Dumpster Crawl

Treasure hunting and upcycling

[dumpstercrawl]

Just finished a little repurposing project.  image 1 Finished bookshelf/cat castle

Image 2 Reclaimed materials 

Image 3,4,5 Progress shots

Image 6 The girls move in

Image 7 A little paint job

Image 8 Cats at play will stop as soon as you get out a camera

Image 9 Looking almost castle like

This project was done at a total cost of $0 using completely reclaimed materials. The wood consisted of a pair of discarded bookshelves, a particle board desktop, folding closet door and various hardware collected while dumpster diving. Image 2 is after the materials have been cleaned and some cuts have been made, that is a very early shot of the project on day one. Still to do is a more castle like paint scheme and a background mural.  There is nothing in this project that wouldn't typically be found by driving around your neighborhood on trash day

[dumpstercrawl]

Humble little direct tv receiver repurposed as a decoy box. These are great for anything that is better out of sight, but you still want to keep in a convenient spot. I've been giving these away for years and I'm now considering monetizing the idea.

‪#‎shelfie‬ ‪#‎decoybox‬ ‪#‎stashbox‬

[dumpstercrawl]

The landlord dropped the lawn service so I was hoping to find a lawnmower before I had to go buy one. Mission accomplished. Not only did I find a easily fixed mower but it is better than I would have purchased! The TV is an older LG missing the speakers, doesn't matter at all if it's hooked up to surround sound. I love this hobby!

[dumpstercrawl]

Just got back from dumpster diving with what I thought was a big pile of stuff to recycle. Turns out the computer I found works great and it's better than any of our other desktops, yay black friday! That was enough to get me stoked but looking at what the vintage Bose pieces I found sell for on Ebay really did it! 1960s era Bose stuff has a market on ebay, who knew :) Also in this picture is a Makita hammer drill that works perfectly(keeping that), and a Shark brand Portable Steam Cleaner that will be going to a new home. All the random electronics get gutted for recycling and turned in to stash boxes. I may be bothered to sell the remotes in an ebay lot. I also got a case of medical feeding tubes, still sealed, ebay fodder as well. The last picture is probably the greatest collection of Vietnamese Karaoke Laserdiscs we will ever see, and a random Lion King LD. 

[dumpstercrawl]

I haven't even went dumpster diving today and already scored a lot of nice stuff. Saw a few boxes in front of the house I found gold at last week and couldn't help stopping and taking a look. Quick inventory of some of the neater stuff...

200mm Crystal Ball

4 Man Tent

Misc. Ammo (38, 357, and 20 gauge)

Games my game wall (Mancala, Playing cards, Poker Chips)

2 boxes of crystal ware and a couple hand painted pieces

I also did a little repurposing project with their old DVD player. This is something I like to do with the steel/plastic cases from old electronics we recycle. I love my new Panasonic branded Stash Box!

[dumpstercrawl]

Seems like a couple garages in my neighborhood got a good cleaning today. This is random stuff I am keeping for myself. The RC cars for the niece and nephews to play with when they are over, the speakers upgraded my office computer, we don't have surround sound in the living room so the Sony receiver will come in handy, and the dish ware is appreciated!

[dumpstercrawl]

I rearranged my office a bit today with the sole idea of creating a workstation made from all dumpster dived materials. This is the finished product. Everything pictured was dived with the exception of the Keyboard and the television remote. The Keyboard was a thrift shop find, it's a nice Dell branded multimedia keyboard that I scored for 5 bucks. The remote was bought new off ebay for 10 bucks.

It's never going to be a gaming setup but it will do fine for media and surfing. Not too bad for a $15 work station!

[dumpstercrawl]

Craziest night of dumpster diving I have ever had, by far, and without the slightest doubt. It almost didn't happen. It was date night and as we were pulling into the house my girl gives in and says she will go with me. So glad we went, all total I got about 8 thousand worth of EXTREMELY easy to unload goods. While driving along in the next neighborhood over from ours I saw this vintage projector, they are not worth anything but I been wanting one to use for a project and maybe the bulb still works! After going through the several boxes that were next to it we finished with a coin collection, 2.5 grams of gold, a WW II era German helmet, and a Disneyland watch. I have no idea how much the watch is worth but any Disney items that say "not for sale" and are 30 years old in mint condition are worth money.

[dumpstercrawl]

Keurig B66 Single Serve Gourmet Coffee & Tea Brewing System

Here we have something I never knew I wanted until I got one. This thing is awesome! Found this little baby while I was out diving the other night and finally got a chance to look at it today. I assume it was tossed because the water reservoir had a crack in it. I  re-molded  the plastic with a little heat(if you look closely you can see a little discoloration in the lower left corner) to fix the drip and it works perfect. 

Odd that most of my nicest stuff comes from diving, just goes to show what an incredibly wasteful society we live in.

[dumpstercrawl]

Some of last night's dive. That's a 40" Samsung LCD that cost nothing to repair and a half hour of my time. It has a nice big scratch on the screen(probably from being tossed out) but definitely worth the price!  In total I found 4 guitars, the real one is broken. The Rockband gear that I have been able to test works perfectly. The drum kit was missing the kick pedal but I had one I dived last week so it is complete and works perfectly. Miscellaneous items from last night include a leather attache case, Playstation 2 parts like memory cards, a/v switcher, rechargeable rumble pack and a card table.

I wish I had a truck, I really would have loved to grab the four poster bed. It was gorgeous and I'm pretty sure my girl would have been excited to walk in and see that instead of all this cheap Chinese/Korean junk ;)

[dumpstercrawl]

I find old televisions just about every night that I go out dumpster diving. This is what happens to the ones we are able to save from the landfills.

Here is an old 42" plasma screen television that weighed a bit over 70 lbs. all of which would have ended up in the landfill. It's been stripped down and the recyclable material saved for the scrap yard(the top pile). All told about 50 lbs of material will be recycled(aluminum, copper, and circuit board). This one is quite old, the newer televisions all but a couple pounds are salvaged. Consider recycling your old electronics, they are a horrible thing to put into landfills.

[dumpstercrawl]

Dumpster dived dresser drawers and medicine cabinet repurposed to make a nice little bookshelf. The drawers and cabinet are anchored to a plywood backing for added stability. All the materials are reclaimed with the exception of the blue paint and a pack of wood screws.

Total cost was $12

[dumpstercrawl]

Brief tutorial on how to make your own home bar from an old projection television. In this case it was a dumpster dived tv that wasn't worth fixing. 1. Start with ugly old television.

2. Strip out all parts that are not a bar.

3. Add parts that are a bar.

4. Throw some paint on the whole thing.

4b. Optionally add some lights

5. Add booze.

6. Add bar stools.

7. Call over some friends(only ones you would want to share your booze with)

Total cost: $23 I purchased the wine glass rails and the top shelf.

Hope this isn't too technical ;)

[dumpstercrawl]

Found this broken 4 panel screen and I was able to make 3 complete panels. I'm thinking it will be medium for an art project eventually.

[dumpstercrawl]

October is Fair Trade Month! Learn more about Fair Trade and count yourself in here: http://fairtradeusa.org/fair-trade-month

[dumpstercrawl]

Haven't been diving much the last couple weeks, just found this image from awhile back.

Yes the Nintendo works. They last forever. $35 on ebay as is.

The XBox may or may not have worked, it was broken down for scrap. Same with the DVRs. With all these hard drive platters I have enough supplies to make another wind chime(super excited). I found a really great table made of Iron and Leaded glass. I actually carried the glass out of the peoples home. They were moving and saw me checking out the chairs that went with the table(didn't take them), came over and offered me the table top. The guy just didn't want to carry it I'm sure, that thing weighed a half a ton at least. It's a really great table though!

[dumpstercrawl]

I love coming home from diving and getting to look up model numbers. 

RCA 36F530T - 36" TruFlat TV(Not pictured) grabbed it only for parts and scrap, almost $50 on ebay, I may try to upcycle the plastic shell later. Emerson 8 Bottle Wine Cooler - Replaced the 30 cent fuse and it seems to work great. It's less than a year old and in perfect shape. They sell for $75 used on ebay but I'm keeping this one. Directv DVR R10 tested it out and it works well. This neighborhood is in the process of moving from Directv to Cable and they are throwing out all their old boxes. I've got at least 8 Directv boxes in the last month out of there. It'll be on ebay for $30 bucks, used in the box. Pace DC550P Converter - No cash value. I'll recycle the boards inside and the case is going to make a great stash box. I love the way this case is designed, I'll sell the finished box for $25 and be happy. Portable table - Cool portable table that folds up like a briefcase for carrying. It's well used and cheap but still sturdy, it's a keeper. You can play beer pong on a six foot table right?   Not too bad for an hour walk and couple hours puttering around the house. My girl will love her new wine cooler for sure!