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This is the last load hauled to date of the water tanks. It was taken after all of the chains and com-a-longs were removed, six total. Additional cast iron pipes will be hauled after the demolition of the pump house. I also have to retrieve an aluminum spiral stair case from the pump house that I am looking for a home for.
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I will be finished with this thread in the near future. It has been fun to revisit the project through the pictures. I had forgotten all of the challenges and the solutions to those problems. I also want to extend a thank you to the water district managers, the local farmers, and those of you on the forum that encouraged me to continue to tell the story. I do not know if I will be documenting my regular scrapping challenges. Time will tell.
I wanted to provide some information on the equipment I use before completing the thread. The picture is of a two horse trailer that became a service trailer. Inside is a Miller welder/generator, Craftsmans tool chest, most tools I have needed, DeWalt 20 v. cordless combo set with half inch wrench, Craftsman air compressor, 100 lb. propane tank, liquid oxy. tank, 75 ft. of air compressor hose, Smith Torch sets, welding sleeves/cape, leather chaps, cutting jackets, milk jugs of baking soda for fires, and misc. items. The tack compartment holds grease guns, hydraulic fluid, shop rags, engine additives, spare tire, two 12 ton jacks, and just about anything else I need for equipment maintenance. On the outside I have storage for shovels, 6 ft. pry/tamping bars, and ladders. It is not weather proof yet and this will be a winter project. I am looking to replace this with a stock trailer because I am running out of room.
The two pictures do not show the trailer in its present state. The second picture is before the water tank project and the second during the project. The liquid oxygen is gone and the air compressor returned. The fuel tanks have been moved to the doors for easier access and to make room for the tool box.
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Last post on this thread. Just wanted to say it is nice to be back to regular scrapping. First two loads after the water tanks. Good luck to everyone.
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That was an amazing endeavor you pulled off. From your descriptions to your photos it was awesome. How you solved problems to telling about your melting boots kept me on the edge of my seat till the next post. Nice to see people that don't give up. Safety tips fantastic, shows me that you are good person.
Amen Jonnie. My thanks too Patriot76, good job! : )
Thanks for your documentary! I followed it with interest and repeat my comment that you have guts to attempt (and succeed) to pull this size of job off by yourself. I'm guessing that you broke the job down into little segments in your mind, and each little job, done one after another, eventually got the whole job done!
Looks like your regular hauls are pretty interesting, too!! What are the items in the first photo? One looks like a trailer that is pulled behind a seeder for fertilizer or seed but I'm not sure of the second item that looks like it was torched in half and put on top upside down.
Looks like a pretty decent riding mower, too. The farmers down there must be moving to the new zero turn buggies to keep up with their neighbors!! Do you bother with stripping parts and reselling for better than scrap with this kind of stuff?
I'd guess that you put on lots of miles with your truck/trailer, scrapping in a farming area where every farm is miles apart?
Jon.
Okay, I thought it was my last post but common courtesy dictates I respond to some questions.
Thank you Joanniebrass, Bear, and Sawmileng for your comments. They are greatly appreciated. I think the motto for my business should be one man with half a brain. If it were not for the advice of others, I could not have completed the task.
I did break the project into manageable sections. That is why you can see me bouncing between the challenges. You are correct, that is a fertilizer spreader. I tried to find a home for it, but the sprocket, chain, and frame were in bad shape. The tires and body (uncommon to not have rust) were good and I salvaged the tires for local farmers that provided advice on the project (notice the one loose tire). When I am going to save a tire and rim I loosen all the bolts after I load the equipment and remove them when the claw picks them up at the yard. On top of the back half of the load was the top of a stak hand, used to make hay piles that looked like bread loafs. The gusset at the top was the top mount to the 6 ft. hydraulic cylinders (discussed below) that pulled the roof down to crush the hay bale. Originally the bottom was mounted on my trailer for hauling prepared steel, but it weighed more than two tons and limited my loads so it was scrapped. Under the top is the chute that threw the hay into the bin and the auger frame. The auger itself was salvaged for one farmer and the sprockets, drive bar, and mounts were sold to another farmer. There is actually three riding mowers on this load that cannot be seen from this angle.
Yes many parts are salvaged. The stak hand had four six foot hydraulic cylinders used to crush the hay that are now used by a farmer to open and close his shop doors and machine shed doors. Any cylinders, tires and wheels, discs, etc. that can be used by others are sorted and local farmers stop over and rummage through them. I let them set the price and ask them to make checks out directly to the owner. I do not take a cut for this and the word of mouth advertising is good for my business. I have farmers that come over and ask me to keep an eye out for this or that. Same thing, if it is found the check is written to the owner and I do not get a cut. I have sold several tractors for owners, hay movers, and various parts. It was a case of a farmer saying they had such and such and I only paired them up with someone looking for such and such. The benefit for me is the word of mouth advertising, all the vegetables I want from local gardens, and great fishing and hunting rights. Up to now the government does not tax any of these things. I do sort non-ferrous metals when they are easily accessed and will work on them in the winter. Another farmer loves to dismantle things so he gets all of the challenges, electric motors, transmissions, etc. He gets to keep everything he takes out, but he returns the ferrous metal and brings a lot more back. He is going to wire my shop for me in a couple of weeks in return. Another non-taxable benefit from my efforts.
Karma is on my side as far as distance traveled. I have been working on two farms since December with the exception of the water tanks. I have two smaller farms to work on after these, but that will not be until at least next spring. The farms are only 14 miles from my place and the water tank was only ten miles away. The real distance is the 15 miles to town for fuel and common parts, 45 miles to the closest city, and 50 miles to the scrap yard.
I let my morals and values guide me. I am blessed to be self employed, work in the worlds second oldest profession, work outside with nature and still have the desire to be a life long learner. That is why this forum is so valuable to me.
Just caught this thread and I tip my hat to you ! Thats a super ambitious job you took on. Aside from the tank stuff I have seen many items familiar to my trailer on yours ! I love scrapping them old farm Steads too ! Got a whale of a project im fixing to start. Can't release no info yet but it looks more like a minnow compared to the tanks ! Great thread !
Tater,
Thank you for the compliment. I enjoy reading your threads and stole many ideas from you. I would love to pick your brain sometime. Being a third generation scrapper has provided you with insight many cannot learn in a life time in the school of hard knocks. I look forward to your updates on your new project.
I usually charge a royalty for use of my ideas but since your a chill guy Ill waive the fee ! Lol, not really just flattered to have ideas worth stealing !Quote:
Originally Posted by Patriot76
You must have some serious hook up to land a grab like this.
I thought this story had come to an end, but since my last update I have been busy with the project. My recent activity on the project involved demolition in order to get to the rest of the scrap. The relationships I had built provided me the opportunity to contact with the water district to work on the demolition and the second part of this thread is the story of extra-ordinary efforts to get every last bit of scrap.
The picture below is the pump house that the water district is taking care.
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When the two managers started demolition on the pump house, they took all of the scrap out of it before collapsing the building. The first picture is of tin, electrical conduit, office material, wiring, etc. They took it all out and donated it all to me. They did a better job than I could have pulling the fuse box off the wall, wiring out of conduit, removing plug-ins from concrete walls, pulling lights off the ceiling, even the telephone outlet.
The second pictures shows some of the cast iron water pipe that was in the building. After tearing down the wall they asked me to come in with my torch and cut it in half so they could remove it from the building. Each section weighed a little less than 2 tons. The last picture is of the aluminum spiral stair case I talked about earlier. They chained it up and lifted it out through the roof. I planned to sell this separate but it became scrap after it broke. It must be pointed out, they went to a lot of extra work to save this for me because my job was to remove the debris. They could have just dropped the building on it and let me sift it out on my time.
I just noticed the pictures are out of order. The box on the right is actually stainless steel after 20 years of chemical abuse in the pump house.
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Some more pictures of the demolition of the pump house. Part of my contract duties included cleaning up the mess in the picture.
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This is the start of the major part of my duties. The managers dug a starting point for me on the ring wall the water tank sat on. The ring wall is about 8 ft. above grade and they want to level the entire area. The test holes showed six foot of gravel that would have to be removed. You can see the ramp I made to access the ring wall.
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I rented a jack hammer/hammer drill to fit on my skid steer to bust a door into the ring wall. If I had not done this, it would have made a pretty nice cement swimming pond for the kids. The second picture shows the wall after busting it and before I took the torch to it. Most people would think this is a lot of work to go to just to get to the rebar scrap.
The third photo shows the first load of gravel being taken out. The loader was not much good for this so I used the skid steer to dig and loaded the gravel into the loader to go on the dump trucks. I made a deal with two local farmers to split the gravel if they hauled it. Many truck loads were given to other farmers that had loaned me equipment or given advice on the demolition of the water tank and filters. My share is being used to resurface my driveway at the ranch.
Over 24 dump trucks of gravel were removed from the inside of the ring wall in addition to the amount used around the project for various reasons.
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Down here there is a company that will accept broken concrete and they regrind it and sift out the wood/metal, it looks like powdered gravel when their done.
All I can say is ''Wow!'' and thank you very much for showing us the progress !
Where did the stairs break at? Those steps just stack onto the center post one by one, you can make them shorter (or longer too) by stacking more, or less, into the mix. The pieces might sell separately, or be used to make a shorter stair, depending on the remaining parts. No doubt the railing is adjustable too far as length/height is concerned
Bear,
You are correct, the stairs were mounted with set screws and the staircase could be adjusted for multiple heights. Five of the stairs broke and the support beam was bent in the middle. It would have been a very short stair case with the remaining parts. I did not think about selling the remaining parts separately. Another lesson learned on this project. I was so caught up with the magnitude of the project, I lost sight of the small stuff. Live and learn. I have been learning a lot more than living at this point. Since the challenge started, I have taken five days off from it and three of those were spent scrapping a farm while the price was still good. That includes weekends. The window for my type of scrapping is limited in this part of the country and I now realize it is time to stop and smell the roses. Thank you for reminding me of the basic principles of scrapping.