Trash collection

Hey Lain, I wondered if i'm the only one who collects trash on this board, but it seems there are others like me. That got me thinking. What do you see as trash, which is worth collecting? is it anything that piques your interest, like funny rocks or pieces of wood, or are you looking for specific stuff? Maybe you collect ball bearings, or marbles, or perhaps you look for metal scraps, that remind you of something? Maybe your collecting has a practical purpose, like picking up every piece of scrap electronics on your way, to restore it later, or maybe to extract components from it. Personally, i collect trash that piques my interest, and then i just pile it up and think about what to do with it. Sometimes i just pile it up, to see what it looks like in one place. I'm especially fond of the small bearings from spray cans, but this new years eve brought something different to my attention: Blank casings. People have been shooting with blank guns a lot around here. So today i just grabbed a plastic bag and collected as much as i could find. Does anyone have an idea what to do with those? They do look pretty interesting.

I live in trash, i collect almost everything now, father has been doing this for years. My life is a rats nets like you wouldnt believe.

>>8071 Do you have any pics you're comfortable sharing?

Lithium batteries from public battery recycle boxes. People sometimes drop fully functioning power banks and power adapters when they upgrade their consumption e-devices. Rich neighborhoods produce higher quality stuff. Some batteries might seem dead to their interfacing hardware when they fall below certain level, but actually could be restored to normal condition with an adjustable voltage power supply. A power bank can have a dead controller board, but healthy battery inside. You can harvest single use vapes for extruded aluminum shells as casing for your future projects, they also seem to come with lithium batteries soldered inside, this is insanely wasteful. I'm not low life enough to dive for CFLs and LED circuits, but who knows what future brings.

>>8070 I love collecting and take photos of rusty stuff. Everything from buckets to cars. Everything that has rust on it :)

>>8085 love the vape harvesting. These single-use vapes seemed extremely wasteful to me, but i never bought one to take it apart. Now i know that they are, indeed, extremely wasteful. Maybe adapt those for using AA batteries? >>8086 Rust IS cool. I prefer patina on steel tools and cooking ware, tho. Got a nice pan and a heavy old cleaver with some good patina on it.

>>8070 Yeah, absolutely. For years i have collected old, mostly working motherboards, HDDs, CPUs; i Have stuff from pentium I all the way to around 2013. It's sad for me because i would love to see most of these things being used (for me, "things are made to be used"), but most of what i have would only be useful for someone that knew how to build a minimal Linux-based OS or similar, and here there's none of that, so these nice parts will have to go :( i was considering maybe taking every component i can from these motherboards but i don't know, time is a valuable resource (it takes time to rescue components) and i may never use the components anyways.

lain I hope you didnt collect those 9mm PAK blank cartridges from somewhere wet or dirty. But if you did, please use caution if you shoot them. I collect electronics and outdoor equipment. I have a number of backpacks and other tactical gear that I have gathered throughout the years. Everything from gun holsters to ammunition cans, bows, tents, and knives. Another thing I like to dumpster dive for is books, because I feel so bad about valuable information being thrown out. On the other hand, I have too many books that I'll never read, and I can find updated information on the internet for most of them anyway. I also used to go to thrift shops around military bases and surplus stores, because they have interesting things for very cheap. Unfortunately, I am trying to downsize because I would consider myself on the verge of being a hoarder and I want to turn back before it gets too late.

I started collecting glass bottles because recycling stopped in my area. After some years a new recycling program is here but I haven't had chance yet to track down a dropoff site and bring it. I started collecting aluminium cans wanting to attempt to melt them down to a sculpture or something but lack the tools to do so and was pressured into getting rid of most of them which I sold to a scrap metal place. As a kid I started a collection of broken electronics because I thought circuit boards looked cool but I can't find my old collection to harvest for parts to start getting into circtuit building properly. Pretty much everything I hoard is either for environmental or would be hobby reasons I never quite get to. Oh and I also somewhere around missing a collection of those old AOL installation CDs everyone used to get in the mail which I may use for some sort of craft project. Ah yeah and beer bottle caps is another collection I keep.

>>8100 don't worry, those are spent casings. Besides, i don't even have a blank gun to begin with. About books: I don't buy or collect physical books for actual information, only novels and other such works of fiction. If i need informational books, i torrent or download them, piracy basically, because Information should be shared for the betterment of everyone. Everyone should be able to learn and better themselves. If you can't read them all, sell those that are less relevant to you. Good way to turn "trash" into cash. The hoarder thing: try to sell stuff you don't want. Flea markets are a great place to get rid of stuff like that. They're also a great way to meet some people who're equally interested in getting their hands on the old stuff, be it tech, tools or equipment. >>8101 i have the same pain with not having equipment for melting down stuff. I got a drill press and a bench grinder, and also a good amount of tools, but i just cannot get my hands on an old oil drum to build a furnace for melting down steel and copper scrap. Would love to build stuff, but buying steel and aluminum is so darn expensive, i think i'll rather scavenge scrapyards for scrap steel.

>>8106 I considered just making a little DIY forge but this is molten metal we are talking about here which I have worked with soft metals before but Id be concerned of the forge exploding from an air bubble in it or a crack. A blow torch id quickly go through gas going that route doing little quantities at a time so that may potentially get pricey and I don't own a blow torch. The all the DIY methods for making moulds that don't involve special materials seem to be lacking in quality of results to me or outright dangerous such as using Styrofoam. So I just keep adding to mountain of junk i want to do stuff with and never do because I either lack resources or enough motivation to act on impulse. I'm almost just a hoarder at this point.

>>8111 >this is molten metal we're talking about I'm totally sympathetic to your apprehension, but I do think you're maybe a bit over estimating the danger, its not too bad if you're careful and its not too hard either. This guy has a lot of cool projects, worth checking out. http://backyardmetalcasting.com/ What do you want to cast ? Ingots ? W40K figurines ? Jewlery ? First post in this thread from me so I'll throw in my 2 bits: I collect a lot of things, mostly stuff that seems like I'm likely gonna use it. Glassware, saftey goggles, mechanical keyboards, microwaves, the odd television, books and whatnaught. You know. I try to use the things I pick up and only pick up things I'm going to use/scavenge out of (well, sometimes I pick them up and thrown em in the trash, cause litter is soykaf but thats another discussion). Its certainly a fun hobby, though mostly as a suppliment to my other more real hobbies.

>>8126 >What do you want to cast ? I haven't really had a very clear idea of what I want to make. Ive made jewellery years back but also have thought of making something like ornate lighter cases and replicas of ancient ritual objects.

>>8128 Have a science project on top of the metalworking: try to build a hydrolysis cell to produce hydrogen and oxygen. Pressurise the gases, and build a small gas torch, and there you have all the means to melt copper, gold, silver, among others, by utilising an oxyhydrogen flame. I plan on building one myself, but for other purposes. Chlorates are impossible to come by where I'm at, so the only thing left is to make it yourself.

That hits home. Last week I found nice bearing and took it. Neat thing I thought. I guess this is beyond my GFs comprehension, but I really enjoy this kind of stuff. I feel you lain

any time I see metal scraps or cool looking rocks I take em. I have a collection of metal of which 90% I have no idea the purpose. one time I found this metal stick that looks just like a magic wand. I even thought it was wooden but on closer inspection it's metal. I was on my bike at a traffic light waving it in rhythm pretending like I was controlling the cars, and then like 3 people honked at me angrily and 1 guy tried to hit me. I have learned even pretend magic is very frowned upon.

>>8220 >I was on my bike at a traffic light waving it in rhythm pretending like I was controlling the cars, and then like 3 people honked at me angrily and 1 guy tried to hit me. NPCs have been hard-wired to suppress and dissuade any attempt to control the low-frequency waves that exist around all of us. Be careful and use some protection magic next time, lainon.

>>8221 so should I wave a metal stick around like a fairy with a crucifix necklace or something?

>>8130 I've tried electrolysis but the anode oxidises away so fast it wasn't really practical. Have you found anything durable you can use?