What could you lay your hands on easily?

[Jim Silva]

I'm looking for some advice from my fellow creekers...
I've recently had a request from a friend several states away for the plans to an articulated arm I use for close-in dust collection he'd seen while visiting me.

As I sat down to write it out I figured that I may as well make it into a DIY article for my site in case I need to reference it again. Sounded simple when I thought of it...:D

Through several conversations with him I've become concerned that what I consider typical things to have laying around or easy access in obtaining are somewhat atypical. Must be my swamp yankee upbringing where you save bits and pieces of everything in case you need to make something.:rolleyes:

One item I told him he'd need was a piece of old pipe, say 1 1/4" OD and about 30-35" long. Conduit or old chain link fence section would suffice.
He asked where he could buy that. I became confused as, to the best of my knowledge, everyone had a bit of pipe laying around somewhere in the back yard or under the work bench...

Another head scratcher was "a piece of iron flat stock, about 7" long or so, 1 to 1 1/4" wide, 1/4" thick. Maybe you could use a heavy L bracket?" His response: "Huh? Part of an iron?"

I don't want to give the impression I work in a junk yard or anything here. I don't have old radiators and tires laying around, no abandoned cars or old refrigerators. I've just got a corner of the shop with some assorted metal bits, pipe, bolts, brackets etc. Most of the woodworkers I know personally have a few "potentially useful" items laying around.

When pricing out the parts for this project I did it for under $20.00. Is it reasonable to hope that most of you could lay your hands on the afore mentioned items without expense? Or is it just me?:confused:

[Ted Calver]

I'm honored to confess I'm a "collector" and have all that ....and more laying around :)

[Jim Underwood]

I think most of use woodworkers have more than their share of "stuff" (AKA "junk") laying around for potential use.

Depends on what your background is I suppose...

I would guess that those who grew up in an affluent setting generally do not squirrel away things like those of us who grew up pinching pennies and trying to build things out of stuff lying around.

For example:
If Dad hadn't scrounged crate lumber from the regrigeration units that the new Safeway was installing, we would not have had the back room addition on our house... There were two summers growing up, where I learned how to drive nails from the pointy end... If I can't do anything else in life, I can sure use a hammer and a crowbar.

[Thomas Bank]

Nothing you mentioned seems at all unreasonable to me to have sitting around.

[Brad Vaughn]

hmm this was hard for me I picked the vice because I have one next to the place I spend most of my time at THE LATHE but after looking more at the post yes I have pipe wood PVC screws nuts bolts scrap steel scrap wood oh yes lots of scrap wood read lathe :D I am getting ready to move to Texas and I am finding that I have saved so much that it can not be moved but just last week I sold a bunch of pipe fittings and well this week I need one and of the the store to get what I sold last week GERRRRRRR:mad:

[Dave Halter]

I've got all of them. Now if I could just learn to throw some of it away.

Dave

[Charlie Reals]

I think most of use woodworkers have more than their share of "stuff" (AKA "junk") laying around for potential use.

Depends on what your background is I suppose...

I would guess that those who grew up in an affluent setting generally do not squirrel away things like those of us who grew up pinching pennies and trying to build things out of stuff lying around.

For example:
If Dad hadn't scrounged crate lumber from the regrigeration units that the new Safeway was installing, we would not have had the back room addition on our house...
There were two summers growing up, where I learned how to drive nails from the pointy end... If I can't do anything else in life, I can sure use a hammer and a crowbar.

Jeeze Jim I almost spit a mouth full of anchor steam on that one :D:D:D:D with my old man it was fences. He never stopped, Mine was about 12 years until I joined the navy and vowed never to use a used nail again. We even straightened the nails. Pallet nails were the worst.

[Allen Neighbors]

I have all of it; ... 2 vises, plus a 200 lb anvil, and assorted flat stock... I guess I'm a packrat. My shop looks like I'm a packrat. Stuff hanging in the rafters, and in every corner. What a mess.

[Greg Bender]

Jim,
I believe I would have a lot more space to work in my shop if I did not have the urge to hold onto everything that looked like it had potential to be part of something else.Yes ,I have all that you mentioned plus alot of bolts ,screws,scrap steel,aluminum,copper pipe,wood etc etc etc. Now my neighbor who saves nothing and calls me whenever he needs something is another story.
Greg

[Dennis Ford]

Like many others, I checked all the items. Another pack-rat here.

[David E Keller]

I don't have much of that stuff laying around, but I know where I could lay hands on all of it within a 5 minute drive. My father was such a packrat that I think I've gone the extra mile to throw things out when I don't think I'll use them within the next decade. There have been a few times when I wished I had hung onto something...

[Tom Sherman]

had a wire welder for a while collected all manner of metal Probally got about 200 pounds in the corner lots of old drill bits and bolts of various sizes even some pipe. also one piece of brass bout11/4 in dia weighs about 3 to 4 pounds. Yes I come from packrat stock too.

[Jim Underwood]

We even straightened the nails. Pallet nails were the worst.


I've straightened a few nails for re-use, but even back in the late '70s nails were still pretty cheap, so we didn't have to do it much.

But I hear ya man, those pallet nails are awful. They are thinner because they're shot out of a nail gun, and clinched on the end... I think I know just about every trick of getting those things out of oak pallet wood now...:rolleyes:

[Michael Mills]

Got most of that and more but I do keep it organized. Just something about re-purposing bits and pieces of stuff to make what you want. Channel iron or tube steel is a treasure.
Nails must have been much more expensive in the late 50’s early 60’s. I never saw a "new nail" until after I left home. Is there a Guinness record for of times a nail can be re-straightened? Worse than nails are using a file or hack saw to cut new slots in screws that have been stripped.
Mike

[Charlie Reals]

I've straightened a few nails for re-use, but even back in the late '70s nails were still pretty cheap, so we didn't have to do it much.

But I hear ya man, those pallet nails are awful. They are thinner because they're shot out of a nail gun, and clinched on the end... I think I know just about every trick of getting those things out of oak pallet wood now...:rolleyes:

Even in the 50's & 60's nails were cheap Jim;) but the old man was cheaper. He recently passed away and one shed wall was full of nails in cans. Some I straightened 50 years ago.
I am in the process and almost finished cleaning house. I still have a shelf of nails I will probably never use :eek:

[Jonathan Harvey]

I don't have any of it :-( I have a lathe though and lots of wood. :-)

[Brian J. Elliott]

I'm a hoarder and a plumber. I have lots of pipe laying around. I have lots of scrap steel. Mostly leftovers from building hoist, boiler platforms and pipe supports. I'm going to build something grand, one of these days.

[Fred Perreault]

A lot of our favorite ladies seem to know about thriftiness.....coupons, sales, etc. And some of us have a grip on the value of "used" items. When I owned and maintained 20-30 pieces of heavy equipment, saving "stuff" was as natural as breathing. Change a center bearing on the driveshaft of one of the Mack dump trucks... well, save the old bearing on the back shelf, just in case. Lop off 6" from the end of a piece of angle or channel iron?... on another shelf. 14" of leftover Bundyflex brake line repair tubing... yup, on another shelf. If you want to save something too big for a shelf, just stand it up in a corner. It was not the save philosophy, as much as the "don't throw it away mode". I have actually taken used lumber from some demolitions to build... yup, more storage for more "stuff". Every few years, when the "stuff" starts to fall off the shelves, or tumble out of the sheds, one has to clean house. And for sure, some weeks later, you find a need for one thing or another that you remember seeing a few weeks before when cleaning up. Just this morning I used a small scrap of flat steel to make a bracket, and 2 wheels and an axle from who knows what to help make a trolley to walk out some distance on the flats, and then to wheel back my clams and quahogs I dug (easier nowadays than carrying). Fresh chowder tonight, and baked stuff quahogs later this week.
The 4"x4"x1/4" angle iron I used to make the 350 lb. stand for my Nova 16/24 was from a tear down a few years ago. The 4" galvanized pipe from a demolition... that was the foundation for my 3 Robust Lookalike tool rests. The 1" post for the toolrest was from an old small axle. Before there were "municipal landfills", everybody had a dump in their back yard, or "stuff" stored in their barn.
If you have room, it's all treasure till it's deemed trash.... and you should delay that decision for as long as possible. :)

[Donald Barfield]

I had to check every item as I seem to never throw anything away because every time I do I have a need for it just a couple of days later. That is why with a 36 x 48 shop, my shop is too small.