Re: more salvage tips....long

[Gremlingts@xxxx]

 Thanks, Allena! I've learned from my Dad about the joys of pack-ratting, 
garbage-sifting, and on my own, Dumpster-diving. Used to drive my Mother 
crazy, the stuff we'd drag home and save that we'd found thrown out in the 
alleys. Now my Dad just wants to get rid of stuff, he's tired of it all and 
knows he can't save everything, but he grew up during the Depression, so 
thrift was a major plus back then. Me, I do it to save money mostly, as I 
figure that since I have the space already paid for ( house, apartment, etc ) 
I"ll just "save it for later"...sometimes 10 YEARS later! LOL! Having my 
aunt's 1000-acre farm with about 10 old concrete floored chicken houses 
allows me to keep alot of stuff down there as well ( including most of my AMC 
fleet! ( <-- obligatory AMC content ... :>) ).
Some new things I've been saving from the dumpsters at work is long 
white, translucent 4" diameter plastic tubing that the commercial silver 
window tint film comes rolled up on, I stuffed a string of Xmas lights down 
one tube( 6 foot long), with the optional light flashing sequencer option, 
and it looks pretty wild! I figured my girlfriend's teenaged son would try to 
take it, but he hasn't ( yet ) We're gonna put it up in the bedroom for mood 
lighting, as the lights can be made to wink on slowly, fast, different 
colors, etc. Kinda looks like the Warp drive engine column on Star Trek 
Voyager, somewhat. I like doing neat things, and now that I have a place to 
set up my tools, I can do some of the whacky things I've been thinking about 
for years! I'd love to make some little concrete yard Gremlins, maybe about 
12" high or so, and maybe some out of wood for mantle dust-collectors, but 
I'll have to learn how to mold things, or carve. I've got time, I guess. Just 
another 23.25 years of house payments to go ( I'm on the accelerated payment 
plan, so won't take 30 years to really OWN the Gremlin Garage, LOL ) 
I salvaged some hardwood floor scraps ( a whole LOT of scraps ) from the 
dumpsters at work, still not sure what I'm going to do with those, but I need 
some small pieces for flooring up in the Garage attic, so I may just nail 
them down up there to slide boxes on between the joists. Almost a waste of 
good wood, but hey, it was free! Another item coming back from storage at the 
farm is an old ice-making cabinet that I started turning into a sand-blast 
cabinet years ago, as the top door is angled, and the inside is stainless 
steel. I gutted the compressor side, and that will hold the sand container, 
and there's already a light inside it! I had cut the holes for the gloves, 
just never mounted them in. It'll probably go out in the shed next to the air 
compressor. I got the Compressor hooked up and functional again after almost 
10 YEARS of being in storage at my Dad's house... I was worried it wouldn't 
work anymore! Only had maybe 40 hours on it total. But it hums along nicely, 
so I can get my air-tools out that I bought off my old ex-roomate who didn't 
need them anymore a few years ago, and I still couldn't use them then either. 
Ah, gosh I love owning my own house! Life is just getting better and better! 
I got a raise at work, and praise from the Boss, my credit cards are paid off 
thanks to a Home EQ loan, and I have money in the bank, and a place to work 
on my "Tinkering"...life is sweet! Supposed to rain this weekend in the 
afternoons, so I'll be working in the garage alot doing more cleanup work. 
But for now, off to the mall to hit the toy stores! LOL. See ya later, folks!

Jerry
Woodbridge, VA
'78 Gremlin GT
'71 Sunroof Gremlin project
'76 Gremlin project