Salvaging for Preparedness and Profit!

Salvaging for Preparedness and Profit!

I started Salvaging and fixing things when I was a young boy, and have never stopped.

When I was in school, my main mode of transportation was a bicycle.  The problem was that I was expected to pay for one myself and I was saving for a new shotgun.  I looked around and found a couple of really nice ones a family was pitching out and spent the princely sum of eight dollars for parts and a week of sweat.  This resulted in not one, but two ten speed bicycles.

I am often asked “Why do you salvage, why not just buy what you need like everyone else?”

The answer is; I am poor, I do not have a three figure income like some do.

The next question I’m usually asked is “How do you salvage?”

In this article I’m going to cover the steps involved in Salvaging, there are just a few things to get you started:

Step One is find out what you need.

Step Two is find out what the scrap yard is buying. For example Metals are fetching decent money and some are bringing even more, Copper, Brass and Aluminum are good money makers.

Step Three is the “How To” part; I walk around neighborhood and see what people are throwing out.   Most folks will let me take their “junk” to save the cost of hauling it away.  I also put the word out among friends if I am looking for something in particular.  Remember it can’t hurt to ask and always thank the person you get it from.

Step Four is to organize our finds when get the stuff home. I start by tearing down stuff like mowers and sorting out nuts and bolts by size.  This saves time when I go to look for something.

Finally, I load the stuff for the scrap yard into the trailer while sorting metals by type.

Here is an example of something I needed that was provided by salvage: My Garden Tiller.  I needed one for a while and a man had a free take it away sign, so I grabbed it.  A few parts later (mostly salvaged as well) and I have a tiller.

Salvaging can be a great way to get what you need without paying for it!  I’ll be covering plenty more on Salvaging techniques and experiences in my future articles.

This article curtasy of APN