OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Finding and Swapping Idle Chatter The End Of My Hobby?

Bad news for me. I have always sought my repairable mowers and parts for mowers at the local re-cycle centre. For the past month or so I have noted the same old garbage sitting there and very little "new" stock appearing. Finally, I asked one of the workers what was going on. It now seems that they've given someone the rights to all the mowers that come in. One of the volunteer workers is able to purchase them all before anyone else gets a look in. That's basically the end of my hobby as other sources, such as the local pocket trader, don't yield very much. I really enjoyed bringing the mowers back to life and all the little challenges that came along. Oh well, I guess I'll have to do something else or be happy with the odd one that comes my way.

Hello Sparker

Yes, I feel that natural attrition plus the advent of 'first preference'
is destroying the 'true' collector - in favour of re-sellers.

I'm not sure on the legality of some councils' approaches.
If there is no tender process, or fair access to access or bidding, it
may well be that councils are not doing the legal thing.

Perhaps you should ask your Council to explain itself...
It may expose a practice it does not endorse.

-------------------
Jack

Is this vulture paying someone off? I wouldn't take this lying down. Better get the pen and paper out and invest in a few stamps.

I think I might make some waves.

Hi All,

I think you'll find that this has all been done underhandedly and the currency will be in "cartons". I'm sure council know nothing of what's going on at that level and as alcohol is everyone's currency of pleasure, everyone says nothing.

Cheers,
BB.

It will all be totally denied, this sort of thing goes on at all these sort of places and creating waves can back fire on you, particularly with councils, they know where you live

Unfortunately, I fear that NormK may be right here. It's probably seen by the on-the-ground crew as a 'legitimate perk' for the volunteer/s - unjust though that is.

So the way to tackle it, is not to approach any council employee about the matter. But instead, to make an appointment to discuss it face to face with one of the actual Councillors, preferably the one who represents the Riding in which you reside, sparker.

Go in hard, with a written 'cheat sheet' list of short dot points that set out these basics, in exactly this order:

• Summary of the situation as you understand it, including approximate commencement date
• Why you think that this situation is unjust, and possibly of questionable legality [this part will really make their ears stand up]
• Ask that this matter be brought before a Council Meeting - among other things, this will get it irrevocably on the record - and Council meeting minutes are public documents, accessible to the media
  
  Those who have recent experience in professional recruitment [on either side of the desk] will recognise this, as the 'STAR' approach to creating 'mini case studies' of past workplace tasks successfully completed. Situation, Task, Action taken, Result; in other words.

I hope this kind of "unofficial policy" does not extend to other Councils. On my last visit to the tip shop I noticed there were only a dozen or so old mowers there and they were the same ones that I saw sitting there two weeks ago.

Mind you the dump shops are getting "fussy" these days. I took some old mowers and stereo hi fi equipment to them that were in good, working condition several months ago. Got greeted by a young Council worker who told me they did not want them. He claimed they have too many already and have to sell the ones sitting in their shop first. He directed me to the waste station next door to throw them away. I said "No way, I'll take them back home". On my way out I stopped in at the tip shop and was surprised to see only half a dozen very rusty and broken down mowers there. So I'm not sure if the staff member at the recycling centre was fussy or just too lazy to help me lift them off the truck.

About 6 months ago I took one of those electric walking machines with all sorts of gadgets on it, to the local tip shop, everything worked on it and it was in excellent condition. They said the didn't want it because they can't give them away, so take it up the back and put it beside the scrap bins so the boys can fork it into the bin. This is a terrible waste of resources but we have become a consumer/dumper society.

Well, the first thing you need to establish before you make any waves is to determine whether the tip shop is run by the council, or if it's been tendered out to a private mob to run on behalf of the council.
Our local recycle centre is run by a private company and it pretty much works like this: The takings at the gate for entering and "dumping" your rubbish are collected by council workers and that money goes directly to council. Once inside anything that goes on in relation to dumping, sorting, etc is at the discretion of the employees of the contractor. They can recycle or resell mowers etc to whoever they please. They are in essence a private company with the option of selling stuff to their mates or placing it in the tip shop to sell to the general public.
Good luck with your quest.

Private Contractors are always a bad arrangement any way you look at it. This is but one example of their lack of accountability compared to a publicly owned organisation.

Quite a while ago I had a look at the mowers in our local tip shop, couldn't believe the price tags they had on the greatest piles of rubbish you could ever imagine.

Yes. It is a private contractor running the show - so they do whatever they want. My hope is that because the employees at that place are a transient lot, the arrangement will eventually fall apart.

Here in Adelaide we don't even have what you guys call tip shops. Tea Tree Gully Council have what we call "Environmental Sunday" which is held on the second and last Sunday of each month at Elmers Park facility. TTG rate payers are eligible to off load Green Waste, Scrap Metal, Plastics, Oil, Paint and E-waste for free. I used to go over there and check out what was been dumped and it was surprising what was being dropped off at both Scrap Metal and E-Waste. Sometimes I'd come home with a ute full, other times nothing at all. Now they've put the hard word out to their employees that nothing is allowed to be given away at all as they want all the cash from it as they merely send it on Monday morning to a scrap yard where they get the most for it. They used to have a policy if you can reuse something it was better that it got a second life but it's now all about the money to them and nothing else.

Cheers,
BB.

Our local tip shop [Morwell transfer depot] is a bit variable/inconsistent on pricing.

Some items are priced laughably high [e.g. an SB electric reel mower with $250 on it], others are so cheap it's almost thievery to buy them!

My scores for this year so far are;
1. A Swedish Trangia 25 compact camping stove/pot set - $5, missing metho burner and simmer ring only. A new one less burner is worth ~$90.
2. A pair of Echo SRM200DB 22cc straight-shaft brushcutters, not missing any engine/frame parts, for $20 - the pair! One with a genuine Echo 250mm circular saw blade, the other with an incomplete nylon line cutter head. Both turn over easily, with good compression, too.

I miss the days around twelve years ago when I would routinely find old mowers (trade ins?)dumped near mower shop's skips out in the open carpark in various states of function.
It was a double edge sword as I only had a sedan and had to load them into the rear seat which was heavy on my back. I also became overrun with mowers in the back yard with few places to put them undercover and so the elements got to them and they deteriorated fast.
I eventually had to dispose of them as they took too much room and harboured creepy crawlies.
If I still had them today, I could probably make a tidy profit on ebay as a lot of them were the now harder to get Victa hi arch alloy chassis, many in good shape.
Such is life.

Norm, that is what I have noticed too. There is a Lifeline shop near our tip and the prices are beyond belief at times. I once picked up a pair of old boots that fit me and had a little bit of wear left in them. I needed a pair of "knock-abouts" for working in the yard, Took them to the counter and the bloke wanted $50 for them. I said to him he had to be kidding as I could buy a new pair for that price at Kmart. He wouldn't budge on the price.

As for mowers, they frequently ask for $100 for a mower with two wheels, a broken chassis, no compression, and a cowl with more rust than metal. When you complain you get the usual line "We're a charity" or "The spare parts alone would be worth that!" Well I suppose they might, if somebody went to the trouble to remove them all, clean them up and paint them. The thing is I leave them there if they are too dear, and so does everybody else. Next time you go in there they have dumped the lot and put some more in their place, which are also piles of broken and rusting junk and as dear as poison. It doesn't make much sense for any charity to operate this way, especially when they are getting the goods for nothing.

The charity shops around my area just outside of Sydney still charge low prices for stuff like it used to be in Sydney some 30 years ago. As soon as you go to Sydney, the higher prices for used stuff is immediately apparent. $7.00 for used sunnies with handles that are about to fall off. I would expect to see them for $3.00 up where I live, less for the loose handles.
I think it is because more people are willing to shop in opportunity shops than ever before. It's become trendy where where it used to be seen as an embarrassment. Retro stuff is more fashionable than ever with the hip trendy types.
The shop staff look at you like you are robbing the poor just for asking for what you feel is a realistic price for a used item.
If it is a not for profit charity, that should give them MORE leeway to meet your offer, not less. You never used to feel the need to bargain down in the first place because they were plain as day cheap!! Now they treat it like it's a regular retail outlet and have $$ in their eyes.

Vintmow, they cured me, I will never bother walking into their shop again, waste of time

gadge you found some good things from the tip ,you just don't know what will turn up

my best tip find 120kg forged Wilkinson blacksmiths anvil made in england cost me $60

my friend was standing on it and other rubbish while pulling the ram out off a forklift and I

noticed part of the shape sticking up out off the mud

well we dropped all tools tied some rope round it and dragged it out of the mudd

best $60 I spent at the tip I think its worth $800 - $1000

Crikey freebird,
I can only wish for that kind of luck!

BTW, I'm a bit into hobby blacksmithing - I do have a smallish [~60lb or so] London pattern anvil, with a bit of history behind it, and a fair collection of 'anvil tools' like bottom swages, top fuller, hot chisel and so on...

I guess many hobbies are getting far too expensive now a days and just aren't what they used to be.

Sitting on the Jetty watching the waves roll in is still for free.

Cheers,
BB.

Too true, BB.

I like making stuff out of metal, and the advantage of being able to forge steel, as well as using 'stock removal' metalworking techniques [drilling, grinding, machining] is that it gives you a lot more flexibility. And consequently the ability to make use of all sorts of scrounged bits of steel.

A forge is a lot cheaper to run than even an oxy-LPG torch set these days, too - though I do have one, for brazing and flame cutting work.

hi gadge

looks like your well set upand your anvil looks very old

one can only image the amount of hard work , toil , sweat and things made on it over the years

you have a good collection of tools

I have some blacksmith sledge hammers and a hand powered buffalo blower I got for nothing from a skip

having the internet is a hole new world with utube so much to look at and how to make forges ect

blacksmithing is very poplar now with classes for teaching

but the tools are very dear as you would have found out

I use to know a old german boiler maker blacksmith and he was making a custom steel fence for a

big posh house

he was making by hand gum leaves and gum nuts for decoration to go on the fence on his anvil

it is amazing how in he old days metal was welded together just by heat and hammering

another fun hobby now I just need to find time

thanks for your anvil pictures

Good to see these old skills being kept alive in some quarters in this age of skill eroding automation.
I bet there are things that could be done in the 19th century that have become extinct today.
Keeping what we have left alive is more vital than ever.

G'day folks,
That anvil isn't all that old; it was used by the last soldier settler 'blockie' at Red Cliffs, Vic, to use horses to work his fruit block. He was a Gallipoli veteran, and retired to the house next door to the one I lived in for most of my school years. This was his shoeing anvil.

I have one of those hand blower riveters/farriers forges, too. Picked it up for cheap at a rural clearing sale, because it didn't have a fire tray.

This is it as bought;


The first fire tray I built was full size, using a discarded plough disc for a base;


Then I thought that having a small fire tray would be handy too, for heating smaller tools and such. That one's based on a small cast-iron car brake drum;


I've been pretty lucky with picking up tools as onesie-twosies at swap meets, markets and junk shops.
One advantage I have is some good reference books, including a couple of repros of actual 19th century books on blacksmithing - written just before the trade began to go downhill. It helps a lot if you can recognise a tool's purpose, when you find it in a bin in a junk shop.

My smithing bookshelf:

That looks like a turbocharger. I take it the "snail" is operated by a hand crank to pump air that stirs up the heat.

Yep, it drives a centrifugal fan via a step-up gearbox, so it's not necessary to crank it very hard to get a lot of air blast.
A night shot of it fired up;


Pic without use of the flash;



A pic of the finished tool [a fire rake], that's shown being heated in the pics above;

What is the idea of the valve on the bottom?

It's a dump valve; for dumping any ash, fuel chunks, clinkers [fused ash lumps] etc. that fall down into the air blast pipe, or 'tuyere'.