What's In Your Parts Box?

[mlw]

I am crossposting this question since I think it will be of general
interest...sorry if that offends someone.

Now to the questions....what kinds of electronic and mechanical "trash"
is WORTH disassembling and keeping for parts to build other projects?

What did you keep that you should have thrown long ago?

What did you throw that you still kick yourself for tossing?

I look forward to your suggestions, experiences and jokes. ;<)

TMT

I have so much crap, it can't be believed. I have an 1802 SuperElf board
dated circa 1978. I have two Digital Sharks StrongARM thin clients. I have
a box of PC type motherboards and boxes of cards, hard disks, etc.
Monitors, cables, discrete components, ICs, 2 osciliscopes, video capture
cards, to 19" rack cabinets, SMP servers, table saw, drill press, engine
hoist, weller soldering station. Lets not even talk about books!!

 

[Too_Many_Tools]

I am crossposting this question since I think it will be of general
interest...sorry if that offends someone.

Now to the questions....what kinds of electronic and mechanical "trash"
is WORTH disassembling and keeping for parts to build other projects?

What did you keep that you should have thrown long ago?

What did you throw that you still kick yourself for tossing?

I look forward to your suggestions, experiences and jokes. ;<)

TMT

 

[DaveM]

I am crossposting this question since I think it will be of general
interest...sorry if that offends someone.

Now to the questions....what kinds of electronic and mechanical "trash"
is WORTH disassembling and keeping for parts to build other projects?

What did you keep that you should have thrown long ago?

What did you throw that you still kick yourself for tossing?

I look forward to your suggestions, experiences and jokes. ;<)

TMT

I usually don't keep circuit boards from any equipment that is to be junked,
unless they contain exotic parts such as RF components
(mixers/transformers/oscillators/etc), unique analog components such as
hard-to-find op-amps, A-D, D-A converters or the like. I'll recover those
components and throw away the rest of the board
If you can easily identify power transformers, I suggest that those be
marked and stored.
I usually like to keep power transistors, heat sinks, large computer-grade
electrolytics, potentiometers, and hardware such as knobs, handles, etc.
I guess that in a nutshell, I tend to throw away the stuff that's easily
purchased new, and stuff that's just too tedious to recover.

--
Dave M
MasonDG44 at comcast dot net (Just subsitute the appropriate characters in
the address)

Never take a laxative and a sleeping pill at the same time!!

 

[petrus bitbyter]

I am crossposting this question since I think it will be of general
interest...sorry if that offends someone.

Now to the questions....what kinds of electronic and mechanical "trash"
is WORTH disassembling and keeping for parts to build other projects?

What did you keep that you should have thrown long ago?

What did you throw that you still kick yourself for tossing?

I look forward to your suggestions, experiences and jokes. ;<)

TMT

Too much, too long.

petrus bitbyter

 

[Too_Many_Tools]

Wanna share some of it?

I am sure we can find good homes for some or all of it. ;<)

What did you not keep that you wish you had?

TMT

 

[Tim Wescott]

I usually don't keep circuit boards from any equipment that is to be junked,
unless they contain exotic parts such as RF components
(mixers/transformers/oscillators/etc), unique analog components such as
hard-to-find op-amps, A-D, D-A converters or the like. I'll recover those
components and throw away the rest of the board
If you can easily identify power transformers, I suggest that those be
marked and stored.
I usually like to keep power transistors, heat sinks, large computer-grade
electrolytics, potentiometers, and hardware such as knobs, handles, etc.
I guess that in a nutshell, I tend to throw away the stuff that's easily
purchased new, and stuff that's just too tedious to recover.

New cases for electronics cost an arm and a leg. If it looks like the
case can be reused -- keep it!

 

[Grant Erwin]

I keep heavy-gauge power cords if they're long enough and have good quality
3-prong plugs. I keep SPST and DPST switches if they're rated for real power and
if they have screw terminals. I keep a representative sample of wall warts. I
keep a certain amount of sheet metal in case I need some. I keep amp and volt
gauges if I get any. From electronics? That's about it. From machinery, I keep
stuff if I can make stuff out of it and if I can store it space-efficiently and
if I am likely to make stuff out of it.

GWE

 

[JohnM]

I am crossposting this question since I think it will be of general
interest...sorry if that offends someone.

Now to the questions....what kinds of electronic and mechanical "trash"
is WORTH disassembling and keeping for parts to build other projects?

What did you keep that you should have thrown long ago?

What did you throw that you still kick yourself for tossing?

I look forward to your suggestions, experiences and jokes. ;<)

TMT

Any basic eletrical/electronic stuff I come across, especially heavy
rectifiers, motor starters, wire, plugs, etc.

Plumbing junk, esp. what I might need for plumbing the compressor.

Motors, engines, gearboxes, shafting, sprockets, chain, pulleys, belts..
anything else for power transfer.

Complete automobiles/machinery.. 4wd stuff, transfer cases,
transmissions, etc.

That's a good start on a list anyway, I got a lot of junk..

John

 

[Christopher Tidy]

I am crossposting this question since I think it will be of general
interest...sorry if that offends someone.

Now to the questions....what kinds of electronic and mechanical "trash"
is WORTH disassembling and keeping for parts to build other projects?

Don't bother with household trash. It really is trash. There isn't much
you can do with worn out vacuum cleaners, broken VCRs etc. You can take
the flyback transformers from TVs and the big power transformers from
microwave ovens, but that's about it. Sure, there'll be a gem here and
there, but if you're a serious scavenger like me household trash isn't
usually worth your time.

Factory, commercial and university/college waste is much more
worthwhile. Here in England we have "skips", which are giant rubbish
containers often hired by companies when they clear out premises etc.
But some places have a skip all the time, and the scrap metal skips can
offer especially rich pickings. Learn which organisations in your town
chuck good stuff and get friendly with the people who chuck it. Usually
you can talk them round to letting you have the stuff they chuck out. If
not and you really want it, you can sneak back in the evening and grab
it. Justify it by telling yourself you're reusing stuff and doing the
planet a favour!

In the past year or so I've scored the following (among other things):

Sun Ultra 2 workstation, 1280 MB RAM (needed hard drive, using it now!)
Two mechanical high vacuum pumps (pumps fine, had faulty motors)
Two Oertling scientific balances (one fine, I fixed the other)
Four nice 1/4 hp 1 ph. motors (all fine)
Near-new 1/2 hp 1 ph. motor (gave to a friend for his printing press)
Huge and heavy 1 hp DC motor (fine)
Six or seven 3 ph. motors (look good, not tested yet)
1 ph. watt-hour meter (fine)
Samsung 19" CRT (scratched, but gave it to a friend who polished it out)
1000 VA 230 V UK -> 115 V US transformer (works fine, nice condition)
Bunch of lab. retort stands and clamps (fine)
Hefty 3 kW Xpelair fan heater (fine, now in the workshop)
1" Jacobs chuck (end of taper had been repaired, but otherwise good)
Many SCSI enclosures (mostly good)
Anglepoise lamp for lathe (good)
SGI IRIS Indigo (now at a computer museum)
Kymograph camera (don't know what to do with it!)

What did you keep that you should have thrown long ago?

Probably the heap of damaged/poor quality electric motors I don't use
but keep for bearings, fans, pulleys etc. Also the hot water cylinder I
once intended to use as a Van de Graaff generator terminal and a heap of
broken Apple ][ hardware.

What did you throw that you still kick yourself for tossing?

I hardly ever toss stuff. Decent stuff I can't cope with I give to
friends or sell on eBay. But I did chuck a wall bracket assembly for an
Xpelair fan heater and regretted it. But fortunately last month I found
another!

I look forward to your suggestions, experiences and jokes. ;<)

When I was a student I kept a trolley (found in a skip) especially for
the purpose of recovery laboratory trash. Apparently it gained me
something of a reputation. Unfortunately it wasn't big to carry a spot
welder and radial drill I saw being chucked once. But a friend of mine
with a truck scored a Cincinatti milling machine a few years back.

Chris

 

[David R. Birch]

I am crossposting this question since I think it will be of general
interest...sorry if that offends someone.

Now to the questions....what kinds of electronic and mechanical "trash"
is WORTH disassembling and keeping for parts to build other projects?

What did you keep that you should have thrown long ago?

What did you throw that you still kick yourself for tossing?

I look forward to your suggestions, experiences and jokes. ;<)

TMT

Springs! I always strip springs from mechanical devices.

David

 

[[email protected]]

TMT, I have been a junk packrat for the past 30 or so years, but now I
am adopting the philosophy that if something is not useful in less than
two years, throw it away.

Storage of junk consumes valuable space that is often worth more than
the replacement cost of junk items.

Harry C.

 

[carl mciver]

| I am crossposting this question since I think it will be of general
| interest...sorry if that offends someone.
|
| Now to the questions....what kinds of electronic and mechanical "trash"
| is WORTH disassembling and keeping for parts to build other projects?
|
| What did you keep that you should have thrown long ago?
|
| What did you throw that you still kick yourself for tossing?
|
| I look forward to your suggestions, experiences and jokes. ;<)
|
| TMT

What on earth makes you think I can get all THAT in a BOX? Now that
space is becoming an issue, I'm having to start figuring out what I need to
get rid of. I'm keeping a lot of my car parts, regardless of how long I've
had them, 'cuz that make and model are history, but a lot of other stuff is
going. I've made two or three dump runs so far this year, so there's been
some progress.

 

[James Sweet]

TMT, I have been a junk packrat for the past 30 or so years, but now I
am adopting the philosophy that if something is not useful in less than
two years, throw it away.

Storage of junk consumes valuable space that is often worth more than
the replacement cost of junk items.

Harry C.

Or give it away, there's craigslist and freecycle lists in many areas, one
man's junk is another's treasure.

 

[Ignoramus11275]

I threw away probably about a million dollars worth of stuff that we
all paid for, as tax payers. (original cost). The items I salvage are:

heavy power cords
large capacitors (size of a beer can at least)
electrical terminals
ALL SCREWS
heavy semiconductor devices
fans (sometimes, not much anymore, as I have quite a few)
all interesting switches
all electric motors
some mounting hardware, which usually is very handy

I recently threw away a refrigerator, and salvaged galvanized
racks. One of them now is used as a part of my chicken coop:

http://igor.chudov.com/projects/chicks/07_Day_65/dscf0022.jpg

(look to the right)

I have a great pile of screws now, and a great pile of "I will sell it
one day" stuff. All comes quite handy at various times. One is a DPDT
30A transfer switch the size of a jumbo egg.

i

 

[Ignoramus11275]

I am most impressed.

i

I am crossposting this question since I think it will be of general
interest...sorry if that offends someone.

Now to the questions....what kinds of electronic and mechanical "trash"
is WORTH disassembling and keeping for parts to build other projects?

Don't bother with household trash. It really is trash. There isn't much
you can do with worn out vacuum cleaners, broken VCRs etc. You can take
the flyback transformers from TVs and the big power transformers from
microwave ovens, but that's about it. Sure, there'll be a gem here and
there, but if you're a serious scavenger like me household trash isn't
usually worth your time.

Factory, commercial and university/college waste is much more
worthwhile. Here in England we have "skips", which are giant rubbish
containers often hired by companies when they clear out premises etc.
But some places have a skip all the time, and the scrap metal skips can
offer especially rich pickings. Learn which organisations in your town
chuck good stuff and get friendly with the people who chuck it. Usually
you can talk them round to letting you have the stuff they chuck out. If
not and you really want it, you can sneak back in the evening and grab
it. Justify it by telling yourself you're reusing stuff and doing the
planet a favour!

In the past year or so I've scored the following (among other things):

Sun Ultra 2 workstation, 1280 MB RAM (needed hard drive, using it now!)
Two mechanical high vacuum pumps (pumps fine, had faulty motors)
Two Oertling scientific balances (one fine, I fixed the other)
Four nice 1/4 hp 1 ph. motors (all fine)
Near-new 1/2 hp 1 ph. motor (gave to a friend for his printing press)
Huge and heavy 1 hp DC motor (fine)
Six or seven 3 ph. motors (look good, not tested yet)
1 ph. watt-hour meter (fine)
Samsung 19" CRT (scratched, but gave it to a friend who polished it out)
1000 VA 230 V UK -> 115 V US transformer (works fine, nice condition)
Bunch of lab. retort stands and clamps (fine)
Hefty 3 kW Xpelair fan heater (fine, now in the workshop)
1" Jacobs chuck (end of taper had been repaired, but otherwise good)
Many SCSI enclosures (mostly good)
Anglepoise lamp for lathe (good)
SGI IRIS Indigo (now at a computer museum)
Kymograph camera (don't know what to do with it!)

What did you keep that you should have thrown long ago?

Probably the heap of damaged/poor quality electric motors I don't use
but keep for bearings, fans, pulleys etc. Also the hot water cylinder I
once intended to use as a Van de Graaff generator terminal and a heap of
broken Apple ][ hardware.

What did you throw that you still kick yourself for tossing?

I hardly ever toss stuff. Decent stuff I can't cope with I give to
friends or sell on eBay. But I did chuck a wall bracket assembly for an
Xpelair fan heater and regretted it. But fortunately last month I found
another!

I look forward to your suggestions, experiences and jokes. ;<)

When I was a student I kept a trolley (found in a skip) especially for
the purpose of recovery laboratory trash. Apparently it gained me
something of a reputation. Unfortunately it wasn't big to carry a spot
welder and radial drill I saw being chucked once. But a friend of mine
with a truck scored a Cincinatti milling machine a few years back.

Chris

--

 

[Brian Elfert]

But some places have a skip all the time, and the scrap metal skips can
offer especially rich pickings. Learn which organisations in your town

It is probably illegal to remove material from a scrap metal bin. Scrap
metal is worth money so someone will make less money if you take some.

It is better for the environment to reuse scrap metal than to recycle it,
but the local police might not like that argument.

Brian Elfert

 

[none]

Don't bother with household trash. It really is trash. There isn't much
you can do with worn out vacuum cleaners, broken VCRs etc. You can take
the flyback transformers from TVs and the big power transformers from
microwave ovens, but that's about it. Sure, there'll be a gem here and
there, but if you're a serious scavenger like me household trash isn't
usually worth your time.

Factory, commercial and university/college waste is much more
worthwhile. Here in England we have "skips", which are giant rubbish
containers often hired by companies when they clear out premises etc.
But some places have a skip all the time, and the scrap metal skips can
offer especially rich pickings. Learn which organisations in your town
chuck good stuff and get friendly with the people who chuck it. Usually
you can talk them round to letting you have the stuff they chuck out. If
not and you really want it, you can sneak back in the evening and grab
it. Justify it by telling yourself you're reusing stuff and doing the
planet a favour!

Here across the pond we call that dumpster diving, of which I am
something of a grand master.

In the past year or so I've scored the following (among other things):

Sun Ultra 2 workstation, 1280 MB RAM (needed hard drive, using it now!)
Two mechanical high vacuum pumps (pumps fine, had faulty motors)
Two Oertling scientific balances (one fine, I fixed the other)
Four nice 1/4 hp 1 ph. motors (all fine)
Near-new 1/2 hp 1 ph. motor (gave to a friend for his printing press)
Huge and heavy 1 hp DC motor (fine)
Six or seven 3 ph. motors (look good, not tested yet)
1 ph. watt-hour meter (fine)
Samsung 19" CRT (scratched, but gave it to a friend who polished it out)
1000 VA 230 V UK -> 115 V US transformer (works fine, nice condition)
Bunch of lab. retort stands and clamps (fine)
Hefty 3 kW Xpelair fan heater (fine, now in the workshop)
1" Jacobs chuck (end of taper had been repaired, but otherwise good)
Many SCSI enclosures (mostly good)
Anglepoise lamp for lathe (good)
SGI IRIS Indigo (now at a computer museum)
Kymograph camera (don't know what to do with it!)

about half the system I'm using at this moment came from toss outs.
The 17" Sony Viao monitor with built in speakers and sub woofer.(
owner tossed simply because they got a 19".)
The Microsoft internet keyboard, the Canon inkjet BJC-1000 printer.
Several PII super towers, all fully functional, as well as a couple of
PIII's that are really loaded with big drives and lots of ram.
A closet full of scsi scanners from pro level(scitex) to top end
consumer.
A closet FULL of hifi-vhs machines, all working perfectly.(use them
with security cameras as well as home taping.)
I also have a couple of mini server towers that local computer
companies tossed, one with a rather large raid stack of scsi drives.(I
use them as portable storage/backup.)
Back a couple of years ago a local widow was moving and tossed her
husbands entire electronics repair shop to the street. It took me
several trips to get it all. Frequency generators, Tone generators,
several scopes as well flyback testers and video signal generators.
complete field test units for all sorts of communications arrays from
regular broadcast to microwave. It all lines one wall of my home
repair shop.
I have several boxes of musical electronics from pedals(old analog
Boss brand) to digital tuning boxes for instruments.
Some local actually tossed a crate of JBL 15" woofers designed for
commercial/soundstage work.(I use them in speakers I build for family
and friends.)
A week doesn't go by that someone tosses a lawnmower that won't start
anymore. I just finished cleaning up a late model Honda mower where
all that was wrong was a clogged carb jet.(self propelled 3 speed
with 6.5hp ohv engine, about 499.00 US dollars.)
The local sound shops are always tossing perfectly good short runs of
monster cable or the eqivilant(ofc 14 gauge mostly.) I have several
partial spools amounting to 200 hundred feet or so total.

A local stage shop tossed 5 big gaffers bags of stage power cable.
Heavy gauge designed for 400v all wired for 120 or 240 with plugs and
breakout boxes. I'll find a use for them one day.(I used to work in
film and pro sound myself.)

A neighbor down the street put his house on the market and gave me his
complete machine and woodworking shop just for helping him clear it
all to the street.(I have several big electric motors from that as
well.)
I have a storage room full of 15"-17" monitors as well, seems all the
locals are going to LCD. I'll have enough crt's to keep me going till
they throw dirt in my face.

Like many here I also have heaps of stripped parts as well.
Everything from heaters/pumps from one hour labs equipment to system
components from pools and spa's
Wall mount water coolers(good water chillers when used with a recirc
pump, a discharge conndenser coil and a blower fan to make inexpensive
air conditioners.) as well as a small commercial boiler.

What did you keep that you should have thrown long ago?

Probably the heap of damaged/poor quality electric motors I don't use
but keep for bearings, fans, pulleys etc. Also the hot water cylinder I
once intended to use as a Van de Graaff generator terminal and a heap of
broken Apple ][ hardware.

What did you throw that you still kick yourself for tossing?

Seems whenever I toss something I turn around needing it the very next
week. Hence the reason I now NEVER toss anything.

I hardly ever toss stuff. Decent stuff I can't cope with I give to
friends or sell on eBay. But I did chuck a wall bracket assembly for an
Xpelair fan heater and regretted it. But fortunately last month I found
another!


When I was a student I kept a trolley (found in a skip) especially for
the purpose of recovery laboratory trash. Apparently it gained me
something of a reputation. Unfortunately it wasn't big to carry a spot
welder and radial drill I saw being chucked once. But a friend of mine
with a truck scored a Cincinatti milling machine a few years back.

Chris

Regrettably I missed a two lung commercial compressor a couple of
months ago. The damn thing was SO heavy I couldn't get it into the
back of my truck.(didn't stop me from nearly herniating myself trying
though!) It was a real beaut tho', 12hp with a 6ft tall tank and 8
port manifold. I'll be kicking myself on that missed treasure for a
long time.

 

[none]

New cases for electronics cost an arm and a leg. If it looks like the
case can be reused -- keep it!

AMEN! NEVER let it hit the dirt!

 

[Gunner]

I am crossposting this question since I think it will be of general
interest...sorry if that offends someone.

Now to the questions....what kinds of electronic and mechanical "trash"
is WORTH disassembling and keeping for parts to build other projects?

What did you keep that you should have thrown long ago?

What did you throw that you still kick yourself for tossing?

I look forward to your suggestions, experiences and jokes. ;<)

TMT

Bring in an inventory crew and we can discuss mine.

Gunner

"Considering the events of recent years,
the world has a long way to go to regain
its credibility and reputation with the US."
unknown

 

[Gunner]

| I am crossposting this question since I think it will be of general
| interest...sorry if that offends someone.
|
| Now to the questions....what kinds of electronic and mechanical "trash"
| is WORTH disassembling and keeping for parts to build other projects?
|
| What did you keep that you should have thrown long ago?
|
| What did you throw that you still kick yourself for tossing?
|
| I look forward to your suggestions, experiences and jokes. ;<)
|
| TMT

What on earth makes you think I can get all THAT in a BOX? Now that
space is becoming an issue, I'm having to start figuring out what I need to
get rid of. I'm keeping a lot of my car parts, regardless of how long I've
had them, 'cuz that make and model are history, but a lot of other stuff is
going. I've made two or three dump runs so far this year, so there's been
some progress.

I just brought home (tonite) 1000 lbs of mixed bar stock in 10'
joints. Lots of leadloy, a fair amount of 303, 316, 304, 17-4, 440C,
Brass, a few bits of bronze. Lots of tiny diameter "bars", most
..375-.5, some up to 3"

Screw machine company was scrapping all the stock they couldnt find
the certs for. Everything labeled..but no certs so it was unusable.

And they tossed in the material racks to go with it.

And by the good graces of Jerry M, who posts here, a scrapped pressure
washer that will be investigated in the morning to see if the pump is
good, then modified and reworked for here at the homestead.

Gunner

"Considering the events of recent years,
the world has a long way to go to regain
its credibility and reputation with the US."
unknown