I spent several hours on Friday and another several on Saturday at
the ultimate metal collectors delight/horror. The man hauled in almost
anything made of metal for 40 years. There is a huge, probably weighs
in excess of 20 tons shear, right next to a shed full of electrical
panel boxes that have been stored so long the original cardboard
wrapping is gone on the top ten layers. The shear is scrap having been
left outdoors for 20 years and being vey obsolete when it was brought
in. The widow's son filled the 14th full haul-a-way with scrap on
Saturday and he isn't half done with the outside work yet, nor has he
started to demo the rambling shacks and sheds.
My efforts involved purchasing and salvaging the smaller stuff
inside. If anyone is in love with or just needs larger carbide
inserts I brought home several hundred pounds. Most were new but so
obsolete they are best scrapped. I have agreed to buy his small
lathe, two mills and some other machines but they are currently not
accessable due to the horrendous piles of metal stuff. Lots of frozen
three phase motors, more old welders and three phase transformer then
you can count and the wildest lathe chuck storage system I have ever
seen. He drove a 2" pipe about 8' long into the ground then slide
10-12 big lathe chucks over it so they wouldn't fall over.
Yes, this is almost a rant as I can't believe all the great stuff
that was reduced to scrap metal and the fact that one man hauled it
all home. His family said he circulated through the local scrap yards
and brought everything interesting home. One room was entirely filled
with shelves of tiny boxes containing nearly every weird fastener you
might imagine. I took a few of the keys, drive screws and SS and left
all the rest.
If this sounds like your house please be kind to your loved ones
and don't leave them with hundreds of tons of scarp to dispose of.
Some of the wierder items he saved included an entire wall covered
with old drafting machines, a breadbox full of used popsicle sticks,
numerous piles of plastic, aluminum and paper containers such as fast
food comes in, brand new cheapistan, full drill bit indexes laying on
top of thousands of quality HS drills, many rolls of 28 ga and smaller
electrical wire but no wire to put lights in the buildings. Leigh at
Marmachine

did you take any pictures? this sounds hard to imagine

On Sun, 23 Sep 2007 23:54:54 -0500, erik litchy
wrote:

did you take any pictures? this sounds hard to imagine


If Leigh says something..he is probably understating it.

hummmm...when you going over there again?

Gunner

On Sun, 23 Sep 2007 22:49:47 -0700, Gunner Asch wrote:

On Sun, 23 Sep 2007 23:54:54 -0500, erik litchy
wrote:

did you take any pictures? this sounds hard to imagine


If Leigh says something..he is probably understating it.

hummmm...when you going over there again?

Gunner

Leigh,
Are you sure you didn't wander into GunnerLand (tm) by mistake.I have seen
photos of Gunner's place :-)
I wann visit there one day - leave the kids at Disneyland and go have some
real fun!
Geoff

On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:41:25 +1200, Geoff
wrote:

On Sun, 23 Sep 2007 22:49:47 -0700, Gunner Asch wrote:

On Sun, 23 Sep 2007 23:54:54 -0500, erik litchy
wrote:

did you take any pictures? this sounds hard to imagine


If Leigh says something..he is probably understating it.

hummmm...when you going over there again?

Gunner

Leigh,
Are you sure you didn't wander into GunnerLand (tm) by mistake.I have seen
photos of Gunner's place :-)
I wann visit there one day - leave the kids at Disneyland and go have some
real fun!
Geoff


Nah...couldnt be mine. It only took 3 dumpsters to clear (most) of the
unwanted stuff....

Gunner

I saw a smaller version of this a month ago (not the same place as
mentioned in my "Lathe in Downers Grove area" post). The guy had THREE
SHEDS full of stuff to the brim. Several hundred fishing rods, several
tons of Crasftsman tools, etc. Big sinker casting setup also.

i

Hey Leigh,

Any chance this place is on San Fernando Rd., just east of
Lankershim?? The picture you leave in my mind sure would be just
like that!! VBG

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

On Sun, 23 Sep 2007 20:32:50 -0700, wrote:

I spent several hours on Friday and another several on Saturday at
the ultimate metal collectors delight/horror. The man hauled in almost
anything made of metal for 40 years. There is a huge, probably weighs
in excess of 20 tons shear, right next to a shed full of electrical
panel boxes that have been stored so long the original cardboard
wrapping is gone on the top ten layers. The shear is scrap having been
left outdoors for 20 years and being vey obsolete when it was brought
in. The widow's son filled the 14th full haul-a-way with scrap on
Saturday and he isn't half done with the outside work yet, nor has he
started to demo the rambling shacks and sheds.
My efforts involved purchasing and salvaging the smaller stuff
inside. If anyone is in love with or just needs larger carbide
inserts I brought home several hundred pounds. Most were new but so
obsolete they are best scrapped. I have agreed to buy his small
lathe, two mills and some other machines but they are currently not
accessable due to the horrendous piles of metal stuff. Lots of frozen
three phase motors, more old welders and three phase transformer then
you can count and the wildest lathe chuck storage system I have ever
seen. He drove a 2" pipe about 8' long into the ground then slide
10-12 big lathe chucks over it so they wouldn't fall over.
Yes, this is almost a rant as I can't believe all the great stuff
that was reduced to scrap metal and the fact that one man hauled it
all home. His family said he circulated through the local scrap yards
and brought everything interesting home. One room was entirely filled
with shelves of tiny boxes containing nearly every weird fastener you
might imagine. I took a few of the keys, drive screws and SS and left
all the rest.
If this sounds like your house please be kind to your loved ones
and don't leave them with hundreds of tons of scarp to dispose of.
Some of the wierder items he saved included an entire wall covered
with old drafting machines, a breadbox full of used popsicle sticks,
numerous piles of plastic, aluminum and paper containers such as fast
food comes in, brand new cheapistan, full drill bit indexes laying on
top of thousands of quality HS drills, many rolls of 28 ga and smaller
electrical wire but no wire to put lights in the buildings. Leigh at
Marmachine

Are you sure you didn't wander into GunnerLand (tm) by mistake.I have seen
photos of Gunner's place :-)
....
Nah...couldnt be mine. It only took 3 dumpsters to clear (most) of the
unwanted stuff....

Sounds almost like my place. When I worked for the big corporation, I got
surplused equipment for almost free. Used it to get all the steel and motors
and etc. I'll ever need. "The Kid" hauled about 25 dumptruck loads to the
scrap guy last year and only got about half. I'm ready to find somebody to
finish the work as steel scrap is way high right now.

Karl

In article ,
Gunner Asch wrote:

Nah...couldnt be mine. It only took 3 dumpsters to clear (most) of the
unwanted stuff....

Just the original problem - none of it was "unwanted" while the guy was
around to want it, evidently. I have veerings in this direction, but I
try to keep them in check. A bargain (or "free stuff!!!") "too good to
be passed up" should be passed up if it will constipate your
shop/storage space and prevent you from getting anything done. When you
have significant number of "great projects" that have been sitting for
10 years and not worked on in 10 years, you'll be better off shipping
them out the door at a loss, simply to free up space.

Gunner's ability to offer up his excess (with a shop cat or seven
attached to the bargain) is a Good Thing.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

On Sep 23, 11:54 pm, erik litchy wrote:
did you take any pictures? this sounds hard to imagine

No...I believe it.

I have seen it many times.

It is an occupational hazard of this hobby.

"If this sounds like your house please be kind to your loved ones
and don't leave them with hundreds of tons of scrap to dispose of. "

No truer words have ever been said.

Far too many people don't know when to downsize.

The scrappers love you for it.

TMT

Ignoramus3635 wrote:
I saw a smaller version of this a month ago (not the same place as
mentioned in my "Lathe in Downers Grove area" post). The guy had THREE
SHEDS full of stuff to the brim. Several hundred fishing rods, several
tons of Crasftsman tools, etc. Big sinker casting setup also.

My brother told me a story of a guy up
in central Washington with the same
affliction. He died leaving no kin and
the Sheriff's department had to do the
cleanup. One of the items they found
was a complete set of county jail keys
that had been "lost" about 3 years earlier.

On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 10:09:08 -0700, Jim Stewart wrote:
Ignoramus3635 wrote:
I saw a smaller version of this a month ago (not the same place as
mentioned in my "Lathe in Downers Grove area" post). The guy had THREE
SHEDS full of stuff to the brim. Several hundred fishing rods, several
tons of Crasftsman tools, etc. Big sinker casting setup also.

My brother told me a story of a guy up in central Washington with
the same affliction. He died leaving no kin and the Sheriff's
department had to do the cleanup. One of the items they found was a
complete set of county jail keys that had been "lost" about 3 years
earlier.



Buying a complete set of county jail keys, seems like a very wise,
forward looking step to me!

i

Too_Many_Tools wrote:

On Sep 23, 11:54 pm, erik litchy wrote:
did you take any pictures? this sounds hard to imagine

No...I believe it.

I have seen it many times.

It is an occupational hazard of this hobby.

"If this sounds like your house please be kind to your loved ones
and don't leave them with hundreds of tons of scrap to dispose of. "

No truer words have ever been said.

Far too many people don't know when to downsize.

The scrappers love you for it.

TMT

Those of us who don't have "loved ones" have no reason to give a damn
how big a mess we leave behind...

wrote:

The widow's son filled the 14th full haul-a-way with scrap on
Saturday and he isn't half done with the outside work yet, nor has he
started to demo the rambling shacks and sheds.


At least he had a wife that let him bring stuff home.

Wes

On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:02:22 -0400, Wes wrote:

wrote:

The widow's son filled the 14th full haul-a-way with scrap on
Saturday and he isn't half done with the outside work yet, nor has he
started to demo the rambling shacks and sheds.


At least he had a wife that let him bring stuff home.

Wes
In my case,senior son and junior so have specifically requested
certain items; middle son wants everything else - he takes after the
old man.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

"Too_Many_Tools" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Sep 23, 11:54 pm, erik litchy wrote:
did you take any pictures? this sounds hard to imagine

No...I believe it.

I have seen it many times.

It is an occupational hazard of this hobby.

"If this sounds like your house please be kind to your loved ones
and don't leave them with hundreds of tons of scrap to dispose of. "

No truer words have ever been said.

Far too many people don't know when to downsize.

The scrappers love you for it.

TMT


yeah, i know a guy like that too in my area. it's sad to see all that stuff
that's been turned into rusted hulks. the guy is in his late 80's. he has
little walkways/passageways through his shop (but i mean also tons and tons
of stuff stored outside too).

b.w.

On Sep 23, 10:32 pm, wrote:
I spent several hours on Friday and another several on Saturday at
the ultimate metal collectors delight/horror. The man hauled in almost
anything made of metal for 40 years. There is a huge, probably weighs
in excess of 20 tons shear, right next to a shed full of electrical
panel boxes that have been stored so long the original cardboard
wrapping is gone on the top ten layers. The shear is scrap having been
left outdoors for 20 years and being vey obsolete when it was brought
in. The widow's son filled the 14th full haul-a-way with scrap on
Saturday and he isn't half done with the outside work yet, nor has he
started to demo the rambling shacks and sheds.
My efforts involved purchasing and salvaging the smaller stuff
inside. If anyone is in love with or just needs larger carbide
inserts I brought home several hundred pounds. Most were new but so
obsolete they are best scrapped. I have agreed to buy his small
lathe, two mills and some other machines but they are currently not
accessable due to the horrendous piles of metal stuff. Lots of frozen
three phase motors, more old welders and three phase transformer then
you can count and the wildest lathe chuck storage system I have ever
seen. He drove a 2" pipe about 8' long into the ground then slide
10-12 big lathe chucks over it so they wouldn't fall over.
Yes, this is almost a rant as I can't believe all the great stuff
that was reduced to scrap metal and the fact that one man hauled it
all home. His family said he circulated through the local scrap yards
and brought everything interesting home. One room was entirely filled
with shelves of tiny boxes containing nearly every weird fastener you
might imagine. I took a few of the keys, drive screws and SS and left
all the rest.
If this sounds like your house please be kind to your loved ones
and don't leave them with hundreds of tons of scarp to dispose of.
Some of the wierder items he saved included an entire wall covered
with old drafting machines, a breadbox full of used popsicle sticks,
numerous piles of plastic, aluminum and paper containers such as fast
food comes in, brand new cheapistan, full drill bit indexes laying on
top of thousands of quality HS drills, many rolls of 28 ga and smaller
electrical wire but no wire to put lights in the buildings. Leigh at
Marmachine

Locally, there is a currently accumulating collection that covers over
40 acres. This includes, (but not limited to) railroad cars, cranes,
cement trucks, tractors, too many lathes to even imagine counting,
many of which have long since sank into the ground under their own
weight, at one time there was at least a dozen forklifts in a row, tow
trucks, tank cars, shears, punch presses, a band saw big enough to saw
a tractor in two, nibbler machines, chucks, hyd cylenders, hoses,
augers, many, many mills, again, many already disapeared into the
ground, iron workers, dies, wires, cats, overhead cranes, rail
sections, pumps, valves, electrical boxes, band saws, septic pumping
truck, truck cranes, skidsteers, machines driven by flat belts from
old tractors placed around the property, chains, lift slings,
shackles, bar stock, plate stock, tubes, pipes, gears, belts, pulleys,
and most of the stuff I don't even recognize.
And yes, I really DID understate it. Most of it outside, slowly
sinking into the dirt. And no, NONE of it can be bought. NONE.

Don't try that at home.

Gerald Miller wrote:

On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:02:22 -0400, Wes wrote:

wrote:

The widow's son filled the 14th full haul-a-way with scrap on
Saturday and he isn't half done with the outside work yet, nor has he
started to demo the rambling shacks and sheds.


At least he had a wife that let him bring stuff home.

Wes
In my case,senior son and junior so have specifically requested
certain items; middle son wants everything else - he takes after the
old man.


As long as you can still outrun him! ;-)


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida