What's your "Skipdiver John" talent?

[raleighnut]

Pallets, I've harvested quite a few from builders skips and disposed of them in a dual use 'ecological manner', kept myself 'toasty as well.

 

[Dave7]

I have previously stated......my nickname at home is Mr Bean. Honestly, I look at things/problems and scratch my head. I have no clue how things work or can be fixed.
I used to enjoy decorating and at one time thought about it as a living.
In the last 20 years of working life I did run a smallish but profitable company (£1M+ turnover) specialising in height safety, so eventually found 'my vocation'.
But anything electrical, gas, mechanical etc I admit to being totally useless

 

[mudsticks]

I do like a good skip. I like reusing anything as that has to be better than landfill. I have rescued a couple of shopper bikes, a Moulton and a Hercules. Wood in a skip has become various things including a very heavy piece of hardwood that became the handle of a knife I made.

Over twenty years back I helped set up a community recycling centre in our local town.
Where ppl could bring their unwanted items of furniture, tools, clothes appliances etc.

It basically equipped our whole family with the basics, for years, when money was very tight.

It did mean we ended up with literally shed fulls of stuff that could maybe be fixed, or might come in handy one day .

I try to only take stuff there nowadays, to avoid silting this place up with tat, but it's great if yr having a party, and need a few boxes of assorted glasses to borrow, or whatever.

 

[palinurus]

Before our allotment got purchased for development I'd quite often take handy bits of wood out of skips on the way to the plot. Also got a reasonable spade, a cast-iron garden bench & chairs (fly tipped nearby). Never short of wood to make growing frames etc. Not really a talent though, if I had one of those it would've been shovelling and barrowing manure- a local dairy farm would deliver it in these huge loads on a trailer.

I got pretty good at that.

 

[All uphill]

YouTube has opened up a new world of hifi tinkering to me. Love it!

 

[oldwheels]

Not got any useful skips here but I do have a friend who has several sheds which are full of potentially useful stuff. In my early working life I had charge of a very old distillery which ran continuously 24 hrs per day and 7 days per week. There were many problems caused by worn out machinery and I became an expert at improvising repairs to a very large and very old Lancashire boiler as well as electrical and mechanical junk machinery. After a couple of years we got everything completely new but I had learned to improvise and fix anything and still retain that useful skill.

 

[fossyant]

Ive got 4 old business PC's - the main computer is an older "Think Station S20" and was a serious amount of money some years back when they were new - we got it for £300. Popped in a spare SSD and doubled the ram and it just flies (has a server processor). Also got three HP Elite Ultra Small form factor PC's (these were about to be binned) - one is used for Zwift and music in the garage, and one under the TV for downloaded movies. The other is currently spare.

 

[Venod]

Spent a lifetime mending things, for a living and at home, Cars, Vacuums, Phones, PCs diy, there is nothing off limits, when something is beyond repair I save all the screws etc, I find it hard to sling things that might come in usefull.

 

[Levo-Lon]

When i had my paving business i used tons of skips, one i filled with large chunks of concrete on a job in Whittlesey nr peterborough was emptied by a neighbour who wanted a rockery
I wish he'd told me as id have cancelled the damn thing and saved £120.

 

[Dirk]

Master (or should that be 'mistress') bodger upper, and adapter of one bit of kit, to do another job.

It's a prerequisite of running a small mixed farm.

I'm pretty good at handstands, and cartwheels too

I always thought you were a bloke.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

My skill is stopping stuff I no longer want ending up in a skip or landfill. I'm good at finding new homes for my old stuff.

 

[mudsticks]

I always thought you were a bloke.

What gave you that idea ??

 

[Dave7]

I always thought you were a bloke.

I thought that until a couple of months ago

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Apple tree. Dug up and fairly intact root stock. Planted it in the middle of the chicken coop where they roost in the day. It’s a heavy cropper and the chickens love the fruit.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

My dad was dreadful. I remember him raking electrical bits and pieces out of a skip in case he might need them…they lay in his massive workshop along with the other multitude of things he might need!

My mam banned my dad from taking stuff to the tip, not that she was averse to getting rid of rubbish, but she did mind that he always brought back more than he took.

He built one of my first bikes from scrounged tip bits.