Author Topic: Best thing I found in a skip  (Read 7424 times)

Best thing I found in a skip
« on: 26 July, 2020, 06:15:33 pm »
I've nabbed some great stuff from skips - 70s "racer" bike got be started, but we've managed spare glass panes from the greenhouse (which was a freecycle job), kids toys and I was really pleased with a pair of tennis rackets yesterday.
Today I think I may have hit the mother-lode though, in that I got a whole acoustic drum kit (took two trips with the cargo bike).

What's the best piece of someone else's rubbish you got?
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

Re: Best thing I found in a skip
« Reply #1 on: 26 July, 2020, 10:06:59 pm »
We have a skip at work - occasionally other people dump stuff in it, occasionally I remove stuff.

On the 'Wobbly Workshop thread' I put photos of the recipricating saw I recovered from the skip - it just needed the mains wires tightening in the connectors.  :smug:

I grabbed a useful looking large holdall, and found it contained a six berth Khyam tent - one of the pole joints was broken, but there were spare joints with it so I was able to fix it - it fetched £92 on ebay...  :demon:

The big pillar drill was really difficult to get out of the skip - I had to take it apart to recover it. I must find the fault on the switch and get it going (it works if I push the solenoid by hand insulated screwdriver) as it's better quality than the one I already have.  ::-)

Luckily when they were getting rid of the circular sawbench, they asked me if I wanted it before they chucked it in the skip...  ;D

I've also had 'teak' garden furniture (a bench and 2 tables) that have needed slight repair, and a few gazebos that also needed slight repair.  :P
If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is...

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Best thing I found in a skip
« Reply #2 on: 27 July, 2020, 10:51:37 am »
When soapbox racing started to attract the interest of motorsport types, it was because McLaren designer Gordon Murray held an event on the driveway of his house in France.  He imposed a strict budget limit of £50.  "How, Mr Murray", asked a defeated rival "does your racer have a titanium steering rack costing, IME, twenty thousand of Her Maj's nicker, on a budget of fifty notes?"

"Came out of a skip behind the factory!"
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: Best thing I found in a skip
« Reply #3 on: 09 December, 2022, 07:27:31 pm »
Since moving to Yorkshire I have never found anything of value in a skip.
Move Faster and Bake Things

Re: Best thing I found in a skip
« Reply #4 on: 09 December, 2022, 07:39:20 pm »
A Fred Scott Hille Supporto chair which I restored.
Currently, a good condition one will go through the till at around £2k
I swapped it a couple of years ago for a Herman Miller Aeron chair.
I feel the swapee came off with the better deal.
Aeron chairs are two a penny.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Best thing I found in a skip
« Reply #5 on: 09 December, 2022, 10:30:10 pm »
About 50m of cat5e, assorted Useful Pieces Of Wood™, and little else of note.

Silly Oak skips are particularly disappointing.  They can't even be bothered to put the fridges in them.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Best thing I found in a skip
« Reply #6 on: 14 December, 2022, 10:05:34 pm »
My brother acquired a nice wooden office swivel chair from a skip next door.
It served him for years.

Our non-skip roadside acquisitions include:
A blue office swivel chair for David
An unframed amateur oil painting of tulips
A three spot adjustable standard lamp
A cloth-topped wooden dining chair

David picks up abandoned bric-à-brac on his local perambulations.

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
  • Help me!
Re: Best thing I found in a skip
« Reply #7 on: 14 December, 2022, 10:56:54 pm »
Not actually from skips.
2 wooden standard lamps. Not at the same time. Both simply needed a fettle at the lamp switch at the top of the post.
Various house plants, and a typists swivel chair which we put back outside after a week or so.
Amusingly, I had taped a little 'Free' notice to it, but I observed that the breeze was making the sign unreadable.  I popped back in the house for the tape in order to secure it more efficiently.  Came back out.  The chair was gone.
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Best thing I found in a skip
« Reply #8 on: 15 December, 2022, 12:44:16 pm »
The best thing I found in a skip
was a hop
and a jump
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Best thing I found in a skip
« Reply #9 on: 15 December, 2022, 06:20:04 pm »
 ::-) :D
the slower you go the more you see

Re: Best thing I found in a skip
« Reply #10 on: 08 January, 2023, 05:32:02 pm »
Antique pocket watches X6. Two of them are 1890's Silver, key wind & set. The rest from early 1900's-1940's.
All working after slight fettling/servicing and one needed a new mainspring (£19 from ebay).
They keep pretty good time too!

Petrol Chain saw X2
Camping cookers X2
Assorted bicycle parts from a closed bike shop inc Hubs, Derailleurs(F & R), disc brake brackets, Headsets and Bottom brackets plus a lot of nuts bolts and fixings.
Petrol Strimmer X3
Assorted power tools (drills, jigsaws, planes, Skil saws)
Dremel plus accessories.

All from local council "Dumps"

Most of the Items were donated to local charity shops as the person that obtained them worked for the council and was not allowed to sell anything.

fruitcake

  • some kind of fruitcake
Re: Best thing I found in a skip
« Reply #11 on: 01 April, 2023, 09:46:32 pm »
A weight lifting set consisting of free weights, dumbells and barbell with collars to secure the weights. All in the wheelie bin for the flat upstairs.  How on earth the bin man was supposed to wheel the bin away with 50kg inside I don't know. I dread to think what that lot would have done to innards of the bin lorry - especially the barbell. Also in the bin was a stack of promotional leaflets for The Young Conservatives. Didn't take those.