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Do you keep trinkets that you made or do you recyle them?

rons

Diamond
Joined
Mar 5, 2009
Location
California, USA
Do you keep trinkets that you made or do you recycle them?

I keep a box of stuff that I made along with drawings with dimensions. Today I went to the recycler and parted with some stuff I had for 20 years.
Or do most jobs require you to destroy any left-overs?

I have to say that it isn't worth it for recycling stuff any more. I just do it due to my respect for resources.
 
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I have a cell-phone box full of show off parts here on my desk. They're handy to grab when I have to discuss things with engineers. My parts are pretty small, so recycling would be laughable.
 
I have literally 1000’s of extra parts. Once in awhile a customer will ask for “a couple of those things you made us back in 2017.” OK, once in a really long while that happens. But it happens.

When storage space gets cramped, I purge out stuff more than a couple years old.

Regards.

Mike
 
So do we, mountains of the stuff, you would be surprised how many times we refer back to a part/weldment for a revision, measurement or several other reasons. We do every so many years after non use or superceeded item we then go through the warehouse and have a toss-a-thon. We are a little different as all parts made here are for our own internal use age.
 
Didn't even make $20 at the recycler. I figure that getting rid of the bad memories starts with getting rid of the parts I don't want to remember.
 
I keep my copper, Cast-iron, aluminum... for recycling or possibly smelting. My insert tooling every, couple years I drop off 20 pounds at five dollars a pound.
 
I have a problem with throwing stuff out. Admitting I have a problem is the first step in recovery however. I think I am forever mired in a state of depression era mentality or something. I guess growing up dirt poor in the backwoods of Virginia might have something to do with it. My first memories are of ten relatives standing around at a birthday party without a full set of teeth between them. I'm not really a hoarder because if I find something in the back of the shop that I haven't used in thirty years, then I have no problem getting rid of it. Well, not much of a problem anyway.
 
I keep the overage on pricier parts that repeat, not going to save a a dozen 75 cent parts made out of 2 cents of material. I also have a collection of samples tagged with size and type of material it starts with and cycle time. The samples are used when I just want to bid a job quickly using the cycle time to estimate what a similar part will take. Of course I usually contain my quick and dirty job bidding methods to the shorter run jobs. I recycle all solids, of the 3 local scrap yards the only turnings taken are aluminum and they want them dry, so I just throw all turnings out.
 
I am way worse... I have a collection of broken car parts from my years of wrenching.

To me tossing the old part out when the job was completed or returning it for the core deposit was the last thing done on the repair job.
 
For me, there's always a "home" for the left overs.

#1 If a job came out with extra passing parts, they go with the rest of the parts to the parts dept. 99% of our orders are internal anyway so any extra parts just go in inventory, even if they were custom in some way.

#2 If there's bad parts, they go in the trash/recycling, or in a box in the inspection crib for reference. Periodically when a know-it-all thinks an operation or process or material will work for a job, we can go back and see just why it wouldn't. That bin would get sorted into the scrap bin as needed if it's too full, but thankfully that's yet to happen.

#3 If there's a part that wasn't quite right, but still has merit as a sample, it gets marked up and stored with any tooling for that job. If it's not a job we ever expect to run again, it goes to #2.

#4 If something is garbage but "cool", I might throw it in one of the upper drawers of my tool box. If it's too big for that, take a picture and see #2.
 
One of the reasons I keep left overs is because there is hope that the part can be salvaged and a piece of it can be made into smaller part(s) in the future.
I opt for stainless types, brass, copper, plastics. Anything that does not rust.
 
One of the reasons I keep left overs is because there is hope that the part can be salvaged and a piece of it can be made into smaller part(s) in the future.
I opt for stainless types, brass, copper, plastics. Anything that does not rust.

We do that too on occasion (too much in the past), but have ended up with so many drops and salvaged bits that we've had to establish some ground rules to what we keep. Often, the scrap bits and drops get passed over for good stock in the interest of saving time, which is understandable, so we have to ask first "what EXACTLY could this piece be used for?", then "how are we going to hold onto it next time we cut on it?" IMO if you spend a great deal of time squaring up a drop so you can put it in a vise or get around an unwanted feature, it often isn't worth it. And the cost of the replacement material is a moot point because you're charging the customer for new stock anyway.

It's handy having an assortment of stock for R&D, shop jobs, and rush orders, but IMO if you can look at a piece of scrap and see a new part in it's future, you can order an extra foot or two of fresh material too.

We've also had parts that were messed up but repairable for the same or similar parts, but most often in my experience it's more economical to fix that blooper while the job is still in the shop rather than save the messed up part for later.

In the end though, it's all contingent on what parts you make, how often and how many. One shop's scrap is another shops material rack.
 








 
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