The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest When you don't have a dog ...

...You hunt with the cat.

I needed to straighten my bent trailer ramps (heavy duty steel things). They were too big and heavy to get into the 20-ton shop press ... So I used a 4x4 and a 22-ton excavator. Took 20 seconds each.

And yes, I had punched out before using company equipment for personal projects.

One of the oldtime philosophers said "Give me a long enough lever and I'll move the world!" Some jobs just require the application of massive amounts of brute force- - - - -finesse be danged! Good job!
Jerry

Archimedes

Idle minds want to know how you bent them in the first place.

With the joint I work for, I don't post evidence. Someday, I'll tell you a story about a guy who borrowed a truck or two to do some personal work on a weekend. Unbeknownst to him, there was a crew scheduled to work that weekend. They came in and couldn't find their trucks. Not sure if they reported them stolen or not. That guy don't work here no more. Sometimes I have to tell people that even the trash belongs to the company.

Depends on local management/owner policy in those matters.

Don't you mean you hunt with the Case?
Nice work!

On the other hand- - - - -if you're the guy who signs the front of the paycheck, use whatever equipment you want- - - -whenever you want! It's one of the perks that comes with being the "Big Bossman"!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgwXQgjEwWo

Jerry

I remember the first time I heard that song I thought I was hearing 'balls" instead of "boss". That there changes the whole meaning of that song. ")

I take it the former employee who borrowed the truck for the weekend, didn't ask permission to do so? If he was told it was OK then it wasn't his fault. If not then uh-oh.

He figured "I work for this company. It's a company truck.......) If he had asked permission, they probably would've sent a whole crew to do the work he was doing.

Oh... BTW, it was my boss' suggestion to use the 9030.

Mark -- One of the benefits of working for Pat -- employees get use company equipment for personal projects. I would never use equipment w/o asking first (common courtesy).

...and taken it out of his paycheck.

Gosh, you wouldn't believe the *trash* these builder throw out. Since John's group provides the removal dumpster, there's been some great treasurers he brings home. It seems with the cost of things lately, there is not as much ... which is a good thing. Hopefully, the homeowner is getting a better price for the work being done. Ahh ... we remember the days of dumpster diving during the haydays of homebuilding. Good stories there. (Leave those for John ... )

I built my garage with thousands of dollars worth of "scrap" lumber taken from jobsites.

Need a 4 foot piece of 2x4? Just cut it off a 12 footer and throw the 8 foot piece in the scrap pile.

I got lots of "short" pieces of 2x6 and 2x8 that I used as blocking between rafters and huge scrap pieces of OSB that I used as sheathing,filler panels, etc.

I even got full and partial coils of gun nails tossed in the scrap pile.

That kind of shenanigans have gotten a lot of people fired from the company over the years. That's why even the trash belong to the company.

If they fired all the Mexicans in Georgia who build things that way, construction would come to a halt in Atlanta. The waste is unfathomable.

I got so much framing material it was mind blowing. Lots of it was full length with nails and screws in it or other pieces attached. Looks like a mistake was made or a change order happened and the stuff was ripped down and scrapped rather than removing the screws and nails and being reused.

I pulled 30+ 8' 2x4 studs out of a construction dumpster. I sandwiched most of them together to make the columns between my garage doors. They're sheathed on both sides with scrap OSB.

You can see all the stains and discoloration on the OSB and the different shades on the free 2x4s.

2x4s or 2x6s glued together in that fashion make the best work benches.
And sometimes on job sites you can find pre-made ones if they have enough of a drop off.
I've got a 5 foot long 2 1/2 deep 2x4 bench top from a 'ordered too long of a beam' drop off.

The same kind of philosophy is used now as when I was a kid and the electrician working on our house told me it wasn't worth his time to bend down and pick up a dropped wire nut. Not sure why with the cost of lumber now, but labor is expensive too. Paying a laborer to remove nails is apparently more costly than a fresh 2x4.

Well ... I used a few discarded 2x8's to fix a hole in the trailer deck so I could retrieve a Case 590 Super L back Hoe from a job site yesterday. If its laying on the ground, it's fair game.

It appears that you have a "Case" against bowed ramps.

Gas X -- Nice! We do appreciate a good pun around here.