/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1757184
Smart phones are replacing PC.

>>1757184
the mexicans beat you to it.

>>1757184
>food
WTF?

>>1757223
Why aren't YOU eating like a king for free?

>>1757184
Yep I used to pick up electronics and scrap metal off the curb about a a decade ago for a few years. Then about two years ago it all stopped. I have literally seen nothing on the curb in my area anymore save for trash that no one wants. No idea what caused it.

>>1757184
>slim pickings
Isnt that guy who wrote "Tumbling Tumbleweeds"

>>1757194
If your a normie

>>1757184
>>1757227
Scrappers.

When I lived in Overland Park Kansas I would find computers, TVs, business security systems, audio equipment, and what not. But you had to get to it before the scrappers come. There was one that always stopped by our dumpsters (lived in a duplex that shared dumpsters with a strip mall) and mostly cut cords off anything. I threw some dead cordless drills a way and a few hours later they were gone besides for a mismatch battery and a charger that someone cut the cord off.

>>1757242
This.
More competition, and people aren't buying or throwing away as much.

>>1757224
We did enough dumpster diving when I was a kid, it was humiliating. I had an uncle who made $60,000 and did it because he was a cheap bastard. He used to show up with packages of hot dogs all puffed up and give em to use, we tossed em when he left.

internet caused it /boomerfag

but really, sites like ebay are showing younger people how much their "garbage" is actually worth

I'm lucky, the city I live in has "spring clean up week" every may, and I find tons of good shit just driving around. just for example, I found this last year:

a perfectly fine self-propelling lawn mower
a shitty looking but perfectly working snow blower
(I just bought a house and these both saved me almost $1000)
a $800 couple years old sound bar + sub that all I needed was a $20 remote
two commodore 64's with tons of accessories (pic related)
really solid silver metal/woodtop desk (for my garage)
various metal shelving units (also garage)
gas weed wacker

can't wait for this year's clean up week

>>1757224
https://youtu.be/HtZi7nj-WYw

When I was in high-school which was 15+ years ago I'd go to the dump every day after school and sort through the metal pile. Got all kinds of good shit.

County built a new dump, won't let you scavenge there anymore and now charge you to dump trash. Fucking bullshit.

>>1757184
In the UK romanian gypsies take it all, you can leave a metal bed frame or old washing machine outside your house and it be gone the same day.

>>1757252
>won't let you scavenge there anymore

because nowadays you would be a liability if you got hurt on their property. and they arent gonna pay out the ass to settle if you try to sue them. so its best if they just not let you in there to begin with.

>>1757184
in which fucking country people throw computers into household rubbish?

>>1757252
Check dumpsters behind any college or university. They are literally throwing out fully functional stuff because they are getting better tech or for whichever reason.

At our campus, every faculty has a "electrical trash" where I have found plenty of stuff.

>>1757376
where else do they go? you can't put them in the recycle bin

>>1757376
All of them. Laws against improper garbage disposal are unenforceable. Garbage men aren't going to inspect your trash bags and write you a ticket. In apartments your trash goes in a communal dumpster and there's no way to know which unit it came from anyway.


I live in a city with a huge homeless population. There's a block that's been officially designated as the "binners market" where can collectors can sell anything of value they find. It gets accused of selling stolen property a lot. There is some of that but people who have never dumpster dived don't get how frequently items worth hundreds of dollars end up in the trash.

>>1757242
Why do they cut the cords off of stuff they don't take?

>>1757408
Copper scrapping.

>>1757184
Most people are putting their shit on ebay to turn a profit from nostalgia fags.
If you want tech you'll have to sneak onto a college campus or slip behind an office building and raid their dumpsters.
You'll have to visit the large scrap-dumpsters found in housing construction areas, if you're looking for wood, pipe, and wire.

>>1757247
One minute in, it said he got lazy and stopped caring about what he was shoving in his mouth. Food that isn't fully sealed and has clear signs of it being rotten shouldn't be ingested. Only a retard of his caliber would eat expired meat and uncooked fish.
For people that still insist on dumpster diving to obtain meals, they should also check that the food hasn't been put on recall.

>>1757184
I live by a block of stores we call 'The block of Stores' that always has a new mom & pop biz going out of business and then the store is immediately gutted and turned into a new store. I dumpster dive and pull out perfectly good fixtures and shit all the time.

>>1757408
they read on the internet copper was expensive, so they cut the cord, spend 20 minutes removing the pvc jacket, spend $10 on gas to get to the metal recycle place, get their $0.10 and then drive home.

TLDR: retarded, that's why.

>>1757184
I hate scrappers so damn much, principally just on how fantastically moronic they are.

I my area 10 years ago, people would put all sorts of things to the kerb, like washers and dryers and mowers, a lot of the times these machines still worked, it's just people got new ones and put the old one to the kerb.

Used to be a pretty easy way that maybe worked, or maybe needed some TLC, then a lot of times that appliance or mower could be flipped for like $20-$50

Then scrappers started prowling, loading up their beat down trucks with 20 appliances, all roped and corded together, all so they can take good usable or fixable machines and get $0.10 a pound at the metal yard.

I once tried to explain this to a scrapper I've seen around... my advice on how he could make more money couldn't penetrate the meth in his brain

Dumpster dive ALL the things.

>>1757311
i lived in bradford for five years, i once put a microwave on top of my wheelie bin, went inside to boil the kettle, looked through the kitchen window and it had already gone, in the space of 30 seconds.

At this point my reason for not scrapping as much is merely having too much crap to begin with.

That said I've been able to build a very capable inventory of pretty much anything I could need DIY-wise. The area that benefitted the most from this was electronics by far. Get yourself a good iron, some sort of desoldering tool (I just have one of those spring vaccuums), and a pile of any sort of electronics and you'll never have to pay for parts again.

Scrap wood is the second thing that comes to mind, though I barely ever do woodworking.

>>1757244
>He used to show up with packages of hot dogs all puffed up and give em to use, we tossed em when he left.

Good call....

That's like homeless guys inviting you to supper.

>>1757396
>Laws against improper garbage disposal are unenforceable

Believe me they are...
Here in middle Georgia USA, both the trash collecting company and DNR look through trash dumped illegally for names on mail, or magazines mixed in. Then the show up at your door.....

I've seen trail-cams set up near often used easily accessible roadside dumping areas.

(Illegally-trash dumped in the woods, or batteries/paint/gasoline, etc in the municipal waste)

>>1758183
I was talking about people throwing old electronics into dumpsters instead of taking them to a proper e-waste facilities. Dumping garbage in the forest is an entirely different crime.

>>1757184
People use apps like let go and offer up and of course craigslist for everything. We don't wanna throw away stuff, even scrap metal and wood. So we list it on there, 5-20 bucks to quickly get rid of something functional or if it's junk we'll just list it for free, first come. Oh yeah and goodwill is the place to dump shit asap. Get with the times fellas the internet is your new dumpster.

>>1757184
Goodwill electronics has gone to shit, too.

>>1757241
most people are normalfags

This is the culprit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Electrical_and_Electronic_Equipment_Directive

>>1757184
I dunno but my state banned junkyards, only a handful of recycling places left and none of them will let you buy anything from them.
Its really hard to find good scrap metal and misc parts. I mean real fucking hard. Also with the price of steel being next to nothing no one even recycles steel, it just sits out rusting.

>>1757560
while i agree, scrappers tend to e fucking retards, most appliances these days are chinese garbage not worth repairing or impossible to repair. You can get a lot of cool shit out of microwaves though. Gotta be careful you don't poison yourself though.

>>1757184
I'm in middle Europe and there's usually plenty of electronics next to trash bins

>>1758281
Warsaw here. I have 3 17inch lcd monitors from garbage, perfect condition, zero bad pixels.

>>1757246
We have that too. Junkin’ is one of my favorite things to do.

>>1758263
>dude WEEED

>>1758297
That's terrible. They're probably all 1024x768 and use CFLs.

>>1757311
>UK romanian gypsies

In Wales they're all pikeys but the net result is the same.

>>1757408
Just for the copper (which not all wiring uses copper). They don't care how much there is in the cable. Fuck, the inside of a CRT has more copper (plus aluminum) then a power cable that is used on it. Most of them just take the cables they see is because it is quick to take and to clean (besides for the retards/hillbillies/meth heads that burn the cables to get the plastic and shit off, which some places won't take if they notice the copper was burned). These type of scrappers waste too much time on this.

>>1757560
I do too. Scrappers have no idea on how much something can be worth and most of them lack the skills to fix anything right. Some scrappers also make a mess out of the stuff. Seen a post on Craigslist (few years ago in an area I lived in) about some one busting open CRT TVs that were left out for the copper and leaving a mess of plastic and glass on the curbs.

>>1758164
My reason for not dumpster diving right now is living in a damn apartment (plus working second shift 6 to 7 days a week) and I still have shit I need to desolder from a few years ago.

>>1758183
At my apartment there a few people and a neighbor that dump shit into the dumpster here. Fuck 2 years ago it caught on fire because someone threw used fireworks in there and some of them were still hot enough to catch on fire.

>>1758229
They want too much for electronics because people that flip shit for a living.

There is a retard here in town that dumpsters dives and resells the shit in his dads yard. The street view image is a few years old but it's still full of shit. The guy will post on Facebook a lot trying to sell the shit. Some of it he tries to sell for too much.

>>1757184
I hope you cut yourself and bleed to death on scrap metal. Mexicans used to scrounge around in the dumpsters when I live in AZ, just such a trash tier (literally lmao updoot plz) habit. I hate you and I wish only the worst for you.

>>1758229
Agreed.
I use to frequent Goodwill for my old-school /v/idya needs, but shit quickly got pricey around 2013. Now I find most deals on Amazon, Craigslist, ebay, and a few phone apps.

You'd think Gamestop would be a goldmine for diving, with them constantly closing stores right now, but they aren't. The assholes snap disk, cut cables, and smash consoles.

>>1758451
>use CFLs.
Use wut?

>#1 Fujitsu-Siemens s26361-k977 1280x1024
>#2 Philips 170c5 1280x1024
>#3 I dunno I gave it to someone.

Lots of other awesome things I found, like this kick ass art-noveau vase made from some heavy alloy, perfect for when you want to buy a flower for the missus, surface smooth as a marble.

There's a Facebook page called "Look out, trashman is coming! (get it fast before he's here)" where people post pics of cool things they saw walking next to a dumpster, in case someone wants/needs it. Fuckload of cool stuff is being thrown out.

>>1757224
>Gets kingly gout and dies

>>1758743
>use CFLs.
>Use wut?

Compact Fluorescent Lamps or the Canadian Football League

>>1757393
>you can't put them in the recycle bin
thats where they belong, theyre mostly big pieces of metal with lo0ts of other precious metal inside.

>>1757552
you know you can just cut the cords and turn them in as is at about $0.80/lb. a plastic grocerybag full will get you near twenty bucks.

you strip copper when you have big industrial sized pieces of it, or youre on meth time

actual carrier scrapers (not meth theives) will spend half their buisness time repairing and reselling stuf on offerup/craigslist. many carry ac plug-ins in their vehicles to quickly check if electronics and appliances will turn on.

career*

>>1757184
Shit I found that I took when dumpster diving while living in Overland Park KS years ago. Some of this stuff I dont have anymore. Most electronics/computers got gutted besides the Lenovo.
Pentium II Dell Dimension Desktop (was going to snag the 2.1 speaker system and monitor for it, but a scrapper cut the cables before I got back)
Lenovo ThinkCentre (Dual Core AMD, Vista Era with a Windows 7 upgrade COA) only problem was one bad stick of RAM that stopped it from booting up.
Business Security Systems (fire, alarm, etc) and some hardware such has control panels new in box and sensors.
Wooden wine box with a empty expensive bottle of wine (tossed the bottle).
Custom built desktop (AMD Athlon XP) that came from a nail salon with a shit ton of data left on the drives. Damn Asians were banking.

>>1758907
Never heard of any places that would take non bare copper.

>>1758276
>most appliances these days are chinese garbage not worth repairing or impossible to repair
Depends on the type of appliance.
If it's a washing machine the top lid comes off and you have easy access to all of the valve assemblies. Dishwashers on the other hand are a pain because you have to flip them over to get to anything, and the requires disconnection, dettaching, and that's after moving it somewhere that it can pee all over everywhere without ruining anything.

>>1758263
>WEEE
This.
I used to have a nice littel arrangement when anything I scrapped would be left for the locals to collect. IT kit, computing even metal.
Now I have to fill in a form keep everything in a locked shipping container and prove its been properly recycled.

Our town dump now charges to take appliances and bulk waste which means that the streets are covered in old sofas and fridges

The only positive is Scrap merchants want ID before buying anything. However this means that stolen shit is shipped straight to china and india.

>>1757600
That looks like expensive shit desu

>>1759019
More than that, it's impossible not to buy in bulk, and it's the best workshop shelving I ever had. The ones in the picture to the left and right are on wheels, and the big and heavy (~40 kg) monitor is also mounted on one of the rolling shelf frames.

All glory to supermarket shelving.

>>1759027
Oh yeah and most of the other stuff in that picture is also trash picked.

>>1757184
I have been taking as much copper wire scraps from my jobs as I can sice they don't seem to care. I have got about 2000lbs sitting in my garage right now that I am trying to strip but running out of room in my trash for all the insulation every week. Space in general is running low.

Has anyone watched copper recycling futures? its kind of showing that it is gonna go down but I don't know how much I trust it.

>>1757184
I would dumpster dive if I had someone to watch my back while I dove.

>>1759027
yeah i jacked some rolling shelves from a rockport store that went out of business. they had shoes on display and in boxes on the thing but they are built like a tank. probably have 300kg of tools and stuff on it now in my garage.

make friends with someone that works at a shopping centre. i have more shelving and ladders than i know what to do with from all the stores going bankrupt

No I don’t dumpster dive. I drive a trash truck all day. Last thing I want to do is handle more trash.

>>1757184
I dont dumpster dive anymore, because I have a job. When you have a job, you just buy the stuff you want instead of holding out and then getting whatevers been thrown out

>>1759037
>people throw away perfectly functional monitors
What the actual fuck.

>>1759380
They usually have some relatively simple fault, like bad caps or a dead LED driver, so they're not USUALLY in working order when I snag'em.

>>1759439

is that a POS terminal? those are good for shit when you need all in one computer+touch monitor application other than a POS system

I have one from mcdonalds one of the older ones. not too great but has a 2.4 ghz cpu but only single core. not sure what practical use I can get out of it besides collecting dust

>>1759446
Yep, that's a POS. Its only issue was a shorted diode across the DC input. Really basic things they are, but very practical.

>>1758913
Forgot to add this one because I went diving yesterday at work. IT are lazy retards at my job and wasteful. Every time they setup a new monitor they threw away the VGA cable and male to male audio cable. I found like 6 of them already. My supervisor goes diving too and took home a lot of shit. Parts/Screw bins, scrap wood, screw drivers and all different shit. I work in a factory that make yokes and drive lines for cars, windmillls, etc. So every time we change tool holders in the cnc lathes there are screw drivers and wrenches that we never use and most of the time they get tossed.

Once a year during spring we have an auction where they sell off a lot of old shit and shit we don't use. I bought me a big office desk (metal with 2 drawers on each side) for $35 two office chairs for $10 and a big fuckin cubical. The cubical came with 2 drawer sets and 9 different size desk that attach all together all for $5. It was all taken apart and no one wanted to buy it and put it back together besides for that one guy that bids $1 on everything.

>>1757600
w-whats that man wit the van going to do to all those innocent small piece of junk??

>>1759642
Jesus fuck Doctor RetardO the "junk" >>1757600 is the shelving in >>1759027 and in >>1759037

>>1759380
>he doesnt have a 1440p 144hz GSync monitor

People are putting 60hz 1080 monitors where they belong, in the garbage.

>>1759027

this pic is ok cept for that gay ass desktop wallpaper. jesus fuck man

>>1759911
I actually picked my 144 Hz gaming monitor out of the trash.

It was missing the power supply, but I managed to bodge the PSU out of another trash picked, 27" non-gaming monitor into it. Even the backlight strobing works on it.

>>1759911
Someone forgot to put you back in the garbage.

>>1759027
That rossmann pic

>>1757408
>>1757552
>>1758468
>>1758907
Good cut cables are useful as replacement cables assuming the ratings are the same or better. A new length of replacement power cord is expensive unless it's for lamps.

>>1759027
>All glory to supermarket shelving.
I found a piece of pegboard with a melamine(?) coating on one face behind a Target a few months ago. It seems really nice. They chucked it cause there's a rip in the coated side near one edge. Planning on cutting it up to use for holding bits in drawers or hang things inside cabinets anyway as pegboard is shit to just hang on a wall, so it's not a bother.

>>1760722
Spare length of cables is nice to have around but these fuckers are not stockpiling just in case they need a cable.

>>1757184
don't know where yous are but the crop is bountiful here in liverpool, uk.

>>1759156
if you have that much copper, it may be worth driving to a big city to sell the copper unstripped at a large scale scrapyard like schnitzer or sims metals... make a nice down out in the city out of it

What are things I should watch out for that I can salvage working as an apprentice electrician on commercial jobsites?’ I’m not talking about snagging wire scraps. I have already salvaged some surface mount ceiling lights for my garage when we were demo’ing the old fixtures on a remodel project, probably the highest value items I’ve salvaged so far. Lately I’ve been saving old 120v 15 or 20a outlets and GFCIs when they’re being thrown away, even single pole light switches. I know regular snap switches and residential outlets are cheap but it still doesn’t hurt to have them around. Are there any other kind of components or parts I can salvage from things, like emergency light fixtures (“google/frog eyes”)? I know they all have NiCad batteries in them and the batteries would be worn to fuck since they’ve been constantly charging for years, however. I’m not looking to salvage anything that anyone wouldn’t miss/isn’t being thrown away to begin with, just to reclarify

>>1757184

I too dumpster dive.. my first apt (living alone) was entirely furnished with dumpster dives. ive noticed over the years that ya have to spread out.. its all about demographics.

>>1759037
Those JBL monitors tho

>>1757184
To many scavengers into same amount of trash?

>>1757393
>where else do they go?
They go in the "toxic waste" bin at the collection point.

>>1757846
>
Lidget green massive

>>1757223
You'd be surprised at the amount of perfectly good food some grocers throw out. I used to hit up a dumpster every Monday a few year back because that was when they restocked meat. I'd walk home with like $120 worth of perfectly good deli meat every time just because the package has a date on it. Not a damned thing wrong with it. Took it home, froze it, eat like a king. Found a lot of perfectly good produce too. Just washed them, cooked them, good to go.

>>1757227
Tweakers probably. Just a tiny bit of know how and knowing what stuff is worth, and those dumb fucks will never slow down. Go check your utility poles. Good chance the grounding cables are snipped too.

>>1757184
I go can collecting for exercise sometimes. Shame aluminum prices have completely gone to shit though. I think it's currently 0.31$ per pound for aluminum cans right now and the average 12 gallon bag can hold about 20 pounds. Yay...6 bucks..

>>1757246
>can't wait for this year's clean up week
Good luck!

>>1763851
Bro, I'll try to save as much money as the next guy, but the only two places I won't cheap out on is medicine and food. Otherwise, very cool thread.

>>1759156
Considered getting a forge, melting it into bars and just stacking it until prices come back up?
I have no idea why, but that's my next hobby I want to tackle. Find scrap copper and melt it into bullion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BAMwDLhtw0

>>1763902
A lot of places won't buy it if you melt it down. Like how some places won't buy soda/beer cans if they are crushed. Fuckers like to hide rocks in them.

>>1761274
>>1761274
>>1761274
Pls reply

>>1757184
Two things. People are poorer so they dont buy as much to throw away as much. And Since they are poorer they dont have as large a house.(Mostly renting small apartments) This also contributes to people not having as much stuff to throw away. Not room.

>>1759027
sick setup

>>1757184
I got this cat out of a garbage can. It tasted a lot like chicken

I scavenge sheet metal and rebar to make stupid shit with

>>1759027
Dude. Nice!

>>1763890
If you know the routines of when shit gets dumped you pretty much get it day of "expiration " which only means sell by date, which isn't written In stone.
If I knew when my supermarket tossed produce & meat, I'd be diggin in that dumpster like a rabid raccoon.
Shits expensive.

>>1757184

What a waste of a perfectly good white boy.

>>1757184
sounds like hardware gets recycled in a different manner - just like in my Eurocountry.
I pre-scavenged salvageable parts (old RAM banks even if they're useless, working fans, non-dead batteries, etc) and accurately destroyed non-working disks because you can never know.
But per local regulations, they can't go in the bin.

>>1757246
Nice score, anon!

>>1757246
>that military box
weird how they reverse the words in the name, night vision goggles storage case became Case, Storage, Goggles, Night Vision
I saw this in my Ian Douglas books too

>>1767009
that guy's black, you can tell by the angle of his heelbone

>>1759156
check your state laws, in my state if you bring in more than $30 worth of copper they don't pay you cash, they make a copy of your drivers license and mail you a check. this gives them time to make sure there were no copper thefts in the area

>>1757230
He rode a bomb once too

>>1757184
Just hit walgreens and aldi bins bro

>>1768728
gotta think about it in categories

>>1757408
god that shit pissed me off last time I was dumpster diving. literally everything that had a cord, had a cut cord. of course it didn't stop me from grabbing what I wanted, but it's just another step for repair, and for what, so the dumb redneck scrapper can get another $0.01

>>1759156
I'm a bit of a copper recycling expert. At my job we actually have a baleing machine and send out bales of copper that weigh 800-1000lb every other month of so.

The trick is to burn all wire out in the oven at 900 degrees for 4 hours and the coating comes right off.

>>1761274
I used to salved the DC chargers and power supplies out of those emergency lighting. They have cool led strips too.

>>1757383
better yet go into the buildings and hall and there are usually laid out in front of the professors office.

Of course double check to make sure its going to the trash and not just getting moved by IT or the furniture department.

>>1768884
Do you think the old batteries out of those are worth saving for anything?

People aren't really buying like they were in the 90s and early 2000s. I used to make a living off of summer yard sales and garage sales and going to Goodwill and Salvation Army on the weekdays and back then I could easily fill up a cart with $300 worth of stuff and have most of it flipped within 60 days turning $300 into $1000-$2000. Now goodwills in my area are primarily empty and they want near retail prices. Anything with any value gets shipped to a different location to be sold online by Goodwill making them my competitor.

Anyone else watch VidVulture on jewtube?
He makes practically only gas money on scrape, the upside is rolling the dice for big ticket items or finding durable goods for himself (shoes, home goods, etc.) so he doesn't have to earn money and get taxed.

>>1768882
Is it really cost effective?

Test

>>1757311
do you mean Romani?

>>1763379
>I've noticed over the years that ya have to spread out.. its all about demographics.

Going from the hood areas working your way to the college/gentrified zones then out to the suburbs. You get it anon.

>>1760965
Yes lad. For food I've been going to the shops, a big Tesco over the water, even the ASDA on Breck road, and getting everything dead cheap of a night, but the tight arses are increasing the prices even then, for some reason. It used to be 90% decrease minimum.

In my city they built a big recycling facility for electronics. Parents went there once and told me they had piles of computers and stereo equipment. Cities are more stingy with what they want going to landfills.

>>1757221
this. when i was in university, the end of the semester was just a big furniture/electronics swap. now spics just roll up with trailers and take everything.

>>1771419
yet more proof that spics ruin everything