Score! The rewards of dumpster diving

[The Iron Chef]

This past Monday at work I rescued about 25' (8m) of rg-174 co-ax cable and about 2 dozen
dialco 558 panel mount leds. http://www.dialight.com/Product.aspx?prod=5580202001F&cat=111
What have you found lateley?

-Keith

[nelson]

This past Monday at work I rescued about 25' (8m) of rg-174 co-ax cable and about 2 dozen
dialco 558 panel mount leds. http://www.dialight.com/Product.aspx?prod=5580202001F&cat=111
What have you found lateley?

-Keith

Yesterday I found a wotsit in my bellybutton.

[jalien21]

found an old telephone that me and a buddy turned into an arduino synth- phonosynthesis

[347sixtyseven]

Got a computer donated to me to strip and found that almost every part of it was an upgrade for my current desktop 

[petemoore]

 
  Ever since we got these new trash cans the pickin's are slim !
  I actually kind of miss being part of the pickin' crowd, and sorting out the prize possesions.
  I have some 'ol loaded puter boards down there still in the CRT boxes...
  I outloaded massive quantities of old CRT and printer and cassette and Ohm Meter and reciever, also TV and anything else with at a knob or cable attached. I'm talking about very large boxes and bags of mostly salvaged, dirty PCBs, chassis's...a gangly ugly mess [snipping or otherwise removing the cables greatly decreases handling difficulties] !
  This made me feel sincerely as though in some slight way, I had contributed time to reduce waste etc. I miss going out on the bicycle pickin' patrol missions, then the car would swing around for pickin' pickup partrol for larger items.
  I know where there's some good stuff layin' around. People forget you asked to have it before it's trash...and I don't like repeatedly asking, old tube organ goodies I would love to have...some Sansui stuff that...oh, I also have some fresh garbage technologies that still work, reciever, recorders already are stacked on the shelves.
  Glad you asked / which reminds me, the recorder [ouch !] has tube amp ! I haven't diddled with that one yet, I saw a 6v6 in there w/ ext. input, hafta see what the PS is like on that.   

[Nasse]

They were cleaning the house in another building another city at my work. A friend phoned me and said if I want to see if there is something useful I must go and see. I saved some old gear for our museum. And then there was an unused (spare part) 70´s or 80´s big Philips tape recorder dc motor, few bags of components like resistors caps and semiconductors, and 500 VA UPS, and 12 volt transformer with dual secondary and 10 amperes

[Joe Hart]

 
  Ever since we got these new trash cans the pickin's are slim !
     

In October, my town got new trash bins that have made trash day very sad for me!! I've found so much cool stuff over the years (not just old electronics, but even guitars!). Ahhh. How sad.
-Joe Hart

[ayayay!]

Latest finds:  160Gb Hard Drive (woot!)

2 spools of alarm wire:  Ten conductors, 24 guage, prebonded, 12 strand conductor, color coded.  Helllooooo hookup wire!!!

Combined two really crappy wah's to make 1 really awesome one. 

Harvested a few more trim pots from dead laserjet printers. 

[petemoore]

  I like when the printers come with the power supply, I usually just go for that.
  I dissected a printer or two and found it to have less rewarding innards than say a monitor.

[puretube]

This thread (once again) reminds me of one of the saddest days in my life... 

[km-r]

i just got home from a gig and when i opened my bag, i found out i brought home one of the xlr cables that mustve belonged to that gig's pa system...

[Gregory Kollins]

That happens to me all the time, just the other way around...

[birt]

a friend of mine had an AC30 in for repair. the owner was a bass player who found the amp on a dumpster and wanted it fixed so he could sell it.

it still had the original silver bell speakers. Six inputs grey panels. moist stains all over it...
after resoldering some wires we played it and it sounded fantastic.

i just wish i was the one to find that amp

[km-r]

a friend of mine had an AC30 in for repair. the owner was a bass player who found the amp on a dumpster and wanted it fixed so he could sell it.

it still had the original silver bell speakers. Six inputs grey panels. moist stains all over it...
after resoldering some wires we played it and it sounded fantastic.

i just wish i was the one to find that amp

totally unfair 

[tednet]

I never can get anything from trash... we've got gypsies in Bulgaria which are like trash patrol... they collect anything of value under 15 min after it has been thrown out ;( (not trying to be racist or something, but thats the cold harsh truth )

[DougH]

I found a toilet plunger and rubber band and built an all analog intelligent harmonics generator...





(Just kidding... )


Mentioned it before but I get $5 surplus aluminum modem boxes that make great amp chassi. And then inside there are lot of useful parts, silver micas, etc.

[Minion]

I recently found two dead 5.1 Surround systems...One has 7 TDA7293 100w DMos Power amp Ic"s in it as well as a 2x24v 400vA Torroid , the other had 5 TDA2030 Chips and 2 TDA2050 chips with a 2 x 14v 200vA Torriod in it , all chips and Transformers from both Work perfectly....

[superferrite]

Found some ICs I could use in a laser light control system in the alley behind my house.
The old Sony receiver at work died and I got lots of Ge diodes and transistors last month (yeah!).

We were in Bulgaria about 20 years ago and our buddy said they didn't have junk yards for old cars--everyone just fixed up their Moskviches and Skodas for ever and ever!

[runmikeyrun]

 
  Ever since we got these new trash cans the pickin's are slim !

Agreed.  I hate our new trash cans for that reason.  Most everything except a large console stereo fits inside there.  Although i did get a weight bench with bars and weights a month ago! 

I never can get anything from trash... we've got gypsies in Bulgaria which are like trash patrol... they collect anything of value under 15 min after it has been thrown out ;( (not trying to be racist or something, but thats the cold harsh truth )

we've got those too... not gypsies but scrappers.  My wife and I call them the junk trucks.  They squeak up and down the street in ratty old pickups and pull anything of value out of the trash.  Anything for scrap metal but also anything that can be re-sold for a few bucks.  There must be a dozen of them or more that start coming around noon the day before trash day.  The sad part is they are simply scrapping or re-selling the stuff, not putting it to good use, so lose out on a project.  But to be doing that they must be pretty hard up so i can't complain too much.

I have scored some nice old Altec speakers, a 1958 Zenith tube record player (which i sold because it was mono... got it working though!), a couple of car subwoofer boxes, TVs, computers, boom boxes, all kinds of stuff over the years.  The best picking is the couple days before the end of the month- everyone moving out (or being evicted/foreclosed nowadays) cleans house. 

[petemoore]

   Well, those of us who still are able to recycle these components can thank ourselves for doing a good job !