On Jan 30, 11:29*am, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:
Existential Angst wrote:

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in message
...

Steve B wrote:

A 5# box, which I estimate holds about 1,000, cost $14 -- a price diff
of
a
factor of 10!

I have friggin boxes and boxes and jars and jars of fasteners. *Just
because
I'm too cheap to pay what they want for ten of them. *But when I need
something, I go to the bins rather than make a run to the hardware store.
And if I do have to run for fasteners, I buy them by the box and have a
stock of them.

* I hit the local scrap metal yard first. They have a few tons of
surplus hardware they sell for $1.50 a pound.

You are blessed.
The scrap yards by me pitch *everything* in 30yd containers, to be hauled
away.
Sheeit, they won't even save pristine 1x3 alum bar, much less save hardware.

* *Ocala Recycling is like that. *They had a mint condition open frame
aluminum relay rack that weighed about 25 pounds. They wouldn't sell it
for any price. *OTOH, I have had some luck asking people to sell me
something before their scrap made it to the scales. Like a two foot
piece of 4" copper pipe for free. A mechanical contractor had a huge
truckload of it and the guy gave it to me to make a pair of WI-FI
Antennas rather than sell it.

* *There are several other places with drops & surplus as well, but the
prices are a little higher. *I mentioned one recently. Rhino. *I have
friends who manufacture nice aluminum framed canopies for art shows. *If
I need some short pieces of the tubing they use, they usually give it to
me. *I do free IT support for them, and at one time they owned a large
thrift store that donated used computers and parts to my Veteran's
project.

* *The next stop is usually Fastenal or Grainger's. *I miss living near
Dayton, Ohio. Mendelson's had over a million pounds of surplus hardware
on the first floor of their surplus store. *Everything except stainless,
brass or nylon hardware was $1.25 a pound. I used to buy 10 to 25 pounds
at a time. 6-32 * 1/2" pan head philips screws were about 600 per pound.
I used a lot of them repairing electronics. Toss all the old screws in a
can and put the item back together with new hardware. *I used the last
of them repairing computers, to replace the crapware they were built
with. I really liked the screws with captive star washers for computers.


--
Greed is the root of all eBay.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

With scrap today you have to head it off before it reaches the yard.

Whatever you are looking for, you will find it where it is being
used...not where it is going.

TMT