Unusual gifts

Ignoramus23199 fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Wait for the bill, IG!

I've been "gifted" electronics hardware, only to get a bill later. I both refused to pay, AND refused to send the stuff back... and never got another call.

Lloyd

A bill would be unlikely, given that the company giving the pallet jacks had to vacate their premises by 4pm today.

i

"Ignoramus23199" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

My neighbors give me every broken tool they don't want to bother with. My parents did too, such as a car whose only problem was rear toe-in from radius rods bent by a dumb mechanic who used them as jacking points. $15 at a junkyard fixed it.

There were court decisions on that some years back, after a company billed for unsolicited merchandise it was sending out.

-jsw

Very nice story!

Among many other things I have been given was a snow blower that had lost it's wheel drive -- due to the chain link being installed bachwards and the clip falling off. $6 repair.

I was recently given a John Deere 175 lawn tractor - had a blown crankcase gasket (Kawasaki) and, it turns out, a flakey ignition coil (JD is REALLY proud of their parts - $99.60 plus tax) It needs a bit of paint, 2 front tires, and a new seat (purchased yesterday at TSC at

60% off - so about $70.00) -Should be able to turn it over for a bit of a profit.

A series 2 Pontiac Firefly Turbo ended up in my posession too - not sure what I'll end up doing with it - but it will be a while 'till I finish some other more important projects - like getting the plane in the air. Speaking of which, I was given most of a spare engine for it as well.

My JD 317 has a Harley coil ... I bought used for 25 bucks . Seems people want to give me chain saws . 2 of my 3 were gifts , and 2 spare powerheads came as gifts . I also passed one (complete saw) on to a neighbor who needed one . A guy I useta do some machine shop work for gave me a bunch of scrap metal when he "cleaned out" his shop . Most of it got recycled for cash .

Yes - my Partner saw was also a "gift" as well as my 1957 Lawn King rotary mower and 2 laptop computers - as well as my last few cell phones (including all but my current blackberry Z10 - and I have a spare Z10 that was given to me with a dead screen - which I had replaced.

All kinds of other neat stuff too over the years.

Gunner, you never disappoint! Awesome story! I bet you got some nickel rod there, also...

Cool!

I was given a "dead" golf cart. It took almost $6 to fix it and I sold it for $950, then gave the gifter a Benji for the trouble. A 1-foot battery cable was the culprit, preventing the charger from working, too. I had started to clean the battery terminals when I found it, and couldn't stop chuckling.

Like many of us here, I'm a scrounge^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcollector of odd and sundry fascinating items. and people give lots of broken (or working surplus) items to me. Most are quickly repairable, like mowers, vacuums, toaster ovens, and drill motors.

There's some subtle engineering in those things to keep the cost down. I was initially puzzled by the relay in the charger that only energizes the output when connected to a battery. The charger wasn't working because the capacitor in the tank circuit of the transformer was bad, a problem that a DVM doesn't show.

Fortunately I learned about ferroresonant and magnetic amplifier circuits in the Army.

-jsw

Very nice story, and I bet it was fun to work on.

From the Mirriam Webster Dictionary: gift verb

: to present (someone) with a gift

Full Definition of GIFT

transitive verb

1

: to endow with some power, quality, or attribute

2

: present

So yes, it IS acceptable to use gift as a verb - although it has been in uncommon use as such for over 500 years.

Gunner Asch on Fri, 26 Jun 2015 23:20:46 -0700 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

I am not a pack rat. I'm, um, err "A rodent of acquisition and unusual retention", yeah, that's the ticket.

Talking with guys at work - the company is trying to cut costs, which is normal, and one of the issues is "materials". As in Part A needs 2/3 of a panel, leaving a big chunk as "fall down"/ scrap. Part B can be made of that "scrap" - but how do we track said "scrap"? (and how do we get the virtual inventory [what the computer has computed we have] and the actual inventory [what is actually on pallets] to reconcile? Not to mention separating the virtual whole panels which are actually two or more real pieces, from the non-existing real pieces which the computer scrapped a long time ago. And I keep in mind my Dad's story of asking if the tulip bulb farmer parishioner had a few spares. "No problem" he is told, and a few days later a full gunny sack of tulip bulbs ("second") is left at the manse. Obviously, they had a difference in what constitutes A few" bulbs.

In the mean time, I keep telling myself "Your carport is already full."

-- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."

What? 31st class? I'm offended.

Catruckman hasn't come by so far, so... I need to have you box that up and send it. Maybe to my sister's house, half the distance, so I can afford it. It's too costly to drive down again soon. I'll be saving up for that for maybe next year, though. (saving my quarters) I damned well want to get out to the long range with you, mon. (Hmm, have to save some quarters for ammo, too.)

Yeah, I soaked the XL set of linesman's pliers and put them into use on some fencing. And I used some of the soldering accessories, wick, and such. Um, I've used 3 of the files and one of the rasps. Two of the 3# hammers are my new friends. They have longer handles than the little drilling hammers I've been using. One is a good cement breaker. I've needed things out of the missing bucket 4 or 5 times so far. (Ohio brushes, welding rod, silver solder, welding sleeves)

Let's see, once I have time, I'll:

1) refurb the table saw on its own little rolling bench under the Green Monster (which is my first and main goal once I semi-retire.) 2) take the spare Briggs V-twin down to Glenn's so we can fab up a drive mount for the engine so it can power the Scott gen/welder. I also want to mount up a water pump to it, so these will be quick change mounts. 3) find a spline chisel to fit the jack hammer you sent home with me.

My first SS check arrives in October, so I won't have to beat myself up working as many hours each week to survive from then on.

Mine was a simple open circuit in the battery system, one cable end eaten away and hanging loose out in the air, 1/4" from Nirvana.

I still wish I'd spent more time as an electronics tech. 3 years plus Coleman College wasn't enough to truly know much of the field, by any means. But I bailed from the cubicles and what I felt may be an overpowering corporate mentality which came about when the original company was taken over by a global giant, SKF. They closed the Carlsbad, CA plant and wanted all of us to drive down to Clairemont Mesa (upper Sandy Eggo) to work, adding 2+ hours to my commute time daily for no extra pay. 17 minutes each way wasn't bad.

HA!

You'll be working for a boss who sees through all your excuses.

-jsw, sore and tired

OK, that's better. I thought I was that far down the scale from #1. You're forgiven.

Boy, howdy. I just opened the box and there wasn't a jack hammer in it. There was a set of OA torch regs, lines (short/old), a 0 tip, and a cutting torch in there. Surprise, surprise!

I can make up to $1,310/mo continuing to work, but I'll collect my previously sequestered funds in the interim. Y'know, before they are shut off so CONgress can steal the funds for their own salaries? Something to consider for yourself. If you make too much money in a given month, they just withhold that month's SS check. I'm going to cut things back so I don't continue to ache horribly all the time.

I'm gettin' on up into the Metal Years. I have gold in my teeth, silver in my hair, and lead in my ass.

Yabbut, he's smarter. He is passing on the larger jobs, like putting together 156 pieces of heavy lumber into a deck. He's going to start accepting only picture hanging, painting (subbing out the prep work), pressure washing (new ramps for the truck, pulley to run it up/down), putting new hinges on cabinet doors, etc. He did his last deck job last month and his last fence last week.

You, too?