Never Throw Anything Away

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

My wife often accuses me of being a hoarder. I am NOT a hoarder, just an enthusiastic guardian of the unwanted.

Rik

[LimpetParticipant @limpet]

My misses reckons that I always have the right part to repair someone else's wotsit but never for her. How does that work

[GeorgineerParticipant @georgineer]

Posted by Andrew Tinsley on 03/09/2018 10:56:03:

…Just another version of Sod's Law….

That Marquis de Sod has a lot to answer for!

George

[Geoff TheasbyParticipant @geofftheasby]

My wife suspects I'm a hoarder, but when I refer to her stash of knitting wool she goes all coy…

Geoff

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

Without hoarders there would not be any antiques around. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Colin

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Posted by Simon0362 on 03/09/2018 10:17:36:

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 03/09/2018 08:01:23:

The only things I separated out were any documents that needed to go for secure shredding and a non-functional HDD I need to destroy.

Strip the HDD down – this produces a decent set of tiny Torx screws and some lovely aluminium for casting. Currently in the process of recycling about a dozen of them – the disks themselves are mostly glass based (they go bendy in the furnace rather than melting in with the rest of the Al) or more Al in which case I defy anyone to recover the data after 10 minutes at 700°C!

Simon

I'd like to work out a way to separate the tiny screws from the ally magnetically, when melting or pouring the HDDs. Having been an IT wallah for 20 years before taking the thirty pieces of silver, I've got a large collection of drives, with the aim of turning them into useful casting ingots. Trouble is it takes quite a while to disassemble a disk drive with the appropriate Torx bits. Crowbarring it apart and ripping out the larger unwanted bits would be far more efficient.

 

Data for sad folk:- Modern 2TB HDD=about 1-2 oz of aluminium. 2000 vintage 9GB Seagate Barracuda=1lb of aluminium. 1986 vintage 28MB HP drive=28lb aluminium… Most of mine are 2000-2008 vintage.

 

Oops. Sorry, I didn't notice the second page full of posts!

Edited By Mark Rand on 04/09/2018 02:06:18

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Mark Rand on 04/09/2018 02:03:40:

Data for sad folk:- Modern 2TB HDD=about 1-2 oz of aluminium. 2000 vintage 9GB Seagate Barracuda=1lb of aluminium. 1986 vintage 28MB HP drive=28lb aluminium… Most of mine are 2000-2008 vintage.

Wait until you find yourself trying to melt down SSDs.

Neil

[simondavies3Participant @simondavies3]

Posted by Mark Rand on 04/09/2018 02:03:40:

I'd like to work out a way to separate the tiny screws from the ally magnetically, when melting or pouring the HDDs. Having been an IT wallah for 20 years before taking the thirty pieces of silver, I've got a large collection of drives, with the aim of turning them into useful casting ingots. Trouble is it takes quite a while to disassemble a disk drive with the appropriate Torx bits. Crowbarring it apart and ripping out the larger unwanted bits would be far more efficient.

Mark, I think you may be unlucky trying to separate magnetically – I am pretty sure that all of the Torx screws that I have removed are both stainless and non-magnetic.

Dismantling them is both therapeutic and builds your collection of teeny tiny screws – reserve the ripping for the disks themselves and the drive motors – and be wary of the head assembly which I strongly suspect to be Mag alloy from their super-lightness.

Most of my drives came from friendly sys-admins happy to offload a load of dead drives.

Simon

[Maurice TaylorParticipant @mauricetaylor82093]

Scrapyard pays £220 per tonne for hard drives , I took 15 kilo and got £3.30.These were complete with circuit boards etc.

[Ed DuffnerParticipant @edduffner79357]

My first job at HP was building disk drives (model: C2490 2.1GB) – mostly stainless and plastics for the main structures.

For ally disk drives it might be an idea to melt as is and pass the molten ally through a grid to extract the screws. But there are lots of retro enthusiasts who would like to buy them. Maybe this is an option and purchase some ally billets with the proceeds.

Ed.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Not sure the Data Commissioner would approve of me selling it to a scrappy, even if I got 50p for it…

Neil

[Andrew EvansParticipant @andrewevans67134]

Another big benefit of clearing things out is time saved. I sometimes find that I spend so long looking for a tool I have no time to do the job and that is often down to having too much stuff that I don't need cluttering shelves and drawers.

I now try to periodically have a clearout and ruthlessly either sell stuff or throw it away. Last year I sold my shaper and small CNC lathe as I hadn't used them enough to justify the space they took up. It then became easier to use the tools I was using as I had more space.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

A friend of mine brought a hard disk into the office one day, 3 feet diameter and 1/4” thick from an old ICL computer. A head crash had fubared it and he thought it would make an interesting garden table but it didn’t get past the sitting in the corner of the shed stage.

Mike

[Fowlers FuryParticipant @fowlersfury]

Never throw anything away?……..a local farmer agreed, as a favour, this could be stored "for a couple of weeks" on his farm. He tells me it looked 'as new' when unloaded. But now realises, after a couple years, it's been dumped on him as original owner has disappeared. I declined the offer of it. as being a little too large for model engineering purposes:-
.

[David Standing 1Participant @davidstanding1]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 04/09/2018 19:19:24:

Not sure the Data Commissioner would approve of me selling it to a scrappy, even if I got 50p for it…

Neil

Neil

I wouldn't worry about the Data Commissioner, it is the Information Commissioner you need to worry about

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by David Standing 1 on 05/09/2018 11:53:23:

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 04/09/2018 19:19:24:

Not sure the Data Commissioner would approve of me selling it to a scrappy, even if I got 50p for it…

Neil

Neil

I wouldn't worry about the Data Commissioner, it is the Information Commissioner you need to worry about

The name was changed twice because of Europe, they'll change the name again after Brexit…

Neil

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Posted by Ady1 on 03/09/2018 14:12:09:

Chucked out a good air bed a week ago

Even a leaking airbed has a better use as a cover for a log pile, or if the stronger canvass type as a trailer cover. Managed to get a nice bit of new square section downpipe from a skip on Monday that will become a short ends rack.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

My daughter wanted to check the colour of a can of paint.

Could I find anything disposable in my workshop to paint…

[Pete RimmerParticipant @peterimmer30576]

I have a hoarder friend who never disposes of anything. He's not one of these people you see on TV with piles of junk filling every room, he just slowly collects mostly good/great stuff but won't ever let anything go. For example he has a Mk1 Capri he built and tuned when he was in his 30's which hasn't seen daylight in the 15 years that I've known him. It's worth a serious bit of wedge now but he'll never sell it.

I work on a '2 year rule'. If I have something that hasn't been used or utilised in the last 2 years, I get rid of it. Some certain things like tools are exempt but otherwise out it goes to make room for more useful stuff.

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

With the prevalence of eBay I tend to get rid of things I could easily replace; space is at a premium and the space is often more important than the chance I'll need the item. Also the funds buy new junk to fill the gap left by the old junk!

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, well I have a job to throw anything away that may be of use. Below are two photos of a self tapping 5/16" x 2" counter sunk screw.

I've had a polythene bag of about 150 of these kicking about my garage for the last 15 years, which were discarded by the company I used to work for then. During my current garage housekeeping programme, I decided that they needed to be stored in a couple of spare empty coffee tins. I have never used one of them until this week, when fixing a MDF panel to a partition in my garage and not having anything else to hand that would self tap through 6mm thick angle iron and be flush on the panel side, they came into their own.

Regards Nick.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

More then 40 years ago I scrounged an impeller from a Rover gas turbine. About 20 years ago I threw it away. Now I want it to make a blower for my little Topsy organ. NEVER THROW ANYTHING AWAY

[Ron LadenParticipant @ronladen17547]

I had a good clear out about a month back, I only kept items that "maybe" needed in the future which would be fairly costly to replace.

Since the clear out I have already had a need for two items which went in the bin, so I had to buy new. The new parts cost me £9.40, when they went in the bin I thought a couple of quid to get new. I think in the future the rule is it only gets chucked if it would cost £1.00 or less to replace.

 

Edited By Ron Laden on 06/09/2018 08:47:40

[Douglas JohnstonParticipant @douglasjohnston98463]

Quite right, never throw anything useful away. I have just been fixing a length of roofing felt along the ridge of a potting shed which was in need of repair. The felt has been sitting in my loft for 20 years and I have nearly thrown it out on numerous occasions. It was proper strong felt too, not the cardboard they sell now.

Like the Egyptian Pharaohs I intend to have all my worldly goods buried with me so I can have a decent workshop in the afterlife.

Doug

[mark costello 1Participant @markcostello1]

I would need My own pyramid for the tools.

[Author]

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