What vital piece of junk are you keeping?

[tractorman]

As usual at the start of my "tractor season" - ie when the weather gets warm enough to be outside - I am sorting my garage and sheds out. I've made good progress - moving sockets near the bench and stuff I don't use very often has gone in the sheds. Now I'm sorting the sheds!

This was taken last summer, but I think you'll get the idea!



So, while I have thrown away some junk (like the 1" bit of 1/2" angle iron, some threadless bolts etc), I have sorted through one of the larger boxes ( a silver one below the green one on the left) and carefully kept things like the three hoses from two old washing machines, the long bolts that held the back displacers etc on the Maxi and a non-working cordless hedgeutter. It's at least two years since we changed the washing machine, the Maxi went in 1989 and I have no idea why I'm keeping the hedgecutter - we never used it when it worked! The green box has an old wagon inner tube in it - it will be most useful sometime!

So what "vital" piece of scrap are you keeping?

As an aside - the centre bit of the front axle, leaning against the press's base, has been sprayed with a thick coat of Bilt Hamber Etchweld - there was deep pitting before I sprayed it and look at it now!

[Aar0sc]

My car

Nah. my dad

Not really! Probably the random lawn mower I bought for £5 that never worked :/

[bnicho]

I attract junk like a magnet attracts iron filings!

I have across my two garages:

- An old whipper-snipper (weed wacker) that allegedly only needs the broken plug lead replaced to run. I have a much better one I inherited from my dad I use now.
- A broken lawn edger.
- Two bikes that have not been used in at least ten years.
- A really crap mains-powered BBQ I've NEVER used.
- Two gas BBQ's only one of which I use. I was given the better one so I stopped using the old one.
- A tent with a huge tear in it I used as a teenager along with misc camping gear.
- A huge pile of Mini junk - holed radiators, rusty subframes, broken speedos etc.
- A rollbar from a Frontera - it looked useful at the time!
- Several big heavy chains, the type bulldozers use. No idea where they came from.
- A couple of trailer axles.
- Offcuts of steel that look useful.
- At least one spare rim and tyre for basically every car I have ever owned.
- Several new motorcycle headlamps - but I've never owned a motorcycle.
- Suzuki Jimny car seats nobody wants but I can't bring myself to chuck out.

I really have to have a clean up!

[rich.]

when i lived in the uk in a semi with a small shed it was full of junk, now i have several large barns they are full of junk including oak beams
bits of tin/steel
old ford escort
several pallets of tuffo stone,
concrete windowsill
all my building kit etc
a plastic plant holder in the shape of a small african child? i have no idea why...aparently it cost a fortune??
i could go on

[spiderbloke]

Must be the time of year, but I too am trying to tidy up my workshop. I found to my surprise that it has interior, as well as exterior walls

What I did find was a 25ltr carboy of battery acid (I have no recollection of where I obtained this from) and a Black & Dekker valve seat cutter that I forgot I'd bought about 5 years ago.

Oh, and a box of out of date lifejackets ( again ?? )

[TriumphDriver]

Decided to tidy up the garden shed recently, threw out 14 tins of paint, two 5 litre containers of PVA adhesive, two more of mortar plasticiser, tins of paint activator that I've had since 1993, three bags of rock-hard cement, two of sand and one of gravel, an old tent, more metal brackets and odd sheets of wood that I'll never use, empty plant pots, four half empty bags of compost that I threw over the flowerbed, enough old waste pipes to plumb three sinks, ten old ceiling lights with transformers, a blackboard and easel, and a brand new and boxed extractor fan kit that I've been meaning to fit since 1998. The bin is now full!
I've found enough nails and screws to start a business and enough dead spiders to feed an entire African nation.
I haven't found any car parts but at least I know what colour the shed floor is now.

[Martin Evans]

I sometimes think, this poxy computer

I suppose there are things that just don't get used and you put them aside but later on, throw them away. I've had bags of cement go off on me.

I've got an old piano in the house, that belonged to my grandparents. I haven't played for years and thought it might be nice to get it done up (Never liked playing it when I was a child, as it was always out of tune) and see how it sounds when in tune. My grandfather has been dead for 15 years so..........will I ever live to see the day

[tractorman]

I've tidied the shed out (sort of) and now have the second one to attend to! However, the garage, that I had really tidy on Sunday, is getting cluttered again!



Note - the vacuum cleaner (or am I adding to the wrong thread

The brown thing on the trolley behind the car is the sump from one of the tractors! For some rason the "Instant Gasket" started leaking after four years! I have made a new one and all is well. The genuine gasket that cost £15.00 or so and split while fitting the sump, hence the instant gasket!

[Rhythm Thief]

I've got most of an old washing machine casing in the shed, because "it's handy for the steel". Yeah, right. And about six Ami 6 bumpers, which aren't strictly junk but I don't know why I've got them or what I'll ever do with them. And a set of Daihatsu Fourtrak steel wheels, all knackered but (supposedly) awaiting powder coating and new tyres. And ... oh, if I list everything I'll be here all day.

[JPB]

Handy for the steel...

Yes, that old chestnut! I have an old cooker that I replaced shortly after I moved into my present home. It's still sitting in the back yard after some five years and has been cut around - rather than moved - for the lawn mower these past couple of summers.
I kept it because, like most (possibly all?) white goods, its structural panels are all Zintec treated and quite thick (about 18swg I should think) so ideal for car repairs. Only trouble is that the Dolly steadfastly refuses to rot away and the Cinquecento, having been stored carefully these past 38 years, has no need of welding either. As though I'm complaining.

Old cookers & fridges FTW!