Free Stuff!

I got some comments touting the reliability of pump-action shotguns and implying that the Saiga I got is a product that lacks the pump’s long history of trouble-free use. I have no reason to doubt that pumps are reliable. I don’t know much about them. But I think I should point something out, if only to keep people from inadvertently making themselves look silly. The shotgun I bought is made by Izhmash, and the brand name is Saiga, but what it is, is a KALASHNIKOV. It’s an AK-47 shotgun. So maybe it’s best not to call it “untried.” That is my thinking, anyway.

I have had an interesting day. I got two new tools. Are you ready for this? One is a huge GENIE LIFT.

I know what you’re thinking. I have a giant Gomez-Addams-style vault under the floor, so I don’t care what I spend. No. Sadly. I got this thing for nothing. It’s really incredible.

My father owns some warehouses. The economy is bad. People are going out of business. He lost a tenant. The tenant was in construction. He told me the warehouse was full of “junk” up to the ceiling. He could not get the tenant to remove it. They called Habitat for Humanity, and they wouldn’t take any of it. It has been abandoned. He said there were “two big machines” in there, and he invited me to go look.

We drove out there today and opened the place up, and lo and behold, there was a Genie Lift in the back. And I don’t mean a little one. This thing looks like the suit Sigourney Weaver wore to fight the alien queen. It has the outrigger deals and everything. You could lower a 600-pound tool from the back of a truck with this machine. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it , but I know one thing. It’s coming home with me.

Can you believe that? On the way out there, I kept thinking how great it would be if one of the machines were a mill or a Genie Lift. I guess a Genie Lift is better, because I am willing to pay for a mill, but I would never have sprung for a Genie Lift.

It’s beat-up, but who cares? It’s in working condition.

The other machine, I could not figure out. It had two big tires on the bottom and a big flex shaft about eight or nine feet long, running from a Baldor motor to what looked like a platform for lifting drywall into place. I looked it up when I got home. It’s a ceiling grinder.

I would guess that even among my bizarre readers, there are few people who would recognize this thing. Here’s how it works. You make a concrete garage. It has cruddy excess material at the seams on the ceiling. So you go in with the ceiling grinder and grind them down. It works with wheels that look just like 10″ cutoff wheels. Google it. Very odd.

It’s in excellent shape. Unfortunately, I can think of no earthly use for it. So I plan to Craigslist it.

I plan to Craigslist a lot of stuff. My father wants no part of this mess. He just wants it out. He made me a key, and he told me it was my problem. I guess I’ll have to go out there and catalog and photograph it. Here is some of the junk I found.

1. A huge Ridgid brand driveshaft. For what? I don’t know. It’s brand new, still in the box. It’s around six feet long.

2. Boxes and boxes of grey PVC fittings. Lots of “end bells.”

3. Nuts for electrical conduit. Many boxes. I’d say most are 3″ across. Maybe 2″.

4. At least four stainless in-wall restroom towel dispensers.

5. Five sheets of 3/4″ sheathing plywood, plus other scraps.

6. A ten-foot-long formica workbench.

7. Three air cleaners. These are huge box fans that take air filters. Very heavy. One is still in the box.

8. Miles of rigid and EMT conduit. I will never lack for scrap again, if I can just find a place to put it.

9. All sorts of leftover steel from a modular mezzanine put in by a previous tenant. Beautiful for welding.

10. About 30 sheets of painted 3/16″ steel, in one-foot squares. These are panels intended for some specific purpose, but to me, they are some of the most gorgeous welding scrap imaginable.

11. Lots of electrical boxes, including some about two feet high and two feet wide. Full of tasty salvageable breakers begging to be ripped out and stored for later use.

12. Gigantic commercial lighting fixtures, including at least one street lamp about two feet across.

13. Miles of Romex and Cat-6 wire.

14. A steel desk with a very sturdy plastic top. Looks like a solid sheet of nylon or polyethylene. It would make a pretty sweet workbench.

15. A big Ridgid tool stand with no tool on it.

What a mess. I guess I should catalog it, find out the retail prices, list it for 50% off, and see who buys.