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Things you have found on the side of the road.

For the dumb arses.. I went to a job site years ago and they had a 4/5# hammer welded to a piece of round stock that had always been a pita. After a few whacks I walked across a parking lot and gladly paid $32 for an 8lb sledge at an ace hardware to take care of the job.

If a solid metal welded handle works for you consider yourself lucky. One of the only metal handled hammers I saw actually work was a split wood handle wrapped in steel tubing. The remaining piece of wood had to have taken out the negative resonance of the impact.
 
Twankie said:
For the dumb arses.. I went to a job site years ago and they had a 4/5# hammer welded to a piece of round stock that had always been a pita. After a few whacks I walked across a parking lot and gladly paid $32 for an 8lb sledge at an ace hardware to take care of the job.

If a solid metal welded handle works for you consider yourself lucky. One of the only metal handled hammers I saw actually work was a split wood handle wrapped in steel tubing. The remaining piece of wood had to have taken out the negative resonance of the impact.
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My favorite hammer is a 32 oz ball peen welded to a piece of 1 1/4 .120" DOM with a 6x5/8" bolt though the homer head to add mass. It's my do everything hammer, I've used it as a cheater on countless ratchets, a slide hammer over tire spoons to break beads, as a hammer etc etc etc. It's the first one I reach for and the raw steel handle has never hurt my hand. 🤷
 
I've had good luck with steel handles on a few hammers.

One of them is a little 2lb sledge that I keep on an anvil outside. That thing has straightened more bent shit than I care to imagine. Have broken the steel handle twice now. It fractured right at the base of the hammer head and got re-welded once, then started to again so I shoved some steel rod inside, welded it up real good, and tapered the weld out under the head so maybe it'll work forever now. I like to take my pipe handles to the press to make them oval shaped so they don't try and turn in your hand. Then I'll add a layer of triple wall adhesive lined heat shrink as the grip.
 
I don't think I've ever paid for a sledge in my life. I scrounge em off jobsites - way too many people toss the whole thing when the handle breaks.
Nabbed a 10lb off a scrap pile a few years back with 3 impact marks on the face and a snapped handle. Basically new, wedge was even still shiny.

Usually find 2 or 3 new handles a year, and enough busted ones to cut down for handles on everything 4lbs or less.
 
DWT said:
Go talk to the county roads department. I know here they send older signs and even those that are slightly damaged to the scrap yard periodically. Offer to pad their coffee fund and I bet you get what you're after.




I've found likely hundreds of cooler lids and lots of coolers driving big truck down the highways in the PNW. A few times I've recognized lids and cooler combos near each other but never picked them up due to big truck. I did pick up a cheapo 8" crescent wrench a while back. Still had the tag zip tied to the end.
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We threw out tons of signs and posts on the last highway job I worked on. Literally tons.
 
20220710_163826.jpg


Found this along the road this past Saturday.
Breaker was popped, reset it, cleaned it up a little, works perfectly!
 
Purevil71 said:
20220710_163826.jpg


Found this along the road this past Saturday.
Breaker was popped, reset it, cleaned it up a little, works perfectly!
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Nice, helped a contractor replace something (the pressure switch?) in one of those when they were over here a few years back and it seemed like a nice setup.

Aaron Z
 
most likely fell off the truck? i can't imagine anyone dumping that

either way nice score!
 
Wades_76_cj7 said:
most likely fell off the truck? i can't imagine anyone dumping that

either way nice score!
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Earlier this week I saw an empty DEF box blow/fall out of a utility body at about 90mph in the left lane of I95N. It rolled/bounced to the right and made a perfect merge through the traffic across all the lanes before just barely missing the barrier and making it into the off ramp for exit 43. Watching that box flawlessly execute a maneuver that most people can't pull off without getting in other people's way was beautiful. :laughing:
 
Since I do my longer drives in little shitboxes now I pick up all kinds of bungee cords, usually don't even have to get out, just open the door and reach down.
 
I was doing good for a while. Little 2 stroke snow thrower that needed a carb cleaning and a new choke lever. Nice hand truck that need 5 minutes with a welder. Penny at a stop light yesterday :grinpimp:
 
I found two power strips in a trash pile, the kind that have about 6" between the outlets, are around 4' long and usually live in data racks. Somebody cut the cords off short though. So while driving through the neighborhood I stopped at a few old fridges, microwaves, and the like, and I have enough grounded plugs to fix the power strips, and have a spare.
 
arse_sidewards said:
Earlier this week I saw an empty DEF box blow/fall out of a utility body at about 90mph in the left lane of I95N. It rolled/bounced to the right and made a perfect merge through the traffic across all the lanes before just barely missing the barrier and making it into the off ramp for exit 43. Watching that box flawlessly execute a maneuver that most people can't pull off without getting in other people's way was beautiful. :laughing:
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When we were on the way to I think Mt. Vernon, we saw a car trailer with a little chevy car on it pop off a truck. Jump the v ditch on the side of the road into a field, barely miss a little out building, split two sets of trees on either side of a driveway (I was certain it was going to nail one of the first ones) up a slight hill and slowly come to rest in someone's front yard.

I literally went from OH SHIT to THAT WAS SO FUCKING COOL in the 10 seconds it all happened :laughing:

First thing I asked the bus driver was please tell me you have a dash cam.:lmao: he did not.:frown:
 
DWT said:
My favorite hammer is a 32 oz ball peen welded to a piece of 1 1/4 .120" DOM with a 6x5/8" bolt though the homer head to add mass. It's my do everything hammer, I've used it as a cheater on countless ratchets, a slide hammer over tire spoons to break beads, as a hammer etc etc etc. It's the first one I reach for and the raw steel handle has never hurt my hand. 🤷
Click to expand...

I have made a few metal hammers. I have one I really like that the head is 1 7/16 tg&p 4130(iirc) and the handle is 1 3/16. I also welded a 1/2 thick piece of the 1 7/16 to the base for grip. The icing on the cake is the large heat shrink on the handle :smokin:

Hindsight, I probably would have found some tubing for the handle. But its a great little fab hammer. Doesn't hurt you hand.

I have a similar one with a 2" head and long handle. It will ring you hands pretty good sometimes.

I do like the idea of welding a ~6" hunk of tubing to the head to keep the wood from getting fucked up when you miss.
 
aczlan said:
Nice, helped a contractor replace something (the pressure switch?) in one of those when they were over here a few years back and it seemed like a nice setup.

Aaron Z
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I was on a wheeling trip and headed back to the park with supplies (beer) when I spotted it along the road. Not a scratch on it anywhere. Just dirty and caked in drywall dust.
It will now be my probable tank for airing up my tires and running tools at camp.
 
Wades_76_cj7 said:
most likely fell off the truck? i can't imagine anyone dumping that

either way nice score!
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I'm not sure...not a scratch on it anywhere, but it was caked in drywall dust. One air nozzle needs replaced as it's rusted and won't work, but everything else is fine. Just dirty.
 
buzzbombxj said:
I found two power strips in a trash pile, the kind that have about 6" between the outlets, are around 4' long and usually live in data racks. Somebody cut the cords off short though. So while driving through the neighborhood I stopped at a few old fridges, microwaves, and the like, and I have enough grounded plugs to fix the power strips, and have a spare.
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Datacenter guy here- we usually chop the cords off things like that when they're bad so other people on the team don't try to swap them in during an emergency. At least that's the only reason I could think of for cutting them. Careful putting power through them the first time.
 
Harry Johnson said:
Datacenter guy here- we usually chop the cords off things like that when they're bad so other people on the team don't try to swap them in during an emergency. At least that's the only reason I could think of for cutting them. Careful putting power through them the first time.
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Tweakers. Tweakers cut them off for scrap.
 
flecker said:
To replace the ones on other shop tools that get broken for $1000 Alex?

Edit, Or why hasn't he done meth? Do you have some?:flipoff2:
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Interesting. I guess I'm not going hard enough in the garage because I haven't broke any cords yet.

You buy one breaking bad looking motorhome and all of a sudden everyone assumes you have meth!

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Found a nice minnow bucket and a stringer. It was along side of the road by a lake I hauled a load of fuel to a marina. I told myself if that thing is here when I come back by its gonna be mine. Couldn’t believe it was still there when I came back by almost an hour later.
 
Harry Johnson said:
Datacenter guy here- we usually chop the cords off things like that when they're bad so other people on the team don't try to swap them in during an emergency. At least that's the only reason I could think of for cutting them. Careful putting power through them the first time.
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I took these off the racks they were installed on, still together in that garbage pile. I bet they were plugged into a foursquare above the ladder rack, or into a UPC in another rack. Rather than cut the tie wraps, and fish our the plug, the demo guys just cut the plugs off. Then I took bunch of the angle lateral peices off the racks cause short peices of angle iron are always handy, especially with a bunch holes predrilled. Jobsite trash piles and dumpsters are treasure troves.
 
Harry Johnson said:
Datacenter guy here- we usually chop the cords off things like that when they're bad so other people on the team don't try to swap them in during an emergency. At least that's the only reason I could think of for cutting them. Careful putting power through them the first time.
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Also if a company warranties something but doesn’t want it sent back they ask for a picture with the cord cut off short.
 
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