Mens Shed score

[BobL]

Got a call from a small local hardware store - would your mens shed like some free bolts and nuts.

Drive around to take a look and there was this whole wall of bulk boxes of imperial coach bolts, galvanised hex/cup head bolts from 3/16" up to 1/2" diam, and 1" up to 10" long.
Plus some brass screws and other old school hinges, closures and clasps.

Over a ton's worth of stuff - hate to think what it all cost.

I thought the hardware might have been closing down but turns out they're moving from bulk to packet style quantities as it takes up less space.

[Handyjack]

Good score.
I bet in five years time the Men's Shed will still have a lot of this still in stock unless some of it gets used in art work.

[BobL]

Good score.
I bet in five years time the Men's Shed will still have a lot of this still in stock unless some of it gets used in art work.

My thoughts exactly, although we do have a talented welder who does make the occasional art piece from nuts and bolts.

[dai sensei]

Makes you wonder why they didn't just re-package them all.

[BobL]

Makes you wonder why they didn't just re-package them all.

I think he's not even going to bother stocking the longer/bigger sizes.

[John Saxton]

Occasionally you do come across a good deed promoted by someone else...kind of Karma I guess?

Quite some years ago business was relocating back to the Eastern States from here in WA,as I had done a lot of business his way over time he handballed all the material he couldn't be bothered re-packing for shipment back over yonder.
As a consequence of his generosity I still have a lot of brass items (small sized stuff) screws to compliment as well plus a collection of Eastern State timber pen blanks.
The time will come for a clean out therefore someone else will in all likelihood benefit.

There are people out there who are concerned more so with convenience as it was in this case.

Cheers:)

[Mobyturns]

Similar thing happened in Townsville when a local firm was moving shop & wanted to rationalize stock. They offered the club members hundreds of boxes of "slot head" screws in all styles, in stainless, brass, nickel plated etc plus some hardware including 4" stainless butt hinges etc. Nice pickup if you don't mind using slot heads.

[fenderbelly]

Got a call from a small local hardware store - would your mens shed like some free bolts and nuts.

Drive around to take a look and there was this whole wall of bulk boxes of imperial coach bolts, galvanised hex/cup head bolts from 3/16" up to 1/2" diam, and 1" up to 10" long.
Plus some brass screws and other old school hinges, closures and clasps.

Over a ton's worth of stuff - hate to think what it all cost.

I thought the hardware might have been closing down but turns out they're moving from bulk to packet style quantities as it takes up less space.

lucky men's shed

[Handyjack]

"Nice pickup if you don't mind using slot heads." - Mobyturns

Slot head screws & square nuts - essential for heritage restorations.

[Smarty90]

Need to plan some projects with the hardware, like outdoor furniture to fund other goodies for the shed Bob!

[BobL]

Need to plan some projects with the hardware, like outdoor furniture to fund other goodies for the shed Bob!

Yeah but I'm gonna leave that to the other members.
I'm primarily on pick up and fix up, or mods duties.

[clear out]

You have to be selective with what you fill a community space like a Men’s shed with.
One of the founders of the local shed has filled the building with gifts over the past few years.
Its got to the situation where the people trying to use the building to make stuff have thrown out a lot of it.
This of course has not gone down well with Mr Bin Rat.
He did save Usyd about 20 skips from Civil Eng.
He’s now not speaking to those who have removed some of the treasures.
I personally have well and truly proved the proverb ‘Stuff expands to fill the space available’.
My own backyard shed which is 2400 square feet plus annex was chockers.
All good stuff but after tripping over something for a year you need to ask, ‘Will I ever use this’?
Dont get me started about letting mates move ‘some’ stuff in!
H.

[BobL]

I agree about the over generosity of folks to donate crap to mens sheds.

At our shed someone donated over 200 pieces of warped 50 x 100 x 1.5 m lengths of undressed pine. I suggested it be taken to the tip but a member said I'll fix it. He corralled a couple of other members to help him and the next thing I see is they are putting it all through the thicknesser and we end up with 200+ pieces of 45 x 90 x 1.5m lengths of warped dressed pine. This is still taking up space in our storage container as no one wants to use it.

Because I have a van I often get asked to "Go pick up . . . . . " 4 out of 5 times I just don't pick the stuff up. Sometimes I pick it up and take it straight to the rubbish transfer station One time a "little old lady" called and said she was having a new pergola erected and did we want wood from the old one. When we turned up it was clear she wanted us to take take the pergola down and then take it away hoping to save a few $. I think we were taken advantage of as he wood was badly bowed and split. We took it down and that also went to the tip.

We still get the occasional member who joins and then uses the opportunity to off load all their crap - I wanted a condition inserted into the membership rules abut this but it got turned down. Once when I was supervising a bloke turned up with a station wagon full of junk and I politely said no but a week later I saw the same junk clutter up space outside the shed. The bloke had simply waited for me not to be on duty and convinced the nest supervisor to take it.

A few months back a member decided to have a clean out of our wood stash of anything that had nails in it and thankfully got rid of about 1/4rd of the timber but all that useful spec is slowly being filled with stuff. There are lots of other space stories I could related but that will do.

[ian]

I agree about the over generosity of folks to donate crap to mens sheds.

At our shed someone donated over 200 pieces of warped 50 x 100 x 1.5 m lengths of undressed pine. I suggested it be taken to the tip but a member said I'll fix it. He corralled a couple of other members to help him and the next thing I see is they are putting it all through the thicknesser and we end up with 200+ pieces of 45 x 90 x 1.5m lengths of warped dressed pine. This is still taking up space in our storage container as no one wants to use it.

look at the alternate side, it kept a couple of members busy and engaged for a day or so.

What you need to do is encourage him to again engage a couple of the blokes and do the job properly -- you just might end up with 200+ pieces of 30 x 70 x 1500 that are usable. You might also end up with another bloke who can change the blades on the Jointer and Thicky.

[tonzeyd]

its quite disgusting the lengths some people go to, just to save a few bucks or avoid waiting for the next bulk rubbish. Suppose the good thing about the guys donating the stuff to the Men's sheds is they potentially may think they are doing a good deed?? As I always would laugh when going through the freebies section on Gumtree and seeing some of the crap people are giving away, eg +20m tall palm tree still in ground etc.

[woodPixel]

Sounds like the mens shed could do with a pot belly stove for the winter. :rolleyes:

Keep the coffee pot warm! :p

[John Saxton]

its quite disgusting the lengths some people go to, just to save a few bucks or avoid waiting for the next bulk rubbish. Suppose the good thing about the guys donating the stuff to the Men's sheds is they potentially may think they are doing a good deed?? As I always would laugh when going through the freebies section on Gumtree and seeing some of the crap people are giving away, eg +20m tall palm tree still in ground etc.

I offered quite a lot of handtools to the local Men's shed, they however gave me the impression that they did not want anymore hand tools & would on sell them.I have therefore offered them to my nephew cabinet maker who may find a use for them .
I thought on visiting the local Men's shed that perhaps they were more interested in employing electrical energy rather than physical energy ,hence the no desire for any "more" hand tools.

[BobL]

I offered quite a lot of handtools to the local Men's shed, they however gave me the impression that they did not want anymore hand tools & would on sell them.I have therefore offered them to my nephew cabinet maker who may find a use for them .
I thought on visiting the local Men's shed that perhaps they were more interested in employing electrical energy rather than physical energy ,hence the no desire for any "more" hand tools.

We were been given so many hand tools they became a storage problem. Not that many are in what I would call good shape. Some could be repaired but some are beyond repair, e.g. pliers with jaws than don't meet properly. My feeling is the crappy ones should be given away or tossed. A few years back we were given 20 sets of decent hand tools from a prison. A number of these have ended up being donated to a womens prison. We gave some to a primary school and a few have been sold but we still have too many crappy ones and not enough good ones.

[Sawdust Maker]

Decent handtools are rarely given to the shed I'm in. Planes are rare, braces are common (but very few bits for some reason)
blunt rusty unsalvageable chisels are also pretty common

and the poorer quality electric tools