Barn Finds?

"john" wrote

Years ago, one of my Scouts' dads was in the business of buying bankrupt business inventory. He called me one day to see if I was interested in forty pallets of welding rods. Next time I saw him, I asked what was the secret of his massive buying and selling was. He said to know the value of the equipment, and to have it sold before you ever buy it.

Steve

Many a buyer has been stuck with a HazMat cleanup bill after they unknowingly bought property that contained undisclosed goodies.

Steve

Right -

And then a car comes down the drive - local Fed Police. A hasmat / drug runner / stolen car ring / .... just busted with you in charge.

Mart> Joe AutoDrill wrote:

My problem is that I buy it and keep it rather than rolling it over for a profit. I got a bunch of stuff lying around that should go out the door. I bought some welding rods myself not to long ago. 160 lbs. of cast iron welding rods for a buck a pound. With all the nickel in that rod they would scrap out at a lot more than what I paid for them.

John

Talking of which, I had a friend who was a macinery dealer here in the UK. Called me back some 20 yrs ago, to say there was a holloware repairer did hotel silver ware stuff, gone bankrupt. Would I like to come with him to look? As im a silversmith, naturally I said yes. there was lots of stuff, in a hell of a mess, he bought the big fly? press? as we call them here, and I had some bottles of mercury cyanide quicking fluid. And some press tools. I broke into a back room which had been used as the outletofthe polishing vacumn unit. It was some 18in deep in fluff and lemels everwhere. there were all sorts of obscure shapes there so I arranged to borrow the key to the place for a day to have a search through. I dug out of that room the following, 1 drawbench complete some 12ft long circa 1850 2 handled cast iron reduction gear driven

4 large draw plates some 12in by 4in by 1 in thick. for round oval triangular and square.wire 2 silversmiths "T" stakes weight 1.5cwt each circa 1750 to 1800. 7 large holloware forming dollies circa 1850 weight 50 lbs each. 1 mahogany hexagonal barreling setup on brass plummer blocks. 1 wooden bench some 4ft wide and 12ft long. weight some 5cwt. made from pitch pine. Paid my friend some $100.00 sterling eqivalent for the lot.

Got a it all out and loaded on my plant trailer. Hauled it back and cleaned it up. The tallow all around the draw plate end yeilded 6 oz of silver shards! The "T" stakes were wrought iron with crucible steel tops fire welded thereon.Beautifully made. The better one id value today at $1000.00. Never seen another so fine anywhere. use it all, all.the time. This "T"stake nearly killed me tho, I was setting up my demo workshop at the Dorset Steam fair, a 250,000 visitor over 5 days event, had the t stake along a wall, was in a hurry bent down to pick up something and hit my forehead on the round pointedend!!. Had a 1/4 in depression fracture of my skull. knocked me out. Went to the medical unit for a check up , couldnt do anything at the time. Said im to come back if i felt ill!!. Needless to say I was betterin half an hour . That was some 20 yrs ago. and the mark in my head is still there!!.

"John" wrote

Years ago I would get notifications of GSA auctions at the Nevada Test site. I got several pallets of welding cable for CHEAP. It took two pickups to haul it home. I made several leads for myself, then sold the rest. I made out good. But there were other things over the years that never made it out of my yard except on the back of a scrap truck.

Steve

MillMaster or MasterMill?

Gunner, 1-22 Mastermill, 016A Mill, 3-Z pantograph

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

That would certainly be my dream. To have all the room in the world even if I only ever used 10% of it at one time.

But I bet it would be full in three years ................

Steve