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Favorite Spot for Assortments?

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Andy1845c

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The "Junk Shops" topic got me thinking. What is the best place to get cheap assorted components? I never seem to have the stuff I need on hand, and that makes it really hard to actually finish anything..... I save alot of used stuff, but ceramic caps and resistors don't save very well, and I never find any basic ICs that are of much use to me. I've looked at jameco and looked on ebay, but either the price seems high, or they don't really have what I want.

So I guess it comes down to, is there a place out there that sells new, mixed components at a bargin price? Like a 5 gallon pail of loose mixed stuff. :D I don't really mind if the leads have been clipped for PC boards. Or if I need to spend alot of time sorting.

I just got the perfect cabinet for parts and need to fill it up! lol
 
I am not saying it is the best place but.
The electronic goldmine sells what they call the Super Electronic Surprise Box G9321

The one I got had 100s of electrolitic capacitors 1uf to 2000uf. Some of the caps are large for their size, newer = smaller. Also had a nice 3inch heatsink with fan. Much of the rest was junk.

Be prepared to spend a LOT of time sorting.

I order new IC's and transistors. The chances of finding used or surplus it very small.

A new resistor assortment can be had from radio shack for not too much money. IIRC they have two assortments, get the larger which is under $10.

3v0
 
I'd suggest you think about what you want to have in your parts cabinet. assortment packs can be good for getting random stuff but it's often not what you will use. I've gotten a number of these over the years and still have the vast majority of what i got.

On resistors and caps, you can get assortments for 12-14 bucks from a number of places. glitchbuster was (is) going out of business with some good prices and I bought a ton of different value resistors from him. at $.27 per bag of 12, I got about 30 values for a bit less than $8. pretty good deal.

There are a number of people selling "kits" on ebay. these often comprise parts with a common theme (audio, op amp, ...) for experimenting. I've had good luck there.

You will (may already have) discovered that certain values are used a lot more than others - 10K resistors, 2N3904s, 100 nF caps, 1N400x rectifiers and so on. I often order those from places like Mouser - when you buy 25 or 100, you get a really good deal.

Also, I keep an eye on the surplus places (goldmine, all, ...) for special deals. I stock up on those.
 
Don't forget e-bay, the price can be a little higher but there are a few buyers that sells misc lots (with photo's) of surplus stuff they can't or don't want to sell individually. I plan on picking up a couple electronics surprlus kits myself and see what they really have in, for 6 bucks you really can't complain. If you don't have much a 'bits box' for electronics yet I'd go that route.
 
Another thing to do - rather than investing money in large volume of unknown stuff - consider purchasing some common components from places like Digi-Key, Jameco, etc. It's not too hard to scan thru schematics for projects that might be coming up and a make a list. I keep transistors like 2N3904/06, 2N2222, MPF102, 2N3055 around. They are cheap. LM741, LM358, LM339, LM311 - op amps/comparators work for me. I've plenty of digital ICs but numbers aren't coming to me.

The advantage of this is that you'll know what you have, you can pull a spec sheet, etc.
 
Just scab parts from old PC monitors and the like. Then you'll get a nice lot of regulator chips, mosfets, quality resistors, caps, etc. The only downside would be that the parts have use on them and may need tested before placing them in storage bins for future projects. I have a shoebox full of those components awaiting sorting and testing. I expect it will get accomplished when it rains forty days and forty nights!;)
 
HiTech said:
Just scab parts from old PC monitors and the like.

lol, that where almost all the parts I have came from. Tvs, monitors, stereos. I have the burnt PCB scented jacket to prove it. I never have much luck getting small resistors, diodes or ceramic caps though.:(
 
Andy, The next time you get up to the Twin Cities (minneapolis/st. Paul), head to a place called "Ax Man". They have some awesome stuff... There is two locations in the cities. I have only been to one...

Here is their homepage; https://www.ax-man.com/


They have some weird misc there, but the store in St. Paul (the one i have been to) has a whole room filled with electronics (boxes upon boxes of resistors, caps, pots, motors[all the way from .5vdc to 480vac!], etc)
 
Wow... that makes 2 people from here that know what Axman is. lol :eek: I didn't know they had more then one location. I've been to the university ave. location. I grew up not too far from there. Last time I was there, and its been a few years, it seemed it was less electronic surplus, and more junk. But I suppose it constantly changes. I'll have to check back somtime when i'm in the area.
 
It is great! They don't have too many ICs(if any), but they do have some "nice" things...
 
They also sell IC grab bags that have a lot of linear parts.
 
For resistors, buy a kit of 10 of each of the E12 values of metal film resistors and extra 100R, 470R, 1k, 100k.

For capacitors buy a load of 100nF ceramic discs.

Remember though that most components are so cheap that it isn't worth keeping huge stocks of them.
 
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