Salvaging used components - Good idea?

[MrAl]

Hi,

Yes they work pretty good too sometimes, i do the same thing with some parts.
I was able to pick up a box a while back, they are 1/2 sandwich size and with zip lock tops. Not bad for small parts.
I dont trust writing with Sharpie alone however, i use a cut off piece of index card and write on both sides, then stick it into the bag with the parts. I have found that Sharpie rubs off too easy. Using it on the index card works better because it cant come off, and it makes a nice thick font so it is easy to view when looking for a certain bag. It also helps to keep the bags in a particular order so you can always find the one you want if you keep a log.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I too have a bunch of Germaniums...can't figure out what to do with them but don't want to toss them.

They are in demand from 'guitar nuts', trying to recreate the sound of antique fuzz boxes - generally though their problem is they aren't good enough guitarists

 

[dr pepper]

I'm with you on that one throbs, no matter what your doing you allways have something to hand, esp ferrite cores, with a simple bh curve tracer and a lc meter ferrite are plenty reuseable.

I have some ad161 geraniums knocking about, in fact I think I've a bryan germanium power amp somewhere in the depths, maybe I should ebay that.

 

[rickselectricalprojects]

i salvage 80% of my parts and most of my circuits work so i would say that salvaging is fine but i always test my parts before i use them

 

[gary350]

I picked up 2 more Road Mart TVs along the street today. I got 45 power resistors 1w to 20w, 2 voltage regulators 7800 series, 2 mosfets, 3 large electrolitic capacitors, 6 High Voltage caps, 6 resistors 1/2 watt, about 20 small in the 250uf to 450uf range, several aluminum heat sinks, 2 chokes and several good hook up wires.

There is a lot more parts on these circuit boards but I just don't need them. TV picture tubes and plastic case are already on the street. The circuits boards are going back to the street.

The 4 foot wide big screen TVs on wheels have better parts than the 150 lb. plastic case TVs.

 

[dr pepper]

Yes thats true, plasma's and rear projections have much more complex power supplies and therefore more goodies.

 

[fezder]

i'll mostly take relays, heatsinks, transformers, connectors, fuses, and connectors. and big semiconductors/resistors, harder to break them when desoldering.
and bigger caps, if they seem to be healthy

 

[tvtech]

Hiya Fez

Got a bit of stuff to deal with here again. How's Finland Buddy??

Cold enough for you

Regards,
tv

 

[Honduras]

No matter how many parts you salvage, it is not simple to remember what is in the drawers. You ned an inventory but you risk to become a slave of it. Nothing I like.

Stupid excercise as it could seem, just opening boxes and drawers from time to time, helps to refresh the list in your mind.

If you do not remember it, you do not have it.

One thing I always try to save are power supplies.

Very good advice.

 

[Honduras]

I had a business for a while, rebuilding antique test equipment. Tube testers, Capacitance meters, inductance meter, high precision ohm meters.

My advice, based on the things I have needed to replace to get the items close to calibration, is that, if it was made before the 1950s, only the mechanical parts are worth salvaging. Even the wiring is suspect. I had to replace every single wire in a tube tester once. Was it worth the effort? No.

 

[dr pepper]

Maybe if you are working on test gear that might be appropriate, and certainly on equipment 60 years old or more.
That said I have a 1936 radio that is mainly original and it still works well for a near 80 year old.

On pcb's a hot air gun, like the kind used to strip paint is great for pulling bits off, just heat the board and pluck with a pair of bird beaks, even multi pin smps transformers just pull off with ease.

Interesting business restoring test gear.

 

[Honduras]

Maybe if you are working on test gear that might be appropriate, and certainly on equipment 60 years old or more.
That said I have a 1936 radio that is mainly original and it still works well for a near 80 year old.

On pcb's a hot air gun, like the kind used to strip paint is great for pulling bits off, just heat the board and pluck with a pair of bird beaks, even multi pin smps transformers just pull off with ease.

Interesting business restoring test gear.

TYVM for the tip. Like many things, I haven't tried that.

I love old test equipment. I still have quite a bit, and use it whenever possible. Some of it is just plain beautiful. The precision ohmeter was in a polished mahogany case with 4 Velvet Verniers among the controls.

 

[granddad]

Back in the 80's my company once scrapped some newish large i think Hitatchi disk drives ( 500Mb but crashed ) they had 2 or 3 , 10"x 8"boards with several hundred TTL Cmos, leds transistors and resistors with legs on , I took a plumbers blow torch to the solder side while tapping the board, most just fell out cleanly, I finished up with lots of useful numbered bits ... Ah the good old days !
Edit
Thinking about this , not very sensible given as pcbs contain loads of poisions , DONT TRY THIS

 

[Honduras]

That said I have a 1936 radio that is mainly original and it still works well for a near 80 year old.

Some of those old radios were built with the with premium components. Almost everything I've seen from back then needed 90% cap replacement, and most of the resistors. Then a complete realignment, because of the component values being what they originally were. Lot's of work, but very rewarding.

 

[gary350]

Part values have strange markings I am not accustom to. It appears each manufacture is different.

Capacitor .1k .2k = .1 uf 200 volts

Power Resistor .56 ohm K, sorry I can not make an ohms symbol on the key board. My meter says .56 ohms but I dont know what the K means?

Tiny caps too small for more than a few letters says .1u2v = .1uf 200v

High voltages caps only marked as 2k = 2000 volts, I have to test it with my meter to find the value.

The Blue and Green body color 1/4w resistors are impossible for me to read the color bands, even with a bright light and 4" diameter magnifier.

Some capacitors are marked 24, 25, 26, 27, etc turns out all the 24 = .1, all the 25=.22, all the 26= .33, all the 27=.47uf, manufacture coding. Same type capacitors same color probably same manufacture marked 34 ,35, 36, 37 are .1, .22, .33, .47 uf since they are phycially larger they are probably higher voltage.

 

[Honduras]

Part values have strange markings I am not accustom to. It appears each manufacture is different.

Capacitor .1k .2k = .1 uf 200 volts

Power Resistor .56 ohm K, sorry I can not make an ohms symbol on the key board. My meter says .56 ohms but I dont know what the K means?

Tiny caps too small for more than a few letters says .1u2v = .1uf 200v

High voltages caps only marked as 2k = 2000 volts, I have to test it with my meter to find the value.

The Blue and Green body color 1/4w resistors are impossible for me to read the color bands, even with a bright light and 4" diameter magnifier.

Some capacitors are marked 24, 25, 26, 27, etc turns out all the 24 = .1, all the 25=.22, all the 26= .33, all the 27=.47uf, manufacture coding. Same type capacitors same color probably same manufacture marked 34 ,35, 36, 37 are .1, .22, .33, .47 uf since they are phycially larger they are probably higher voltage.

That's a problem I have run into too many times.

1. I never start a rebuild without a schematic.

2. If I can't read a component value off the component, it goes in the trash.

3. After that, I start replacing components with known values to match the schematics.

This is tricky with capacitors because actual capacitor values vary with capacitor type. If indicated on the schematic, try to use the same type of cap they did, but please keep in mind there are several types of electrolytic capacitors with widely dissimilar capacitance characteristics, but the same ratings.

 

[fezder]

Hiya Fez

Got a bit of stuff to deal with here again. How's Finland Buddy??

Cold enough for you

Regards,
tv

as for weather, now it's pretty good. managed to continue my project for new work-lamp, now i need just to think how do i install 1w power leds w/heatsinks to lamp base....
otherwise pretty good, decided to quit my part-time job. had daily issues, stress and such, and the fact the salary is just ridiculous for such job, there are better jobs to be sure, and i'we had lost my even minimal passion for about month ago. no worries, boss and i, along with colleagues parted in good mood, no hard feelings!

 

[throbscottle]

Completely OT here, but I suddenly got interested in where people live. So first I looked to see where Murfreesboro is, then I looked to see where Mikkeli is. Then I got a bit of a surprise - hold a straight edge to the screen between the two and it passes through the England/Scotland border. Now I'm wondering if it was a line that is curved to match the Earth, whose town(s) would it pass through? (to re-phrase, would it go through where I live?)

 

[JimB]

Then I got a bit of a surprise - hold a straight edge to the screen between the two and it passes through the England/Scotland border.

Ahh, the confusuion caused by the Mercator map projection.
If you try the same exercise using a globe and a piece of string, you will find that the direct path from Mikkeli to Murfreesboro actually passes across the north of Iceland.
At school in O level geography we were taught that a Mercator projection retains the angular directions, it seems to do nothing of the sort, where that idea came from I have no idea.

JimB

 

[throbscottle]

Huh, that's it, I wanna globe for Christmas. Okay, any members live in the north of Iceland then???