Stuff for FREE
went to the dump last night to throw out some cardboard, and as normal, i had a wee look in at the 'electrical equipment' bit...i once found an almost brand new Dyson, the same model as mine, it was broke but i canabilised it for about £60 worth of bits mine needed, desperately.

Anyway, i saw the speaker cable bolts that indicated there was reasonably hi-spec amplifier. I went over and checked and it was actually Kenwood AV amplifier, exactly the same model i had bought 15 years ago. Although the one i had bought had long since perished. This one is actually better spec and is practically brand new looking. Right beside it are 2 surround speakers, kenwood also, EXACTLY the same ones i purchased when i bought the kenwood amp, AND i am still using them in my garage...£120 i paid for them...The pair i have just found, like the amp, look brand new. A spooky, but very welcome co-incidence.

Brought them home, wired them up, and they work perfectly. SO the question is, have you found some cracking stuff, or even chucked out some good items that didn't really deserve it?


*reaches for croissant and coffee*

/smug
(Cancer Joy was short lived, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 9:29, 37 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

My local dump, sorry, "Recycling centre" stop people from removing items
When my grandfather died and we cleared his house, we had to throw out electrical items that were probably museum pieces, a photocopier from the 60's and various obsolete music systems. I'm sure they did have a value to someone but I didnt have the time or the inclination to sort it out.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 9:36, Reply)

photos because it did happen


the thing on top of the amp is some bullshit 'centre speaker' type thing that sounds wank.
(Cancer Joy was short lived, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 9:43, Reply)

My girlfriend's Dad was having a tidy-out,
And found "an old sword".
Asked if I wanted it, or it'd be chucked out.
Turns out that it's a proper Matador sword, for killing bulls!
( Cawl, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 9:46, Reply)

Swords
Gotta love 'em. As you may recall I have several - and then there's the sword in the Edinburgh military museum donated by my grandfather...

I want an antique samurai sword more than I want most things, and I'm a big wanter....


YES, A BIG WANTER.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 9:51, Reply)

Yeah,
Swords are awesome!
And yes, you are indeed a big wanter.
( Cawl, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:07, Reply)

I inherited a cavalry sword and an air rifle
when I say "inherited", I mean "took before my idiot relatives could get their grubby little mits on them".

Does owning a sword and a rifle make me feel like a big man. Yes. Yes it does.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:12, Reply)

That's the best kind of
"method of inheritance".

I got a green Fedora and a Nazi fencing-sword that way.
( Cawl, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:16, Reply)

Nazi fencing sword, eh?
Ever seen those SS ceremonial ones? They're beautiful (in a non-PC way).
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:18, Reply)

It's not pretty at all, this one,
It's a Glockenschläger, one of the ones used for getting duelling scars by German officers.
( Cawl, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:21, Reply)

the name alone
is FUCKING COOL.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:28, Reply)

We SHOULD have the sword that comes with the Iron Cross
but my great-granny threw it into the Rhine when the Nazis came knocking, as Naughty Jews weren't allowed to have weapons, not even ceremonial swords.

We've even lost the medal, too :(
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:32, Reply)

I like that story though,
Damn those Nazis!
( Cawl, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:35, Reply)

I love that story. Apparently I look like my great-granny.
She was called Nelly.

I don't think there's any other interesting stories. Great-grandaddy won the Iron Cross for fighting while wounded on the Somme (I think), then got put into a workcamp, got out on a British visa, and got thrown into an alien camp here.

My grandaddy wanted to be a doctor, but his mother told him Israel had too many doctors, so he should become a horticulturist instead, as that was more important.
So he did.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:39, Reply)

That's pretty cool!
I like stories like that.
( Cawl, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:50, Reply)

My Great Grandad also
won the Iron Cross in WW1!

We don't have it though :(
(Himjim died a little more inside on, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:55, Reply)

Yeah?
How does the whole American thing work into that story then?
( Cawl, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:56, Reply)

None of the family are actually American
I was just born over there.
(Himjim died a little more inside on, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 11:03, Reply)

Ah right,
Kinda threw me trying to work that out!
( Cawl, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 11:05, Reply)

Gutted
We have WW1 cavalry spurs, a load of Nazi money looted by my grandfather, various other souvenirs, but possibly my favourite is the silk map of the French/German borders that was sewn into my grandfather's coat when he parachuted into the area, complete with dotted line showing escape route and massive bloodstain from where he was caught upon landing and had his throat slashed before escaping.

Exciting stuff...it is to me, anyhow.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:47, Reply)

That's exciting stuff to anyone!
My Grandad got his face blown up when he was training for the Black Watch.
The instructor was throwing 5-second grenades around them as they were doing an assault course, and there was a 3-second grenade in the box. Killed two guys, mangled my Grandad's face. He spent the war in hospital, growing his skin back.
( Cawl, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:52, Reply)

My grandfather was a general by the end of the war
and his father was a general before him.

He was one of the earlier casualties of WW1, apparently the order was given to go forward so he hopped up out of the trench armed with nothing but a swagger cane and was instantly shot to bits - he survived only because at the stage they had very few injured - six months later he'd have been left to die.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 11:00, Reply)

Sure beats shooting yourself in the foot.
Painful, though.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 11:11, Reply)

All things considered
I think I'd prefer being shot in the foot.

MUCH prefer.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 11:28, Reply)

i saw a great documentary
the other week about the pioneering plastic surgeon Archibald_McIndoe.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_McIndoe

There were some horrific injuries and even more bizarre fixes, like these 'skin tubes' or Pedicles that the soldiers were grafting on themselves, where they would cut a strip of skin from say their leg, but not cut it completely off, turn it round and attach the other end to another part of their body. Much in the same way a leech might move up your body. Until it got to the place where it was required.

One guy got a new nose from the skin on his arm....as arms have hair, he has to shave his nose every few days.

Much like this handsome fellow


(Cancer Joy was short lived, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 11:28, Reply)

Yeah,
I went to a free exhibition about "Wartime Medicine" at the Wellcome Trust Museum, had a big section about this stuff, really interesting!

They had a huge number of burns victims to hone their skills on, due to the quantities of pilots getting fuel on them.
( Cawl, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 11:41, Reply)

I furnished my entire house
with second-hand stuff. When I moved to Japan, my company gave me a cash allowance for furniture and moving expenses, so I thought "fuck that, I'd rather have the money".

I ended up spending 1/16th of the total amount I'd been given, mostly on transport costs. I fucking love craigslist out here, it's always chock full of people moving home who need to give their things away for free, because you have to pay for large domestic rubbish disposal in Japan.
( chart cat has an itch, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 9:57, Reply)

so,
what was the item that generated the most amount of smugness/glee?
(Cancer Joy was short lived, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:04, Reply)

Auto-Colon 9000
Turbo-Jet Bidet.
( Cawl, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:07, Reply)

Probably my sofa
It was only 6 months old but the couple who bought it (for about a grand in pounds) needed to fly home in a hurry. It's sumptuous white leather, super comfy and I paid the frankly diabolical sum of ten quid for taking it off their hands and getting it from A to B.

I pretty much looted their apartment actually.
( chart cat has an itch, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 11:05, Reply)

i don't tend to throw stuff away that still works
if it doesn't get taken through freecycle it usually ends up in the loft

i haven't had many lucky finds as the missus won't let me go looking
( mictoboy shitting in your cunt since, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:12, Reply)

bloody women
what do they know about the skills and the joys of Binraking. A much maligned past time, but in these times of need and despair, a perfectly acceptable pastime.

Like e-bay for the unashamed and impoverished.
(Cancer Joy was short lived, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:18, Reply)

In Manchester it's called 'tatting'
according to my brother, who lived out of skips (and probably in them) for some years.

To this day he likes nothing more than rescuing an essentially sound but knackered bit of old furniture and making it good again.

The tight-fisted wanker...
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:20, Reply)

shirley you mean
'tight fisted wanter'?

skips, fucking brilliant, like a mobile gumtree. what one neighbour pops in, another retrieves and so on. Recycling and poverty ftw.
(Cancer Joy was short lived, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:25, Reply)

Exactly!
I fully intend to make myself a computer desk out of skip-junk when I move at the weekend.
( Cawl, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:26, Reply)

I missed a trick there eh?
Still not listened to that music yet....still on my list....just below 'do the week-old washing-up that is currently breeding in my sink', to give you an idea of the kind of efficiency levels you are dealing with here...
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:27, Reply)

A mate found a lawnmower in the dump
A good petrol one at that. All it needed was a throttle cable and lever.

I got the required parts for a tenner, fixed it up and gave it to my dad. He's been cutting his grass with it for years now.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:38, Reply)

My dad got a bike.
He saw someone about to throw it in the skip and asked what was wrong with it.

"Puncture" was the reply.

My dad, charitably, offered to take the machine off his hands.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 2 Sep 2009, 10:57, Reply)