Junk

[PPlinker]

Was out in yard trying to fix my garden sprayer when an old beat up pick up pulls up and out hopps Bouncy. Bouncy is the junk man, so named because he bends low at the knee and propells himself forward and up in a bouncing movement when he walks. As he approached he asked me how i'm doin and i said fine and asked him how he was doin? He said fine and then asked me again how i was doin. I didn't say fine again, but asked him what's up? He said he was wondering if we wanted the old weir that was behind the garage. I couldn't think of any weir or even know what a weir is. Something like a dam? Didn't make sense so i said he'd have to show me.

He showed me a bunch of old electrical wire that was half buried among some other metal stuff. Sure, he could have it, but what for? He was going to strip it down for the aluminum. He came back later and got it had a partner with him. The partner was interested in the scrap iron that was there. Some old compressors and pipes and other rusty stuff. My husband was there then and asked him if he knew anyone that took used motor oil.

The guy said he knows someone who has an oil burner that would take it if there wasn't antifreeze in it. He opened a barrel and stuck his finger in and it came out....errrr...well, blacker than before. This is a workin man. He said it was good stuff and he'd bring his trailer back and haul it off for us.

We've been trying to get rid of that oil ever since we bought our property in 96. The other owner had it piled up there.... five full 55-gallon barrels and about 6 or 7 empties. We never figured this guy would actually be back but last evening he showed up. We used the tractor and front end loader and got all the full barrels of oil out, and he took the empties for junk metal. There was a lot of scrap iron and old parts in among the barrels that we didn't even know about because honeysuckle vines had covered it all up. But we got it all out and he had his pick up truck loaded with junk and the trailer loaded with barrels. Don't know how much it weighed, but he said it's the most he ever had on there. One of the tires looked almost flat and the front of the trailer was almost touching the ground. He probaby moved pretty slow down the road, but i doubt he was bothered with tailgaters.

The guy that used to live here would spread oil on the gravel road to keep the dust down. Then EPA told him not to do that anymore. That's why the barrels of oil was there. It was a potential environmental oil spill waiting to happen, and in fact at least one barrel had rusted through. No apparent affect, as it didn't hurt the honeysuckel vines. I do hope those rusty barrels held up as he drove down the road though. After all, EPA said not to spread it on the road anymore.

Penny

[NVcurmudgeon]

Penny, Would Bouncy and his friend be interested in a Nevada road trip? We have plenty of ranches where nothing is ever thrown away. It is possible to see the entire evolution of American automobiles and home appliances for the last fifty years behind any ranch house. curmudgeon

[Scrounger]

Penny, Would Bouncy and his friend be interested in a Nevada road trip? We have plenty of ranches where nothing is ever thrown away. It is possible to see the entire evolution of American automobiles and home appliances for the last fifty years behind any ranch house. curmudgeon

Everytime I have got a new vehicle, I have traded in or sold the old one. Guess that idea is foreign to a lot of people. I recall seeing a great deal of junk when I was on ranches in Montana or Wyoming shooting prarie dogs. Seems like in every case the owner just left the old pick-up or tractor or other piece of machinery setting where it was to rust. Of course he didn't treat the new one any better, there was no apparent effort made to maintain or protect them. What are barns for? I couldn't understand why the old one wasn't traded in on the new one... Or if that wasn't possible, why it wasn't sold for scrap. What the heck, as long as the taxpayers and consumers are footing the bill...

[carpetman]

If the "weir" were in fact aluminum,it wouldn't be worth a great amount. If it was copper it would rank right below gold. Burn the insulation off and a few pounds brings a tidy little sum.

[shooter575]

Them old scrapers,that who you need to hook up with for lead. They look high and low,come with anything that can turn for a buck.You tell then you will pay same or better for lead that they get is a good deal. Got about a ton once for .15 lb. Wholesale was .12. I told another scraper I wanted some 3/8 steel plate. Same thing,this time I just gave him some scrap from the farm and we were both happy!
Scrap steel was up big time a while back.Seems that some asian country was buying all our scrap and world crude oil to boot. Hmmmmm. This story sorta sounds like one I heard before. What that about history allways repeating itself!

[PPlinker]

NV, those guys would probably love to take a road trip, if it wasn't for the high price of gas.

Scrounger, you have a good point. Looks like it'd be easier to trade in old vehicle. Back years ago, it seemed to be more common to keep several old cars around for parts. They didn't even seem to have to be the same make? My stepdad was always getting parts off some old cars he had. Doubt car parts are so interchangeable these days.

Carpetman, they did find a big roll of copper wire and some copper tubing. And they DID act like they'd struck gold. Said it'd pay for their gas....

Shooter, sounds like you got a good deal on the lead. These guys are smart.. and know how to turn a buck, yes. Heck, they're not giving away valuable copper! They're smart, too. They were using a metal cutting torch to cut some scrap wire cable because long pieces tangle the machine. I don't know the gases you use for torch....acetelyne and something else? Anyway, these guys substitute propane for one of the gases because it is cheaper. My husband was very interested in that, and was questioning them on the poundage they use; he might give it a try.

Penny

[Buckshot]

.........PPlinker, when I lived out in the sticks I dumped my old drain oil in a 55 gal drum. Had 2 of'em when we moved. The idea had been at the time to trailer them down to the city Haz Mat collection point. I found out they'd only take 5 gallons at a time. Twenty trips didn't sound like much fun, and how to get it out of the drums?

Being lazy I called a Haz Mat transportation company. While they were extremely happy to haul it away, and very helpfull, there was a ton of papers they mailed to me to fill out and return. Total cost for the 2 barrels was a bit over $750. Part of the expense was for overpacks for the barrels, since they'd been sitting outside for maybe 15 years.

An interesting aside. To this day, I am listed as a haz mat producer with the state of California and possibly once a month or so I get a form letter from the state asking the quantity of hazardous materials I have stored on site, plus a request to name each and quantiies. I write None and None and rtn it to the state. I will assume this will happen until the 2nd coming.

................Buckshot

[fatnhappy]

Them old scrapers,that who you need to hook up with for lead. They look high and low,come with anything that can turn for a buck.You tell then you will pay same or better for lead that they get is a good deal. Got about a ton once for .15 lb. Wholesale was .12. I told another scraper I wanted some 3/8 steel plate. Same thing,this time I just gave him some scrap from the farm and we were both happy!
Scrap steel was up big time a while back.Seems that some asian country was buying all our scrap and world crude oil to boot. Hmmmmm. This story sorta sounds like one I heard before. What that about history allways repeating itself!
I heard that story, right about '39 or '40. I like the ending too.

[nvbirdman]

Used to be when you changed your oil you would just dump it.
Then the government said it would poulute the environment, so you should take it to a recycling center.
No problem, I'm just trying to get rid of it anyway.
Then the government told the recycling centers they had to have your name, address, how much used oil you were bringing in, and what brand the used oil was. What brand? What if I don't know? How about "store bought"? Who cares what brand? They dump it all in the same 55gal. drum anyway.
Does anybody wonder why a lot of it still gets dumped?

[NVcurmudgeon]

I heard about a man in CA that recycled everything he could, but ran into the bureaucracy on motor oil. By location, hours, and red tape they made this guy decide there must be an easier way. It occured to this would-be recycler that the garbage went to a distribution center where it all got sorted, and the recyclables separated. It also occured to him that the distribution center could not tell which house any particular piece of trash came from. He then put his drain oil in empty quart plastic oil bottles, buried the bottles deep in his garbage can, and lived happily ever after. I love stories with happy endings.

[wills]

Sounds like giving away flux.

[NVcurmudgeon]

wills, SWMBO likes the smell of burning candle wax, but not burning motor oil.

[StarMetal]

Bill

I like the smell and the sound of "burning rubber" on my 61 high performance Chevy Impala!!!!!!!!!!

The Mrs doesn't tho, says it's a bad influence on our son. I can't help it, it just brings back the good old day jumping in that car and going through the gears and smokin the tires.

Joe

[Jumptrap]

Recycling oil, etc...........it's all bullshit (and we recycled that on the garden every year..hehe).

I am amazed at the folks who for most of their lives poured the old motor oil on the dirt road or over the bank or wherever they wanted too and since the EPA was born, suddenly have fell into the belief that oil is on the level of cyanide. Now, that being said, i'm all for the reuse of oil.....but the consumer gets to buy it up front and then is expected.....almost demanded...that they GIVE it back for free. All that oil goes back to a refinery, run through the cracker again and you get to buy it all over.

If you own a diesel engine, drain your motor oil into a clean container and then burn the stuff in your engine.....diluted with diesel of course. Works fine, won't hurt anything, just keep the dirt out of it when you are changing the oil. I know a man who ran his backhoe for nearly 30 years this way.

[StarMetal]

Yeah, the oil companies charge us a high price for motor oil then they want it back free. All the years I worked at the Sunoco refinery I can't recall anyone ever talking about refining used oil there. As long as motor oil hasn't been heated beyond a certain temperature it's still motor oil. Heating can change the molecular structure and turn it into something entirely different. All that basically happens to used motor oil is that the additives are gone out of it and it gets contaminants in it such as acids, water, dirt, etc., which all can be refined out again and additives put back in. Personally I think used motor oil is cleaner then crude that comes straight from the well.

Joe

[shooter575]

One of buildings I maintain at the U was a machine tool mfg. They had underground tanks all over. Anyway I was helping a engineer find them.We found one tank 10,000 that was full of hydraulic oil. We took samples,looked like new.Been there for 25+ years.They paid a company 18.00 a gallon to haul off and dispose of it. My tax dollars at work. Go figure!

[Buckshot]

Recycling oil, etc...........it's all bullshit (and we recycled that on the garden every year..hehe).

I am amazed at the folks who for most of their lives poured the old motor oil on the dirt road or over the bank or wherever they wanted too and since the EPA was born, suddenly have fell into the belief that oil is on the level of cyanide. Now, that being said, i'm all for the reuse of oil.....but the consumer gets to buy it up front and then is expected.....almost demanded...that they GIVE it back for free. All that oil goes back to a refinery, run through the cracker again and you get to buy it all over.

If you own a diesel engine, drain your motor oil into a clean container and then burn the stuff in your engine.....diluted with diesel of course. Works fine, won't hurt anything, just keep the dirt out of it when you are changing the oil. I know a man who ran his backhoe for nearly 30 years this way.

...........I worked for a trucking company who had a type of used oil refinery that a company was selling to re-cycle used engine oil into the Diesel fuel dispensed into the trucks. They ended up after a few years using it only in the summer. Seems idling in the winter caused the injectors to load up. Other then that, it worked okay. That is until 'Visible Smoke' laws went into effect in some states. Then with EPA emission standards tightened to the point that the used oil caused problems, they had to scrap the practice.

In California, if you see a vehicle emitting visible smoke you can call 1-800-Cut Smog with the plate number. Even Diesel locomotives, and you use the cab number. The California requirements are supposed to be so stringent by 2008 that many Diesel engine manufacturer's are saying that it may be impossible to meet them.

...........Buckshot

[wills]

wills, SWMBO likes the smell of burning candle wax, but not burning motor oil.

She smelts your alloy? You have her educated well.

[StarMetal]

Buckshot

Speaking of CA's smoke law, I was listening to the Rush Airball radio show the other day and they got to talking about why gasoline prices are so high. They started off with it wasn't the oil refineries gouging people..cough, cough, choke, choke, ah yeah. They had the so called expert give his opinion and they concluded it's the EPA that's causing the rise in gas prices because of their too stringent laws. They cited CA is being out of control with their silly too stringent laws. They also said that if it wasn't for the sillynine EPA laws we'd be seeing gas prices back below a $1 !!!!! They cited some cases as summer blends, winter blends, which they stated raise the price of gasoline conciderably. Such things too as the EPA not letting them drill for oil in those wilderness areas in Alaska. Then you get the liberals who value an animals life over a humans.

Joe

[NVcurmudgeon]

She smelts your alloy? You have her educated well.


wills, No, I can't get her any closer to the lead post than she needs to be to park her car in the garage. OTOH, she is a good roofer and painter.

[NVcurmudgeon]

She smelts your alloy? You have her educated well.


wills, No, I can't get her any closer to the lead pot than she needs to be to park her car in the garage. OTOH, she is a good roofer and painter, and she can be trusted to steer a towed car without running into the back of my pickup.