Dumpster Divin' Prizes or Trash Treasures
This page will eventually document some of my great finds from people's trash.
| I picked up this busted futon before the trash men took it. Some of the breaks were mine so I could get the thing into my pickup w/campershell. Much of the wood looks good enough to use in some of my future projects. |  |
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The finger joints appear to have failed because there was little or no glue in the joint. It appears that sufficient glue was used to joint the boards edge because failure there was in the wood not the edge joint. |
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Was visiting with son and family in their new house in a Chicago suburb. The neighborhood was full of dumpsters and associated homes in progress. Next door to my son's house I found the following tossed wire in a dumpster. There is about 15 lbs of the stuff....mostly 14 and some 12 plus some stranded 10. What, you might say, is this dumba-- going to do with that wire? Well,aside from an occasional wood project, I do some metal work like |
| I rescued this poor chair from someone's trash by the curb. Click on the picture for link to the complete story. |  |
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I dug these two quartersawn oak boards out of a pile of debris at a local yard waste dump. The screws were a little rusty and needed some convincing to come out. The boards are 8 ft long. One is 3.5" wide and the other 5.5" wide. I planed off a bit to take a look at what I had and VIOLA!! |
A guy from the church up the street placed this rocker by their dumpster as I drove by. I had it in my shop/garage in less than 5 minutes. All it needs is some TLC, a new arm and some reglueing. The upholstery looks recent and is okay. It appears to be walnut. |
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The rocker back/splat. There appears to be a lot of handwork on this piece. Carving a new arm will be a fun and interesting experience. I will remove the upholstery and reglue all the joints. One joint, I see, needs some rebuilding. |
| I stopped by a dumpster behind a home decor store that was renovating and picked up a pickup load of stuff early this morning. I'm not sure what it is but it is sure heavy and it's not oak.(tongue in cheek) There must be a dozen pieces of the stuff in my haul and more in that dumpster. I had an appointment at my health club so I had to leave a lot more behind.. I can vision a piece of fine furniture with this stuff. Maybe even another ultimate router table. |
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| I picked up this child's desk next to the curb(2-1-05). The top is a little rough but will clean up well. The top appears to be maple. It includes a nice Papa John's sticker, too. I'll fix the top and paint the legs and it will make a fine tool stand. |  |
Went by some of my favorite dumpsters and picked up a large piece of 14 gauge sheet, some square thinwall and 5 nice drawers from a bureau beside a Salvation Army dumpster. I had to leave the bureau because I already had a
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I stopped by that same dumpster mentioned above behind the home decor store and gathered up these two perfect shopping carts from their dumpster. I see a nice rolling clamp stand or a tool stand or my own personal shopping basket when I go to Walmart. (Mar. 31, 2005) |
| This past Sunday, Apr 10,'05 I picked up this student desk next to that same dumpster up the street, behind the church, I mentioned above. They had also trossed a couch, a couple of metal legged chairs, a broken lamp and some other stuff. I got this table early in the day but that night about all the rest of the furniture was gone except that couch which, by now, was soaking wet. Just the bottom of two legs needs some plastic pieces to keep from scratching the floor and I think I'll cut a piece of 3/4" birch plywood for a new top. |  |
Click Here to Go to My Other Dumpster and Garage Sale Finds Page
Click Here to Go Page with Another Dumpster Table