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Posted by D. Sherman [24.32.202.83] on Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 17:37:14 :
In Reply to: Re: posted by Dave In Yakima [216.88.201.134] on Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 17:09:12 :
I like old sh.t. Especially old sh.t loaded with toxic substances like asbestos that will terrify the people who have to "clean up" my shop after I'm dead.
I don't know anything about antiques. I know that all the cool sh.t I've ever seen in antique stores is thought very highly of by the guy who's ostensibly selling it, but it's still there years later. I'm pretty sure most "antique stores" don't actually sell things and like my Italian uncle's "restaurant supply business" just exist to launder money from other criminal enterprises. When somebody's trying to sell me something and they say "I saw one just like it in an antique store for $XXX.", I assure them that their thing is indeed wonderful and nod and smile and walk away. Antique dealers seem to thrive on stories of people who got some incredible thing for next to nothing, recognized it's value, and sold it for a king's ransom. This is what they live for.
Somewhere in the world, there is undoubtedly a man who does nothing but collect antique water heaters. Perhaps he's the heir to a plumbing fortune and he still lives with his antediluvian mother. Your water heater is the one model that he needs to complete his collection and there's no price he wouldn't pay to have it. When he sees your water heater, he'll react like normal men do in the presence of a naked and willing woman. All you have to do is find that guy.
Scrap-wise, I suppose you could guestimate what the bare tank weighs and call a reputable big-city scrap yard like Tacoma Metals (TMI) and ask them, assuming it is monel, what they're currently paying for that alloy. TMI actually has one of those hand-held nuclear radiation based ana-lyzers that will tell you instantly what percentage of what metals are in it, and if it's a common alloy like 316 stainless it'll identify it by name. Scrap yards generally require that water heaters be stripped before they'll accept them, or at least before they'll pay for them. They don't want to pay for plastic and fiberglass. With the asbestos, you'd obviously want to make that go quietly away somehow, maybe into the dumpster of your nearest Wal*Mart.
If it actually works when you apply electricity to it, that's even cooler in my opinion, though I don't suppose anyone else would be impressed to know that the water coming out of their shower was heated in a 60 year old US-made monel tank wrapped in genuine Canadian asbestos. By the way, is there some particular number that pops into your mind when you think "the cash"?