The CETS could be good after all !!

[geoff]

Kind of off topic ........

I had a good day in work today as my company scrapped off a complete oxy-acetylene set comprising of a pair of 80% charged full sized bottles plus another pair of medium size full bottles ( both gasses ). Along also came a newish trolley, a cutting torch and a welding torch with all nozzle sizes plus a number of mild steel rods, some low melt " silver solder " rods, goggles, gloves, fluxes etc !

It was a good day since I was able to take all of this kit home and thank goodness for the Berlingo van it carried it all so effortlessly.

All this is thanks to the Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme ( mostly )....

Apparently these days there are a lot of hoops to go through with acetylene due to the above and it is I am told more hassle than you could imagine and since my company hardly ever uses this welding system they kindly decided to donate all of this kit to my home workshop rather than throwing it all in a " skip ".

So hopefully if you work in an industrial setting you may get a chance to enhance your workshop, have an ask just in case you never know you may get lucky too !!!

I never ever thought I would like an environmental directive.

On a bad note they also scrapped off a BOC Transtig welder, all 460 Lbs of it with at least 250 Lbs of very high grade copper inside it, bad in the sense that it would have been worth quite a few bob and it went in the skip instead of the back of my van.

Oh well win some lose some !!!

[addo]

Well done. I scrapped an "uncleanably contaminated" refrigerator today for some posh people. The power had cut while they were away for several months and things inside apparently went off badly - or so their insurer agreed to say. Strapped it shut without looking, lumped it up 30 stone stairs with a mate, bundled it in the van and took it to his place where we could investigate.

I charged $380 to remove it. Inside was Moet, vodka, Asahi beer, reds - all in good condition - just not cold. Some stale milk was a bit on the nose.

Fridge cleaned up fine and is now on Gumtree for $600. Probably not so good as the free oxy set because it involved some effort - but like you - very happy with the score.

[crickleymal]

I've not had anything as good as that. But when I worked for Westland Aerospace in the late 1980s they were throwing out a load of old test gear as it hadn't been calibrated for ages and was out of date. I got an oscilloscope and a superb bakelite multimeter similar to an Avo but much older and bigger. Similar to this http://www.richardsradios.co.uk/weston%2...meter.html

[addo]

It's such a shame that we are throwing away the "building blocks" of repair processes.

[geoff]

Glad to see you both have had some good luck also, it cheers up the day somewhat !

[torque98]

Sounds like you were a lucky man who managed to land a great score, and you did it at no cost to you! I can't say that I know this to be a fact, but considering the modern concern with terrorists and such I would imagine that acetylene is a bit of a challenge to acquire. Anything that could possibly be used to make bombs blow something up, or in this case be used to gain access to places people don't have permission to go into can be challenging to acquire. The governments of the world believe that restricting access to products like this makes it more challenging for terrorists and criminals to get access to these products, as well. The reality is that anyone who intends on blowing something up will get what they need to accomplish their goal regardless of the laws that are in place.

[addo]

True, some folks can blow an engine up simply by ignoring the gauges.

[Gadgetman]

Haven't gotten anything because of the CETS (or whatever similar laws would be called here in Norway), but...

Recently, the office was having a cleanup and tossing away a lot of old stuff...

I got myself a very expensive 'surveyors tripod' made of wood and steel.
Just needs to be sanded down and repainted(it's a horrid light orange now) and have an adapter manufactured so that I can use it for photography.
Yes, it's bl**dy heavy... But when the camera is a pinhole camera with shutter times measured in seconds, or even minutes...
(I'm building a ShapeOko CnC-mill at home that should be able to mill soft aluminium, so... fingers crossed)

Last summer I picked up an Apple PowerMac G4/450MHz in a skip outside the office building, together with 'quite a few' cameras, including an old Nikon SLR with a decent lens. (I hope I'm forgiven for transporting it home in a small trailer hooked up to my 'electric assist' bicycle. It was summer and hot, and my car doesn't have an AC... )

I once picked up an old Pfaff 1199 sewing machine at the local recycling centre when I was there dumping old printers. (1970s model mostly made of steel and cast metals. Very little plastic. It's powerful enough to sew denim or even soft leathers.) It just needs a bit of a cleanup(there was a lot of thread stuck in the mechanism), lube and adjustment to work again.

Yeah, I have trouble walking past a skip without at least looking into it...

One guy at the office has a really old 'traffic counter' that used pneumatic tubes to count cars. He claims that the Norwegian Roadways museum doesn't want it, and that I can have it when he retires.

Haven't found a welder, yet...
(Thinking of buying a MIG welder, maybe already this summer.)

[crickleymal]

Yeah, I have trouble walking past a skip without at least looking into it...

You and me both, much to my children's embarrassment.

[ron]

Yeah, I have trouble walking past a skip without at least looking into it...

You and me both, much to my children's embarrassment.

I'm the same.My son says I'm tight,to which I answer "No I'm environmentally aware".alut::whistle: