HVAC antitheft Tool/Equipment Cage - Oxide00 Project #1

[Brill757]

Congrats Oxide and I wish you well on your welding career and your project looks great. Here in Maryland there have been cases of a crew of people posing as construction workers, in broad daylight, and stealing the copper wires from the metro power lines and stealing the copper and steel piping from under the streets. Last summer in Baltimore, people were stealing man hole covers and street lights poles. Yes its hard times for everyone, just pray to GOD that he makes things better and give thanks that he has provided for us.

[acourtjester]

I was at the LWS and the guy said people are stealing leads off welder's trucks for the copper. I can not believe the cops can not track these guys at the local scrape yards. They make you show ID when you sell scrape. If a guy shows up with 200 pounds of bent up tubing or wire somebody has to smell a rat there.

Really officer I was walking down the road and this fell off a truck that drove by.

[everlastsupport]

The good side for me, I know the new local scrape yard guy. And fixing his 6x12 HD metal trailer. Bought a 1'x6'x1/4 diamond plate for $6 last trip. Normal get it all free, but I had to have it.

Bad side for me. I had a number of cables in the back of my truck (for golf cart batteries, about 10 all 3 feet long I was gonna cut down). Went in a store in a rough part of town that day, only place I stopped. That night went to get the cables, there were two there. I asked my son if he unloaded them when he pulled the batteries from the truck. He said no. Then it dawned on me what happened.

I can't believe it's that bad, but seems it is.

[Oxide00]

Ugh get this, yesterday in the paper there was a report about 100 manhole covers gone missing around the city. Some buffoon is using them to increase weight/payout at the junkyards around town. The city has started welding them down to prevent this from happening.

[Oxide00]

side hinge welded on



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[Oxide00]

Looks Nice



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[everlastsupport]

Looks good Oxide00. I can not imagine hitting a manhole with no cap and I have a lifted truck. That would tick me off and I would go looking for the clown myself.

In my case of the missing copper wires, I had aluminum (painted) in the truck, they did not take that. I figure they grabbed and ran since I was in and out of the store, since they left two of the cables. Time for a cover or topper I guess, to slow them down.

[SeanMurphy265]

Here in Memphis the city passed an ordinance requiring scrap yards to I.D. and document people selling scrap. Last summer there was a big problem with people cutting catalytic converters out of broken down cars and from car lots. Back in the spring this moron literally cut up a bunch of working farm equipment (plows) and sold it for scrap. They have even had case where people have stolen broken down cars from the side of I-40 and sold them for scrap. A lady found her car at the scrap yard, only it was crushed! Stealing scrap has become big business...

[Oxide00]

Ack!!! Well, here's the finished project (out of all colors HVAC class had to paint it blue!!) HVAC class just kinda threw some paint on it and hauled it away to their shop. Nevertheless I feel proud of the results!!



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[DaveO]

...about 100 manhole covers gone missing around the city

Doesn't that suggest there's some funny business going on at the scrap yard end, too. If 100 covers show up, turned in by a guy who is clearly not a city employee, somebody should start to smell a rat.

There's a lot of effort that goes into that kind of theft. Too bad we can't harness that effort into something helpful. But the payoff is there, and in many cities property crimes don't get the same attention as personal crimes.

[acourtjester]

Hey Oxide00
Are you sure that’s not a holding cell that looks like a bench seat in there.
Great job.

[Oxide00]

acourtjester haha It sure does look like one! In the end we thought about locking one of the students in it, but he took off before we could do it. @DaveO I don't know, the people who run the srap yards around here are awfully shady if you ask me. Also mods can you please count this as project #1 for me (forgot to title it as that.)

[everlastsupport]

I changed the thread title. It does look like a cell for a bad person for sure.