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I was sitting here and just thought gee I am only 18 and I have came across a few things but I wonder who else found something that has been in the industry longer then I have found. There are so many things that people could list off but I am talking anything from scrap clean ups to ewaste. Would love to see some pictures!! Just curious and love to hear a few stories (pics or not)
It might be a forum glitch but I coulda sworn I saw farrarrecycling post this about a second ago. No matter, I don't have any images but the oldest thing i've come across was an IBM 286 that my home town had set up as a weather station for the weather channel. I just happened to be there when the guy was updating the system over from a 286 desktop to a dx2 tower and asked him for it. Was surprised he gave it to me with how most people are with stuff. This was back probably 18/19 years ago in 1997 when I was toying around the idea of dismantling electronics for their parts and thought I was the only one doing it lol.
You saw correctly haha. I accidently posted under his account and felt really numb after that. So I scurried to try and delete it with no success so yeah. I got it fixed now haha. So you did that the year I was born in. Its hard to come by them computers now a days even I know that.. haha
oh yes - it wasn't that long ago that NASA upgraded all their systems on the space shuttles from 386s to dx2s that still run dos. I'm sure there are others on the board that have found older and odder things then me.
For it would be a fire extinguisher from 1909. I think you remember it sitting in the #2 copper bin (no other light copper going that day) going to East Millinocket for scrap since it was destroyed during the school bus project. The next thing would be a computer from 1976 I found at the same site.
The oldest was also perhaps the hardest thing I ever scrapped. A 100+ old piano. I first had a piano person look at it, she told me a lot about it, most important information, was in her opinion, the old upright piano could not be restored. I did the piano demo, surgically because I wanted to save as much wood as I could. The wood was old-wood, tight grains that is hard to find these days. There was only three original "Ivory" keys, the rest had been replaced with plastic keys. I was surprised and as a coin collector, very happy about the amount of old US coins that were inside this old piano. This piano breakdown was not easy, the metals counting the coins: Silver, Copper, Brass, Steel, Cast Iron, with some nice old wood and a little Ivory too!
Not really scrap but when I did a house clean out, I found books from the 1800's and also gramophones from the late 1800's. I also got some old horse drawn cultivators, but don't really know how old they were
I didn't scrap it, but from a clean out, I received an old International Harvester horse-drawn rotary hoe. I kept that one as a yard ornament.
I don't usually scrap equipment, but the same job had a 1920s Gleaner/Baldwin pull-type combine that I scrapped. Before anyone rips my head off for that, it wasn't the entire machine, and there was barely enough for me to know what it was....
I do not know the oldest thing I have come across, the oldest thing I have helped scrap was the James Street Power Plant located in Omaha NB. It was built in 1911 and provided power for the community until replaced with the Ft. Calhoun nuclear power plant. 10 stories, 190,000 sq. ft. and 10,000 tons of steel removed in less than a year. If you want pictures, visit "A Scrappers Dream" posted on the forum. I was hired as a consultant and to teach others how to use a torch. Several members of the forum visited during this project.
A hobby includes turning antique metal into art and everyday items. It is believed the oldest among these are old wooden Hames that I cannot date. Pictures of this hobby are posted on "Christmas Gifts from Scrap."
I really couldn't say what the oldest thing I've come across is, because much of the scrap I get I dig up, and there's lots of pipe and such that's been in the ground a good while, probably a hundred years or more in some cases.
One old thing, non scrap, I did come across, which any scrapper that uses an oxy/gas torch will appreciate, was an oxygen tank. As you may know, they get stamped with the dates at which they need to be re-tested.
Attachment 2929
I highlighted the dates with chalk, to show up better in the picture.
Yes, you're seeing it correctly--the earliest date stamped on there is January of 1917.
I really hated to turn that one back in once I'd emptied it...
Not scrap but some old leather bound books, The oldest circa 1842. It's a non-fiction, a British officer surveying Canada.
But I placed them somewhere and now can't find.
Is that book called 'The search for the magnetic north'? Or something like that? I have a copy at home but it buried under motherboards at the moment.Quote:
Originally Posted by nutpie
'levay' might be the name of the writer (sp?)
It mentions cannabilism in the wild north a few times near the start of the book.
If its the book I'm thinking of, its one of the best books I have ever read. And its also just a condensed version of what he wrote, as his actual diarys were burnt when the shed they were in caught fire.
I will have another look tonight.
No, I don't think so. That specific book, I don't think it was widely published. It was more like a journal of a frontiersman/surveyer. I don't think it was a book meant for entertainment. But there were some other books. Maybe one of them? I just don't know where I put them.Quote:
Originally Posted by eesakiwi
Any time I look in a mirror :lol:
I have some coins from the 1700s to 1920s
1920 radio that still works .
My father in law he was 79 then (RIP). My buddy and I were out scrapping in his neighborhood. Down the alley comes this white van, he tells us get off his turf! LOL