Our 5-story office building is being abandoned for the browner pastures of another city. I can only imagine the landfill that’s going to be created from having 90% of people NOT making the move. They’ll just throw things away instead of bothering to ship them to the new location. (Can you blame them??)
I was walking down the hall today and saw a laptop computer power supply sitting in the trash and it got me thinking: what are some common items you could find in a cube farm that would be highly useful on a MRR? Parts from old calculators, power supplies (what kind are best?), other??
No stealing! I’m not talking about taking copper wire from the walls. Just things that are very common in an office setting that, if I keep my eyes open, I might find in the trash.
Hello look for old printer’s, phone’s calculators,vcr,stuff like this has a ton of little screw’s, gears belts. Look at everything and think what might be inside you can use. Hope this helps Frank
I would imagine that any type of office supply would be useful…post-it notes for curtains, paper clips, printer paper and cardboard, tape; let your imagination run wild…
(If you’ll pardon the “sick” humour) you should contact your local “Soylent Green” plant… never seen one of those modelled. (If you don’t know the movie… apologies again). SORRY! [:I]
The big thing you’ll probably have to watch out for if you’re going to get the stuff officially is people panicing about “end use”, data security and health and safety. It usually seems to be okay for stuff to go into landfill but not for it to be re-used responsibly… and they pay for the landfill! [:O]
The other risk is that you’ll bury yourself in “potentially useful” stuff… guess how I know that? [banghead]
Ther best thing to try is to see if you can encourage the company to at least recycle stuff… and, one step up, to at least give old ring binders that are in good shape to local clubs and groups.
I used to strip screws and such out of things but found that there were never the right sizes or numbers for things I wanted to do… when I got time to do them in between sorting all the junk. [|(]
The principle is good but - other than the odd specific item - it doesn’t work very well in practice. You know when you’ve taken the scavenging too far when you end up under a landslide of useful bits. [B)]
I don’t mean to be just downbeat. I’ve scrounged some great stuff… I must scrounge another warehouse sometime soon. [:-,]
Yes, I too have stuff that looks like it would be good for something, but turns out to be just, well, stuff.
About the only things I “liberate” from work are cardboard boxes for train storage and coffee stirrers. Stirrers, whether square or round, plastic or wood, are incredibly useful for scratchbuilding, or as pipe loads.
If you’re lucky enough to find power supplies and wall warts, by all means take them. You never know when you’re going to want a 4.5 volt, 500ma supply. (Small Miller Engineering “neon” signs.)
Just my opinion, but I’ve learned this both at home and work, there’s no such thing as a free puppy. Unless you have a specific item with a specific use, most junk costs more in time to get the one nickel item out than the nickel item costs, and then you still have to dispose of the remains. Now, if you’re doing a shelf railroad, those under cabinet lights they use in cubes could be good light sources.
As our office goes increasingly paperless I have seen hanging files in the trash and liberated the metal strips that make the files hang – they make good gondola loads and also can be used as a sort of shish kabob for plastic autos on an open autorack. (the sharp edges benefit from a swipe against the wire brush on my bench grinder). Best of all once I remove the metal strips, the remaining paper file can be placed in the actual recycling bin.
The plastic spools from scotch tape are a well known modeling supply with many potential uses. In a really old office there might be long-unused ink and typewriter erasers which are basically the same stuff as a Bright Boy track cleaner.
When I started work in the 1970s a basic office supply was an Xacto knife with replacement blades because documents would be literally cut and pasted and then Xeroxed rather than be retyped (a mis-spelled word could be typed on a separate sheet, elaborately cut out and taped over the offending “misteak”). Those were the days but some offices may still very usable Xacto knives and blades hiding somewhere.
About the weirdest and luckiest thing I’ve scavenged has been the add-in card slot connectors in Cisco 25xx series routers, which are the same dual row connector pin pitch as European 21 pin DCC connectors (I forget the NEM number).
I had been looking all over for months for these, and didn’t want to pay $10 each for hard to find adaptor harnesses. I saw a stack of routers that my organization was getting ready to throw away after an upgrade, and picked one up to see what was inside.
I almost fainted, and then almost jumped through the ceiling.
In retrospect, I think it is also the PCMCIA connector pitch as well.
I got a batch of LokSound decoders with 21 pin connectors at 32 cents on the dollar from a well known rummage sale, and was lamenting soldering to those tiny pads that are very close to each other.
When my last employer was forced to close their doors due to some ingenious manufacturing moves they were selling off things on the cheap. It pays to have bosses who are PhD’s selling you stuff like Digital micrometers sets for $20 magnifying high intensity lights for $10 I purchased the entire elctronics shop for $100 a brand new air compressor for $100. My advice to you is if you can buy it or have them give it to you and you even think there is a remote possability that you may be able to use it but it. There are always places like ebay and craigslist etc. to get rid of the stuff you don’t need. Simple things like shelving, garbage cans file cabinets etc. may prove useful in your work shop or for storage under your layout. Silly things you take for granted like plastic totes are good for storing stuff but add up when you buy them from the store. Don’t look at things as junk but as money. with a little effort you can sell stuff for a more then you paid for it and use that money to finance your hobby.
Remember one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
I found that old Fax Machines and computer printers have some of the best parts such as screws, springs and small a solenoid’s for pushing paper. Here is how I incorporated a solenoid into a gravel loading bunker. http://lariverrailroads.com/gravel_loader.html
I’m gonna re-list an above one, the office Supplies.
PAPER!!! Someone please try and tell me that you couldn’t use a few free reams of printer paper, for, well, ANYTHING. If you like signs, billboards, stuff you don’t need decals for, then you might see if they have blank business cards, or cardstock paper.
I work for a newspaper and since we have gone digital for most all applications, there were some of those huge cabinets sitting around with drawers about 30" wide and 24" to the back… and 2" deep! I can hold about 250 freight cars in one, ten-drawer unit. And the maintenance guys even delivered it to my garage…
One thing you could look for is old telephone and computer wiring. A 25 ft long 25 pair cable will yeild 1250 ft of # 24 wire. Also LAN cable will yeild 8 pieces of the sae size wire. A lot of this type of wire is stapled along baseboards, etc.
I have been living on wire I salvaged over 25 years ago, and I don’t expect to run out during my lifetime.