Skip Surfing

[Len OchiltreeParticipant @lenochiltree67043]

Whats the best thing you have found in a Skip? 

Snobs need not reply. 

Len.

[neil hpParticipant @neilhp]

I met a guy, a while ago who went skip surfing and built all of his boats from waste timbers and all sorts from what he found in skips…….a good job he made of them too.

I asked him what he did for a living, and he replied,

"Oh, I’m a motorway patrol police officer!"..I eyed him up with some scepticism until I was driving down the motorway a few days later, and there he was sat on one of those little layby perches, we see reserved for "police patrol cars only"

It’s amazing who actually does do it!

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I am not sure about the best thing, but the last was fairly recently, when just down the road I saw some aluminium round trunking from, I dont know, might have been air con or flue liner or summat. It was just the right size, when cut in half and covered with corrugated card to use as aircraft hangers for a WW2 airfield I was knocking up for the lad to play with his Airfix models and soldiers (1:72 scale)   Ashley.

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Good question Len

Sheets of plywood, half used rolls of electrical wire, large offcuts of hardwoods, mahogany stair handrails, perspex, sash window lead counter weights, 10-15-22-28mm copper tube, plastic and steel trunking, rubber door seals, tins of gloss paint, copper-brass-lead sheet offcuts, unopened reams of photocopier paper,

It might sound as though I spend my life hunting through skips but I used to manage large construction sites and its amazing what the sub-contractors and clients employees will throw away. On one occasion when constructing a new office block the clients IT manager asked if they could put a few things into a skip, they came out with 30 computers that were only 3 years old.

Paul

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello chaps on this bright and frosty morn!

I love looking in skips………..they`re always full of good stuff, like Paul has already mentioned!

I found a tin box about 20 years ago, in the factory skip, the Boss had had a clearout at home, full of buttons, old jewellery and foreign coins…………and three gold chains!

The foreign coins were ……..George III silver!

Lucky Bob

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Not exactly skip surfing but I was on my way back from taking the reindeer to the stables and decided to call into the local B&Q and I am so glad that I did because amongst a few other choice bargains in the reduced section was a full mahogany door frame for the grand price of £4.00.

So I now have an amazing two x 2200mm x 200mm x 30mm and one x 1000mm x 200mm x 30mm plus two sets of architrave which, when cut down, will be more than enough to build my 1.5m barrel back speedboat (see design competition) so I am one very happy santa.

Paul

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

The best thing we ever found in a Skip was Akela…………. she didn’t know whether to dib-dib or dob-dob .

[Len OchiltreeParticipant @lenochiltree67043]

[David MeierParticipant @davidmeier28154]

This is a good idea for a thread Len.

I am starting to look at things with new eyes and found lots of useful bits in an old computer and some Venetian blinds that I pulled apart recently. I have started an album called ‘Perks from the skip’. http://www.modelboats.co.uk/albums/member_album.asp?a=2895

 

I would be interested of hearing of any other cunning ideas of uses for scrap stuff in model boat building.

cheers.

David.

[Richard DallParticipant @richarddall80651]

I once got hold of a dead dishwasher. Not only did I get a lot of nuts, bolts and washers in various sizes, there was also a useful number of springs, hose clamps, motor mounting lugs, and specially made parts that I could not name (looked kind of like hooks, plungers, small levers etc.), but which could be adapted to do all sorts of things.

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Not skip surfing again but yesterday I was in sainsburys when I came across a pack of 70 small wood screws, vaired sizes from 3 x 12mm to 4 x 50mm in a sectioned plastic box. for only 24p…………great for scratch building.

 

They also had a super 14v cordless drill for £4.99……YES £4.99….so I bought one as a spare for the workshop thinking that it would be a cheap gutless thing but when I got it home I found it to be a first class tool and the equal of any £50 unit.

 

Paul

[Author]

Posts