The building where I work has been going through major renovations for some years now.  As various departments moved out, moved in, or moved around they changed things within the building.  This particular building has seen a lot of different parts of the company operate within it.  At one time my company used to manufacture things in this building.  Now we subcontract that out.  However, the building was designed with small scale manufacturing in mind, and even after we got out of the business of making things we still had in storage a lot of the equipment needed to do so.  Until recently that is.

As other parts of the company grew, they needed space to grow into.  The under utilized manufacturing space in our building was a natural choice to do that growing into.  And so it came to pass that the stuff which was being stored in the nooks and crannies of this building began to be surplussed.  At first it was reallocated throughout the rest of the company.  Then the remainder was sold off.  What was left was either donated away or, failing that, simply thrown out.  For a couple of years there was a large trash bin parked just outside of our shipping and receiving area on the ground floor.  A bin big enough to drive my truck into if I had the mind to have done so.  It was usually so full of this "trash" though that driving my truck inside wouldn't have been possible.

Most of this trash was legitimate trash and suitable only for the junk pile or recycling centers.  Some of it however, was still worthwhile.  Some of it was also just plain amazing.  For instance, we used to have some built-in wall display cases in our front lobby.  When the company decided to change the look of the lobby these cases went away.  So too did the floor to ceiling glass doors.  Four foot by seven foot tempered glass panels.  They were carried, at great effort, down to the trash bin and placed there with great care lest they break and the jagged pieces become a liability for the company.  Well, I now have one of those huge sheets of glass.  It is going to become a table top to my dining room table.  A table which itself came from one of our company's labs.  A laminated ash workbench top.  It looks like a big "butcher block" wood table top and with just a bit of refinishing effort on my part should be a smashing piece of furniture for my house.

With stuff like this going through that bin I kept my eye out for other items of value.  That is when I saw these two four drawer file cabinets.  "Wow!"  I thought, "they are throwing those away!"  I have a pickup truck and it was a simple matter for me to tip these two puppies into it one day after work.  I looked them over before I did so and found them to be a bit dented and somewhat rusted.  However, it was nothing a good steel wool brushing and a couple of coats of rust proof paint wouldn't fix.  Or so I thought.  So, tip them over and take them home I did.

I had taken home two acid covered pieces of industrial waste!  Lifted them with my bare hands and brought them to my home!  What would the EPA say to this?

Well, it turns out that the acid spill had occurred some time in the past and that the cabinets had already been washed down once already.  That had removed the worst of the acid but by no means all.  I found this out after I washed the cabinets down on my front lawn.  The picture on the right above here is what happened to the lawn after that.  In each spot where I had place a cabinet or drawer the grass beneath it got a good stiff dose of diluted acid wash.  Made for a real pretty splotch effect on the newly sodded green grass.  However, that is one nice thing about a natural lawn - it grows back!  I am pleased to say that now, a year into this process, the grass has grown back nicely and you can not tell where the acid runoff had killed it dead.  Lucky me.

In the meantime, I hope you have enjoyed your "stay" at this site.  Check back again to see what new images I have added.  Until then, stay well, play hard, play safe, and have fun!

Madoc