# Junk Yard Finds



## Dragonsm (Nov 24, 2015)

This past weekend, I made a trip out to our local landfill - It's a big one that services our city of 200K people along with surrounding communities.

Had a dishwasher to drop off for them to recycle. As I was unloading it into the "scrap metal" pile, I sat it right next to an older Ariens ST524 snowblower. 

Hardly a speck of rust on it.....scraper bar and skids were hardly worn, but the engine looks as though it had seen better days as the carb was missing. Probably a casualty of bad/untreated ethanol fuel and a gummed up carb due to being sparingly used....and the owner didn't want to deal with it after a quick looksee.

Asked one of the employees about it, and in a growling voice "Absolutely no pillaging of the landfill"....I have never really tinkered deeply into something like that, but figured it'd be a fun little project for my son (he's 5) and myself to mess around with and zero expense tied into it initially...even with an engine swap to a harbor freight engine, little money involved.....none the less, it'll be scrapped before given another chance at life.

Seem machines like that....when I run across them on local craigslist or facebook......they'll post up they want $50-100 this week for it or it goes to the dump?!?!? :facepalm_zpsdj194qh Guess everyone around here is out for a buck and the dump is the last resort.

Any of you out there ever run across machines at the local dump/recycling center and snatch em up?

Steve


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## guilateen02 (Nov 23, 2014)

Many scrap guys in around my way snag those up those old Ariens and off to the scrap they go. They have a lot of weight for the space they take in a truck. I've seen it with my own eyes, and responded to Craigslist ads where the scrap guy beats me to it and into the back of the truck they go. I wonder why they don't try fixing them and selling it. One guy had a sawzall and off with the handlebars right in front of me. Nice chrome and no cracks in the bars as well, oh that hurts. Offered another scrap guy 40 for one on his and he said no. He want to take as much steel to the yard as possible. Scrap is about $90 a ton around my way last time I checked. Am I missing something?


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## cranman (Jan 23, 2016)

A blower isn't worth $25 in scrap 100 a ton equals $12.50 for a HEAVY blower Dude is delusional.


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

my local landfill has a ton of blowers but they won't let you have them. they charge a straight fee to dump and the a haz-mat fee on top of that. heck i'd be willing to pay a little something to take something out. you'd think it would make them happy.

those places are run by the "boys" in most cases.


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## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

Not exactly sure but scrap steel is about 3¢ a pound, 150 lb blower is $4.50


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## paulm12 (May 22, 2015)

yeah, I am a few miles from a scrapyard, and the highest I have seen is around 4¢ a pound. I think the main reason the dumps/yards won't let people take stuff directly is liability. Now they do pull stuff themselves and sell at a resale shop onsite, so there certainly is a method for them to take stuff in, pay the scrappers, but then not send it to be scrapped. And I'm guessing they have regulars that they pull for too. Just got to get to know the workers.


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## crazzywolfie (Jun 2, 2014)

same way here. you are not allowed really taking anything but most of the time people are not around so you can take small things. i don't think i would be able to get away with taking a whole machine. 

as far as scrap goes there are a lot of idiots hauling scrap which is why so much good stuff ends up there. i don't even understand how anyone really makes a living hauling scrap. you probably spend half what you make on fuel. i have hauled the od load of scrap and it is really not worth it. i am usually only coming out with $25-30 but i guess i am usually just cleaning up.


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## tlshawks (Feb 9, 2018)

I knew a guy who worked at our solid waste agency, and he said there were a couple guys that worked there that pilfered machines out of the scrap metal disposal and merged them together into working machines and gave them away to people that worked there or other county employees.

"I haven't bought a new snowblower, lawn mower...any small engine machine - since I stared working there."

They weren't supposed to do it but the manager of the facility told them, don't sell them, nothing on company time, and always bring back the stuff you don't use and I'm OK with it.

He told me that any given year (metro of about 225k), they got roughly 250 or so snowblowers and the guys that did the piecing together salvaged about 10 working units every year. Usually it was a machine with either a bad engine or bad gear box, and eventually similar machines would come in because of what machines were sold locally new through the years. So they'd sort them by brand/similarities, then would eventually find the parts they needed. 

Sometimes, the machines had absolutely nothing at all wrong with them at all. People just wanted to get rid of them and didn't want to mess with selling it or finding someone to take it off their hands.


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## 132619 (Nov 20, 2018)

local township recycle center here is the same way,, no! can't have it, DON"T touch the junk yet there is many a ope machine there that needs little to no work, looks brand new yet simply given up on and junked .


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## topher5150 (Nov 5, 2014)

There are to many people that would rather throw something out than spend a couple of dollars to fix and keep it going. I worked at a a place where the owner would use the company dumpster as his personal garbage, and he would throw out everything that he didn't have use for no matter the condition. In my time there I snagged a Dyson vacuum cleaner, and a Sthil backpack leaf blower. Brand new this was like a $500 machine, I had to put about $20 into new fuel lines, two cycle oil, and gas to get it working again, and sold it for $300.


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## WVguy (Nov 24, 2018)

Sometimes people throw perfectly good stuff out because they're moving and it is cheaper to dispose of stuff and buy new on the other end than it is to have it moved. My sister was married to an air traffic controller and they moved about four times for his job. So they'd offer furniture, lawn equipment, etc. for sale dirt cheap and if no one bought, into the dumpster it went. Sad, but that's the economics of it.


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## 132619 (Nov 20, 2018)

ATC is as bad as being a lifer in the military never know where you're going or what your going to need,


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## topher5150 (Nov 5, 2014)

WVguy said:


> Sometimes people throw perfectly good stuff out because they're moving and it is cheaper to dispose of stuff and buy new on the other end than it is to have it moved. My sister was married to an air traffic controller and they moved about four times for his job. So they'd offer furniture, lawn equipment, etc. for sale dirt cheap and if no one bought, into the dumpster it went. Sad, but that's the economics of it.


When we moved into our new house the previous owner left so much of their junk behind. It was a lot of good stuff that didn't really have much value, and wasn't worth the time and energy to try and put it online so I just hauled it to the curb and put a free sign next and it would be gone by that afternoon.


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## ZAK77 (Nov 15, 2018)

The local small engine repair/sales guy's brother worked at the transfer station/dump so he'd get the calls on the better equipment dropped off. He'd go grab them, fix them and turn around and sell them usually pretty cheap so people can get a machine that works at a good price. Otherwise they'd be scrapped.


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## russ01915 (Dec 18, 2013)

At my local dump, no picking or taking anything. The employees do it on the sly and nothing is said. Wouldn't it be better for the town to sell them at $25-50 apiece than sell them for scrap. Someone posted how little the scrap metal prices are.


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## cranman (Jan 23, 2016)

Sometimes I'll find a decent snowblower at my transfer station and they let me take it if one of the dump generals doesn't want it....usually almost nothing wrong. Before they get scrapped, my OPE dealer sells me the better ones for $20 each that the customers left behind because they didn't want to spend the money quoted to fix them.


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