 2 pickup loads to build a patio. They look just like patio pads with an artificial brick design.Anyhow, you fellas think this would work pretty good for a home built forge?
 
Well in NECKA it seem we have a few members that are well suited to the name of a Scrounger. My shop is part of the warehouse for the goodies that they have gotten. EX: 1/2 Spool of brand new crane cable, used bandsaw blades, forge bodies, woods and etc. :D :D
 
yeah the hammer-ins alon yield a truck load of goodies from poeple bringing ocassional stuff such as antler, to the cable damascus everyone makes
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top