Salvaging used components - Good idea?

[tunedwolf]

Two nice magnets in them

Do folks still make Levitrons?

 

[dr pepper]

A very dangerous microwave transmitter, or gunnplexer with a range of 150 miles.

Parts are good, but useless if not organized.

 

[MrAl]

Hi,

Dr Pepper:
That's an interesting idea. Like a radar unit i could mount on the roof and track planes
That would make some heck of a transmitter i bet if you could get it right.

Nigel:
Oh is that what those two things in the core are? I wonder how strong they are.

 

[DerStrom8]

Magnetrons are VERY dangerous. If you crack or crush the pieces around the antenna, the dust is extremely toxic and can cause serious health issues. Besides that, Magnetrons emit intense microwaves that can cause harm if not shielded properly. In most cases I recommend simply disposing of them, not saving them. Getting the magnets out can be a risky procedure.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

That's an interesting idea. Like a radar unit i could mount on the roof and track planes
That would make some heck of a transmitter i bet if you could get it right.

Be heck of a jail sentence as well

 

[Reloadron]

IMHO, the most valuable components are the mechanical things, like switches, connectors, and hardware. Resistors and capacitors are a waste of time. Big inductors, like from SMPS, are valuable, if you know what they are. IC's are probably irrelevant. If they are labeled, MCU's are protected and cheap. Other logic chips are also cheap. If they have proprietary labels, forget it. There may be some rare IC's with value. But it is certainly not worth the time to remove most of the IC's, identify them, label them, and catalog.

John

That would be my thinking on the subject. For years I would save things like computer motherboards and PSUs as well as other stuff. Junk piled on junk that I never used. Now trying to get rid of a mountain of junk circuit boards that I never found time to strip of components is a pain. Can't place them on the tree lawn as trash so I need to wait for electronic disposal opportunities. Good stuff, yes I save but not nickel and dime junk.

Ron

 

[dr pepper]

Beryliosis is very nasty, you dont want to get it.

 

[Rich D.]

I'm with Gary350. I love taking apart old stuff and getting free parts!!

About 30 years ago as a teen, I took apart every old thing I could get my hands on. TV's, microwaves, stereos, washing machines, radios... anything.
Pretty much everything has at least a AC plug & cord or power switch, and to me that is enough reason.

Two good things I got from that besides the parts collection is that I have intimate knowledge of how electronics designers assembled devices...how PCBs are mounted, interconnect wiring, etc. and the second thing is that I spent so much time sorting resistors that I have the color code down cold. I see the color stripes and it's like I am reading the numerals right on the package - it's that ingrained in my brain. When you see black-brown-yellow and think for a moment, I see 100K immediately. It even freaks me out!

Lately I haven't been "harvesting" so much so recently when I took apart a relatively "new" Sony tube TV, I was amazed at all the new parts. Just the heatsinks in there were worth the effort. I also got a ton of caps, MOSFETS, power resistors and such. Many of those parts are in new projects already. Sure, things like caps may not be good, but I always test those used devices before I use them in a critical circuit. Yes, maybe the original device didn't work, but it could be that only one of the thousand parts was bad - I'll accept those odds.

I even make a grab for the cheap parts, but don't spend a lot of time on them (like little resistors or caps.) I just heat up the solder and give them a good solid yank. If the part gets damaged, no great loss. I just move on to the next part. I end up with a pile of stuff like that picture up there with the purple heatsink, and to me that is the end result of a great weekend!

I nearly cried the day I had to toss my old 36" Zenith TV. I just didn't have the time and space for it when it blew up. But someday...I WILL take apart another 36" Zenith!

 

[MrAl]

Hello again,

Yes i realize there are dangers associated with the mishandling of some parts of a microwave oven and so i apply the necessary cautions.
Too bad Madame Curie didnt have any idea what she was getting into.
Gravity is killing us all anyway

I checked the magnets. They re pretty big and strong ceramic type magnets. It looks like they may slide off the center core once the two tabs on the top plate are bent slightly, but i didnt try that.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I checked the magnets. They re pretty big and strong ceramic type magnets. It looks like they may slide off the center core once the two tabs on the top plate are bent slightly, but i didnt try that.

I've taken magnets out of large numbers of them, it's pretty easy

 

[MrAl]

I've taken magnets out of large numbers of them, it's pretty easy

Hi,

Sounds good, are they glued in or just stay in due to pressure from the top plate or something?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Hi,

Sounds good, are they glued in or just stay in due to pressure from the top plate or something?

They aren't glued, simply held in place by the surrounding metal.

 

[gary350]

A very dangerous microwave transmitter, or gunnplexer with a range of 150 miles.

Parts are good, but useless if not organized.

That is not exactly true. Depends on what you call organized.

I have my parts is empty green bean cans, vegetable cans, 1 pint soup cans, 1 quart juice cans, coffee cans. All the cans take up a very small space 2 feet wide on a 12" wide shelf. Last night I needed a .47uf capacitor so I dumped a CAN of small size caps on the work bench, pushed them around with my finger under the magnifing glass with good light and found what I wanted in about 15 seconds.

If I had all these parts completely organized I would not have room in my garage for all the storage bens to seperate all the parts. That 1 CAN would have to be sorted into 50 different BENS that will take up 50 times more space for all the different voltage ranges, and all the different uf ranges for the caps in this 1 can. 20 cans of part would become 1000 bens of part if orginazed.

An orginazed ben of 1000 would take up the whole 1 side of my work shop. That would cost a bunble of money and take months to sort all the parts.

YES it would be GREAT to have better organized parts but that is not practical. Keep parts seperate according to physical size and type makes it easy to find what I need very quick. Resistors are orginazed by 1/4w, 1/2w and power resistors. Caps are originized by electronics in 5 different sizes. Other caps are orginized by type and size too in 4 cans. Mosfets in 1 can, voltage regulators in 1 can, diodes in 1 can, transistors in 1 can, IC packs in 1 can, chokes in 1 can, small transformers in 1 can, small heat sinks in 1 can, etc. I have no trouble finding any part I need in less than 1 minute.

 

[dr pepper]

Woa.
Thats not far off what I do, I didnt mean super organized couldnt be bothered.
I have electro's in drawers in decades 1u to 10u, to220 fets in another, fuses in decades, x rated caps by physical size etc.
Like you say its enough just to have approximate storage.
What I was thinking about and I've seen this is when you have a workbench with 100s or 1000s of comps strewn all over, that or 20 cake tins with 'components' written on the side, this kind of storage doesnt work.

 

[MrAl]

Hi,

I think the storage method should match the parts types and quantity.
For example, i have all my low value ceramic caps in a case with dividers with each compartment marked with the range of values in that compartment. Same for most of my 1 percent resistors. For other parts that are somewhat random in that they dont fit exactly into any category where you would want to put them all together (like you do with resistors) i keep them in small boxes marked with the date they were acquired. Keeping a list of what is inside each box helps to find them faster.
When i buy new parts i just keep the list that i had when i ordered them, either made up myself or copied from the web site that i ordered from. Putting that into a text file and marking the date, that gives me a list of what is inside the box with little effort on my part.
A search program i made up to search for parts helps me find any part in any of the text files because it looks through every file in the directory. So for example i might enter "1 ohm" and it will find every box that has the text "1 ohm" in it and then when i open the text file with the search program it goes to the line where the text was found and it might read, "1 ohm 5 watts", or "1 ohm 1/4 watt 1 percent", or something like that. It's not perfect but it works pretty good overall.
If i had to look though every single type of container i have parts in every time i needed a part i would be in serious trouble. It would take hours.
Plastic shoe boxes work pretty well too for holding the parts.
What i intend to do over time is consolidate some of my smaller boxes with less in them into one bigger box.

 

[Overclocked]

Magnetrons are VERY dangerous. If you crack or crush the pieces around the antenna, the dust is extremely toxic and can cause serious health issues. Besides that, Magnetrons emit intense microwaves that can cause harm if not shielded properly. In most cases I recommend simply disposing of them, not saving them. Getting the magnets out can be a risky procedure.

Welp, I *think* Ive done this before when I took one apart. I probably have cancer now. I got a ton of magnets though.

 

[audioguru]

I have many circuit boards from various products and I take from them whatever I need only when I need it. A few minutes ago I needed some 100k tiny 1/10W resistors and found them on a board and used them on my project. I did not unload any other parts from that board today but I did previously and I will probably do it again some other time I need a part from it.

Did someone say SONY? They announced recently that they are closing all their stores in Canada. Target stores came to Canada recently from the USA and spent a fortune making many huge new stores in Canada and they also announced that they are going to close all of them. The Canadian government helped to bail out General Motors from bankruptcy but they recently announced that they will close their huge Canadian factory if they do not get more incentives since costs are less in Mexico and the USA.

 

[throbscottle]

I wish I still had all the parts I salvaged as a teenager, but major life events meant the lot went away to spare parts heaven. So I have a smaller collection of more recently salvaged parts. I have always used salvaged parts as my first resource, even smd's recently. I've always re-used R's and C's. I completely disagree about lead lengths. As long as the holes are close enough together, the component will fit. I try to save the ones with slightly longer leads for breadboarding. Never had any problem re-using electrolytics. It doesn't take long to strip a board of through hole parts, I used to pull them with my fingers whilst heating up each joint. Used a screwdriver to pry out the ones where the leads were clinched over. Easy then to chuck the C's in 3 tubs - film, ceramic and electrolytic, bit longer to sort R's by just the first 2 bands - I can find the right multiplier when I want to use them. Trannys mostly are general purpose NPN, so a random one will do for most things I'm interested in. Have to hunt if I need something a bit more specialised. Majority of IC's are pretty useless to a hobbyist.

I don't really agree with the point about just salvaging "big stuff", because I rarely get anything I'm likely to use. So I have a small collection of resistors of various higher wattages, for example - never likely to use most of them. 1/4 watt resistors on the other hand, I keep using. Can always be certain I'll use the small cheap parts eventually, so I almost never have to buy them.

Just my 2p's worth anyway

 

[audioguru]

I still have some germanium transistors that I hoarded when I was a teenager. I should sell them to a long haired old rock star.

 

[Rich D.]

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

Another good idea that saves me a lot of space for storing sorted components (small ones, like R's and C's - nothing static sensitive.) is to use small zip-loc bags. I can get a box of 100 of them at a crafts store for just a few bux. They all fit into a small box, which I sort numerically. A big black sharpie is used to write the value on them. Now I also re-use parts bags I get from newly ordered parts.