I was working afternoon shift in a place in the late 80’s and every other night I used to look through the steel bin. They used to throw out anything that was a metre long or shorter. They didn’t think it worth their while to store it as it often ends up in a big pile that no one can see what is actually there to be used.
I would often get good bits of angle, flat and RHS of various sizes that would be used for all manner of stuff. My current work bench’s and toolbox trolleys are mostly made from these offcuts.
One night I was looking in the bin and I spied a small steel box around 12” square and 5” deep.
Hmmm, that should come in handy for something I thought. Didn’t know what I was going to put in it but a steel box had to be handy for something.
I went to pull it out but quickly found I couldn’t budge it. I moved some of the other steel from around it but still couldn’t move it. The box must be full of something I thought so I got one of the other guys to help me lift it out. It was a struggle for the 2 of us to lift it out and once we sat it on the top edge of the steel bin we realised it wasn’t a box at all but a solid lump of steel.
This will be handy for something I still thought and we dropped in onto a trolley and wheeled it out to my Torana. We dropped it in the boot and it nearly fell through the rusted floor. I ended up carting it around for a week until my brother could help me lift it out.
It didn’t take long to realise that this solid lump of steel would make a good anvil, I devised a plan to build an elaborate and sturdy stand to sit it in but after 5 years or so my old man got sick of it sitting on the ground doing nothing so he threw together a stand for it out of one of the old car stands he had made.
It’s a handy thing to have and I still use it often.
