DIY Earth-Friendlier Stompboxes (the thread)

[newfish]

How cool was that post about plastics?

I used to work for an automotive PVC manufacturer (not in a science kind of way though...) and it was all above my head.

I believe you can also recycle the plastic that surrounds your beers - the little 4 (or 6) hole thing that holds them together in the fridge.

I've seen people press lots of these together, put a sheet of greaseproof paper over and iron it all into one flat sheet of plastic.

...obviously on a suitable surface underneath (and another greaseproof sheet).

[Krinor]

Just a little note here which is pretty obvious, but anyway; On my own part I intend to buy a breadboard. That will save a lot of little perfboard bits from getting thrown away...

Very interesting comments about pcb's etc. There must be some kind of alternative material ? Or maybe some new ideas or approaches to a point-to-point kind of prosess ? Maybe someone could post their knowledge on non conductive materials which could be used for solder terminal projects ?

[dschwartz]

reading around about casein plastic, found out that you have to mix it with formaline to make it harder as bakelite...but formaldehid is pretty toxic...

[earthtonesaudio]

Thanks for the very informative post, Frank!

Just want to point out, that the plastics that are numbered (in the U.S. anyway) 1-7 are all recyclable.  Unfortunately not every town/city/county participates.  So, some cities (like mine) may pick up all consumer grade plastics, but other cities will only take maybe #1 and #2.

My parents and in-laws bring their #3 through #7 plastics over to my place whenever they visit.  We fill up our recycling bins quite full.

is that milk plastic good enough for knobs for example??

Easily.  My parents have a TABLE TOP made out of it.  It is cream-coloured and about 1/2 or 5/8 inch thick.  It seems about as strong as bakelite or glass.

reading around about casein plastic, found out that you have to mix it with formaline to make it harder as bakelite...but formaldehid is pretty toxic...

-Brett, do you know if your parents' tabletop is just plain old (non-toxic) casein plastic, or is it the stuff dschwartz is talking about?

[runmikeyrun]

testes damage???  I better stay away from that!!!  

[frank_p]

testes damage???  I better stay away from that!!!  

Just like with the Fender Twin Reverb lifting. 

[newb]

i Love this thread another idea for re-using other devices for pedals computer speakers often come with a circut board that includes a 8 pin ic . with some work a ruby can easily be built into a computer speaker on its board. I am currently looking at an old one right now which has a 2w speaker and a circut board with an 8pin ic, 2 switches (1 dpdt and one 3 position switch), an led and a dc jack.

i think il make a ruby or litte gem this weerkend.

il post back with pictures.

peace
scott

[dschwartz]

yes, and the PSU´s are a pretty good source of caps and other parts.. the box make an excellent enclosure for a ruby amp, putting the speaker in the ventilation holes...

[earthtonesaudio]

yes, and the PSU´s are a pretty good source of caps and other parts.. the box make an excellent enclosure for a ruby amp, putting the speaker in the ventilation holes...

They also make good power supplies... 

[amz-fx]

Solar powering stompboxes:

http://www.muzique.com/news/?p=5

http://www.muzique.com/news/?p=22

regards, Jack

[frank_p]

I have a LOT (about 15) of old computers that had been given to me (they don't work anymore).
Plus all the power supplies that came with them.

Now what is worth pulling out of those.  I see on the net that some guys do collections of the chips they get from computers.
Most electrolytics are 6.3 v so I guess it's not worth the trouble.  (I've pulled 20 of them for nothing (?))
Some CPU heat sinks are great for making a small power amp.
Plenty of leds, switches, small 8 Ohm speakers.  etc...

The old ones are better since the new boards are surface mounted.

What do you think is worth recycling ?

[demonstar]

Hey funny I should stumble upon this thread because about four hours ago I was feeling very disgruntled that I just could not find a suitable piece of metal that I wanted for my theremin antenna. I decided to have a wander out the village to an area where I know people fly-tip and low and behold there is a perfect piece of metal for my antenna.

Hows that for recycling. 

[Praying_V]

Almost everyone here orders from Smallbear at some point.  You know when your parts show up, and you have a tiny little plastic bag for each single different part you ordered??? 

If you guys order from Smallbear, try asking him to just ship everything in a single bag, or no bag, just the envelope if you're feeling daring.  I think thats a fair request!  I doubt you could give Mouser such a request, but I think Steve would listen.

I always save those little bags and try to use them whenever I can, but over the years, I must have over a hundred piling up now...  Who needs em...?...

[earthtonesaudio]

Good idea about reducing the plastic bags!  That's one of those "little things" that can really add up if all of us do it.  I will try that with my next order for sure.

Frank, you could modify the power supply for use with a medium-sized guitar amp, possibly.  There are plenty of chip-amp setups that run on under 24V, and most PSUs have +12 and -12, with current available to make useful wattage.  I mean to try this at some point in the future, but I don't really need another amp at the moment...

There are some considerations to using a PSU for non-computer purposes, like providing a load for the +5, making sure the "sense" wires are connected right, and physically getting the wires out of the PSU box and into your project, but it's all doable.  There are lots of articles online.  Search for "converting PSU or ATX power supply" and you'll find what you need.


If you just want to scavenge parts off the old computers rather than re-use the power supply, there are some goodies in there.  I've seen people use the disk drives as pedal enclosures, for example.  There are fans and motors in there too, which can be used for their intended purpose or used for their other functions.  I bet you could get some inductor action out of a disk drive motor.  But maybe not much.

[demonstar]

Personally I find recieving the products all in separate little bags really helpful and time saving. I don't think Farnell's approach to shipping my order of transistors was too eco-friendly mind. I ordered 50 2n3904 and 50 2n3906 amongst other things and every 5 transistors were in their own bag. So for just those two itemst here were twenty bags. I'm not unhappy because in the scheme of things it doesn't bother me and I think Farnell are a great company and have always impressed me but it does make you wonder if big companies could be doing a little more to cut back on packaging. They also send even a small pack of diodes in a anti static bag then in a box lined with antistatic foam then in a big box or bubble wrapped envelope. That to me is good service and care for delivering their products. However this can't be great for the environment.

What we must remember is sometimes what seems good for environment isn't always. Take a energy saving light bulb in a home. Most of the in efficiencies in a standard light buld are that heat is given off. In a home environment the heating in the home is just going to have to do more work to make up for the extra heat needed to heat the house because the new energy saving bulbs aren't kicking out as much heat. Overall theres no net gain there.

Anyhow it's just a thought.

[frank_p]

Personally I find recieving the products all in separate little bags really helpful and time saving. I don't think Farnell's approach to shipping my order of transistors was too eco-friendly mind. I ordered 50 2n3904 and 50 2n3906 amongst other things and every 5 transistors were in their own bag. So for just those two itemst here were twenty bags. I'm not unhappy because in the scheme of things it doesn't bother me and I think Farnell are a great company and have always impressed me but it does make you wonder if big companies could be doing a little more to cut back on packaging. They also send even a small pack of diodes in a anti static bag then in a box lined with antistatic foam then in a big box or bubble wrapped envelope. That to me is good service and care for delivering their products. However this can't be great for the environment.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=65812.msg530296#msg530296
Still sorting...
Paper brown bags are fine.

What we must remember is sometimes what seems good for environment isn't always. Take a energy saving light bulb in a home. Most of the in efficiencies in a standard light buld are that heat is given off. In a home environment the heating in the home is just going to have to do more work to make up for the extra heat needed to heat the house because the new energy saving bulbs aren't kicking out as much heat. Overall theres no net gain there.

+ 2

Plus if you have your electricity from hydraulic source you're not putting out too much greenhouse gases.  And then, when the energy saver light bulb is finished, you're throwing all that electronic power supply in the landfill...

[kurtlives]

Just on the plastic bag note....

I save all mine and keep them organized by size. I use them to hold different resistors, caps etc. I re-use them a second time when I ship stuff to people.

[earthtonesaudio]

What we must remember is sometimes what seems good for environment isn't always. Take a energy saving light bulb in a home. Most of the in efficiencies in a standard light buld are that heat is given off. In a home environment the heating in the home is just going to have to do more work to make up for the extra heat needed to heat the house because the new energy saving bulbs aren't kicking out as much heat. Overall theres no net gain there.

Anyhow it's just a thought.

I don't want to diverge too much from the topic, but I have to disagree a little bit on this point.  The standard incandescent light bulb does not make a good heater.  Think about it, you don't come home in the chill of winter and go "brrr, I'm going to turn on more lights," but you do crank up the heat.  And what about in the summer?  Anyway my point is that compact fluorescents (CFLs) really do make a net improvement in energy use over the course of a year.  Incandescents do waste a lot of energy in the form of heat, but they probably don't make even a tenth of a degree's difference in heating a home.  Now if you used CFL's in the summer and infrared heat lamps during the winter, that's completely different...

Which brings me back to this sentence: "What we must remember is sometimes what seems good for environment isn't always."  Now that, I agree with.  Compact fluorescents are a great example.  They cut down on energy use for the consumer, but they take more energy to make, and contain things that are very tricky to dispose of like mercury.  LED's are even more efficient but most of them contain gallium arsenide which is super toxic (though you don't quite have to worry about cracking an LED open and letting the toxic crap out like you can with a fluorescent).

There are two places you can cut down on energy use: supply side and demand side.  Assuming the "green" movement is just a fad and will fade away like it did in the '80s, your money is better spend improving the supply side.  Most power plants last 20 years, and it's easier to control pollution from one source than from many.  Unfortunately most of them are coal powered because it's the status quo for the utility companies.  But there are some excellent alternatives out there.  Solar, wind, geothermal, and tidal power all produce energy without pollution and without permanently altering ecosystems.  You can't even say that about hydroelectric, as good as it is, because a lake where a valley used to be is quite disruptive to the ecosystem, and eventually even the biggest dams will fill up with sediment.

I guess the main thing is that there are lots of details to consider when it comes to minimizing your environmental impact.  The good thing is there are fanatics out there (like me) who will do the research for you.  ...The bad thing is there are fanatics out there who will say the exact opposite!


...Anyway I'll stop my rant and get back to the topic!

Just on the plastic bag note....

I save all mine and keep them organized by size. I use them to hold different resistors, caps etc. I re-use them a second time when I ship stuff to people.

I do the same thing.  It starts to balance things out after a while... as the number of re-uses approaches infinity, the pollution value of the baggie approaches zero... 

[demonstar]

I don't want to diverge too much from the topic, but I have to disagree a little bit on this point.

Cool, your point is interesting. I wouldn't know enough to know which theory contained more truth, It was just something I read.

Anyhow I don't want to side-track your thread.

[John Blund]

Perhaps a silly ide but could you lessen the current draw of a circuit by using a capacitive voltage divider instead of a pot? maybe use rotary switch to change cap values...