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Stuff we need for our hobby

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the tinker

Cruisin' on my Bluebird
I stop at garages and estate sales a lot. Often times there are several shelves of cans and jars of assorted paints, oils, waxes , you name it. Many times these items are not priced. Really , who will purchase some dirty old partially filled can of gosh knows what? ........I will. Old spray paint especially here up north where it could have been frozen I stay away from unless it looks new. But the other stuff is like gold to me.
Most all these cans, be it bug spray , lawn products, Wd 40 , wax , oil and paint will be gladly given away or sold for practically nothing. I love going into some of the older folks homes. I find products no longer made. Maybe still available but "reformulated" by EPA rules with all the guts taken out of them .... a New And Improved version.
What makes me post this is I just came in from the garage from emptying the contents of 3 cans of WD 40 that had lost their pressure into a glass jar . Actually easier to use for some jobs if one does not want wd. over spray. . Leave a can of Wd40 out in an unheated garage and by winters end it seems to loose pressure. I get this stuff for pennies, or free . If you work on the amount of projects I do and are retired on a limited budget you know how much $$$ you can quickly spend on the "condiments" you need to pursue your hobbies.
Also, when you see those odd boxes of rusty nuts and bolts that everyone passes over stop and look at them.
Those junk boxes are usually a treasure trove of outdated slotted head machine screws that hardware stores no longer carry.
Just my thoughts for today....
 
I also do the same thing. I have 3 storage cabinets completely full of all kinds of condiments.
I can usually buy a complete shelf, garage( All old cans of ???) , or storage cabinet for $5.00 or less.
I bet I have 20 bottles of Roundup weed killer which is like liquid gold around here and I have less than $10 in all of it.
Roundup alone is $20- $45 for a 32oz. bottle.
And it cuts out on weed eating around fences.
JKent
 
I got a can of "crawler killer" spider spray in a box of crap a while back.

now my garage is not only spider free, but after I sprayed it the first time, it was rat free, gopher free, birds, cats, dogs, weeds, crickets, and human free.

One little squirt turned the place into a chamber of death.
 
Empty the cans, use them up and if they're old enough, sell the empties on that auction site. Some folks want vintage cans to display next to their classic car or motorcycle. I sold a couple that had pictures of old cars on them and was surprised at what they went for.
 
I volunteer for the annual "hazardous waste collection" in our town. Every volunteer has a cardboard box off to the side where we put the stuff we wish to salvage. I usually bring home a big box of spray lubricants, grease and other usable items people bring in to get rid of. This year we had 3 different people bring in boat gas tanks filled with old gas and told us to keep the tanks. Glad to oblige!
 
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