Thread: Not a brag on my part but a real what the...

Between 2011 and 2015 I scored a bunch of free stuff, including a MW lathe, 6" belt sander, 3 1HP grinders, hydraulic press, 3HP DC, 2 2HP DCs, Woodfast Metal cutting bandsaw, 14" Dewalt radial arm saw, Woodfast WW bandsaw, and a Woodfast combination machine. I kept the first 3 items and gave the rest away to various friends and mens sheds. Except for the press and the 2HP DCs they were all 3 phase. I converted the MW lathe, the belt sander and grinders to run on 240V VFDs. I've also been offered other stuff but haven't taken up the offer as I have no room left in my shed. Have to admit though, if I was offered a Vicmarc I would somehow find a place for it.

If you have a big shed, a flattop ute, lifting gear and the knowledge of how to use it you’d be amazed at what is on offer.

Don’t ask me how I know.

Better go now, picking up a 1200 long magnabend today which I’ll be taking up to the mate in M’bah on the next trip north. Hope he can fit it in next to the Myford metal lathe he was given last year.
I’m certainly not tellin what I have personally scored over the past ten years
H.

Quite normal, plenty of stuff gets offered to me regularly.

In ~2015 I was offered a 3 wheel metal cutting bandsaw with a 30" throat that weighed over half a ton. Problem was getting it out of the building as it would not fit through the only door , so it needed to be dismantled.

Originally Posted by clear out

If you have a big shed, a flattop ute, lifting gear and the knowledge of how to use it you’d be amazed at what is on offer.

Don’t ask me how I know.

Better go now, picking up a 1200 long magnabend today which I’ll be taking up to the mate in M’bah on the next trip north. Hope he can fit it in next to the Myford metal lathe he was given last year.
I’m certainly not tellin what I have personally scored over the past ten years
H.

I have all those things and never get offered anything 😩

Cheers Andrew

I must know the wrong people!

Originally Posted by AJ.

I have all those things and never get offered anything 😩

Cheers Andrew

As soon as you get rid of those you will be offered something😀

I have a mate who was a Work Cover Inspector. They had received a complaint about a sheltered workshop having woodwork machinery that the complainant considered dangerious for inexperienced, unskilled operators. My mate was in agreement and took it upon himself to find them another, safer line of manufacture. The stuff had to go. They asked if he knew anybody that would be interested in removing it all and he thought of me. I offered to pay but they said no and were just happy to see it off the premises. A new workshop was born.

Originally Posted by rustynail

I have a mate who was a Work Cover Inspector. They had received a complaint about a sheltered workshop having woodwork machinery that the complainant considered dangerious for inexperienced, unskilled operators. My mate was in agreement and took it upon himself to find them another, safer line of manufacture. The stuff had to go. They asked if he knew anybody that would be interested in removing it all and he thought of me. I offered to pay but they said no and were just happy to see it off the premises. A new workshop was born.

Not free but it still sounds very familiar.
Many moons ago one of my relatives worked as a case manager for people undergoing various mental health and addiction treatments and he contacted me about the following.

One of the smaller private rehab places he was working with had decided to set up a wood workshop as part of their therapy process. A patient with a supposed woodie interest found out about this and convinced a=n administrator of the facility that he was capable of setting up the workshop so the administrator applied for funding and handed over a considerable amount of money to this patient who without any sort of approval process went and bought a bunch of woodie stuff including power and hand tools, and of all things the biggest commercial chainsaw available plus a smaller chainsaw and large bunch of timber milling accessories. The patient immediately used the smaller chainsaws to cut up several trailer loads of firewood for his own use, and then disappeared

No woodwork facility was ever set up, the tools and gear sat unused in a store room for months when the old rehab manager moved on and when a new manager arrived eventually found out and asked about the wood work facility. My relative, who had also in a past life worked as a cabinet maker and also as an OT assistant in wood craft sessions with mental health patients at a local hospital, was called in and asked to evaluate the gear and he subsequently called me in. We agreed the chainsaws were a serious OHS risk and reported back to management. When management heard about the chainsaws they went ballistic and wanted them disposed of immediately and were prepared to just give them to me but I offered to pay and we settled on just little over half the RRP. They were very happy to see them go.

gear.jpg

I sold the Chainsaw mill (I already had 3 mills) and the two pairs of chaps all for half the RRP and kept the rest of the gear.
I turned the big (122cc) chainsaw into a 1.5m wide cut chainsaw mill - and it brings a smile to my dial every time I use it.
That mill has cut up over 100 logs.
880bigBILMill.jpg

I also made a beam milling attachment for the smaller (72cc) chainsaw and converted it to run a Lopro chain - cuts a smaller kerf with less load on engine.
cutting.jpg