Salvaging used components - Good idea?

[dr pepper]

You need to sort them out now, get some drawers like I have.

Nige knows his stuff with telly's, and I have pulled apart over 20 of them, the only ones that have iron laminate transformers are from the 60's.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

You need to sort them out now, get some drawers like I have.

Nige knows his stuff with telly's, and I have pulled apart over 20 of them, the only ones that have iron laminate transformers are from the 60's.

He's got a nice big pile of bits - but almost all of it is pretty useless for anything else - the only decent parts are the heatsinks, and I totally agree that the purple one is cool

 

[JimB]

the only decent parts are the heatsinks, and I totally agree that the purple one is cool

Of course it is "cool", it is a heatsink.

JimB

 

[dr pepper]

Have to argue with salvaged stuff, heres a psu I made from all salavaged stuff, 'cept for the veroboard, r's and the pic micro, I have also put together other stuff from scrounged bits:

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Have to argue with salvaged stuff, heres a psu I made from all salavaged stuff, 'cept for the veroboard, r's and the pic micro, I have also put together other stuff from scrounged bits:

As we all have - but most of the parts salvaged out of the old TV are pretty useless for anything else.

I presume I'm the same as most of the older members here, and have spent many happy hours salvaging parts out of old equipment, only to throw almost all of them away 20 years later

 

[gary350]

I have several ways of removing parts. Use a screw driver to remove all the heat sink clips and screws. Some small heat sinks come off easy without removing screws.

I stand the circuit board on the work bench standing on edge. With the board on edge i can see both side just by moving my head left/right slightly. I start out with the largest parts first like large heat sinks and capacitors they free up a lot of space when they are gone. Grab a cap with left hand, look at matching wires on other side of board, heat wired 1 at a time quick, cap comes right off. If solder cools too quick you can tilt the cap back and forth like a rocking chair as you heat wires parts come right off.

With several large parts removed that makes it easier to get the smaller parts. Any thing I dont want I cut it off with wire cutters to get it out of the way.

Most of the power resistors are on stand off wires they are easy to grab with 2 fingers, wires on bottom side of the board are usually much longer than other parts so those long wires are easy to see. While pulling on the resistor heat each wire it comes loose 1 wire at a time. Do the same thing with other parts like gum drop caps, film caps, tube caps, etc.

If transformers or flyback is in the way I remove them other wise I dont waste time on them unless I want some of them.

Heat sinks always have 1 or 2 ground terminals. If I want heat sink I unsolder them 1 terminal at a time. If I dont want them I clip them off with wire cutters.

Keep the solder gun tip clean for quick heating of solder joints. I make my own soldering gun tips with 5.5" long pieces of #10 copper wire. I make 10 tips before I start. I can unsolder parts very very fast with a new clean tip. When tip starts getting slow I replace the tip. Sometimes cleaning the tip will work for a few more minutes.

Those big multi pin ICs are TV specials worthless for anything but TVs. Several things are worthless TV only stuff. I save all the chokes and most of the transformers because they are easy to rewind.

I like the resistors that have easy to see color bands, even the 1/4" resistors. Certain ones are very hard to read even with a bright light and a 5" magnifying glass. I just bought a resistor assortment pick photo showed TAN color with easy to see color bands but the resistors that I received were a different color and very hard to read. I dont pull resistors I can not read. When I was young I use to see much better than I do now.

It is easy to get too many parts that you dont need. You can sell mixed assortments by the pound on ebay. Fill a small flat rate postage boxes with parts it will hold several lbs of parts. It is easy to get $30 a lb for used parts on ebay. It is easier to sell 2 $30 boxes of parts than 1 $60 box of parts. I never count the parts but I am guessing there is close to 1000 parts in a pound depending on what parts you will the asssortment with. TV boards are loaded with 100s of easy to get capacitors if you want to sell parts pull the easy to get stuff.

 

[DerStrom8]

I occasionally salvage components and parts from old circuit boards, but I only use them for breadboard work. I never use old components when assembling new boards.

 

[dr pepper]

I will back down to that one Nige, I do have stuff thats been salvaged years ago which I'll never use.

 

[tvtech]

Pick of the day. This TV turned out better than expected lots of parts all squeezed into a very compact space. I had to remove things i did not really want just to get the things I did want. Lots of good parts, I like that purple heat sink, about 40 mosfets and 78xx series voltage reguators 5 to 12 volts, lots of power resistors, some small useful transformers, chokes, LED power on light, lots of good caps of all varieties, lots of resistors that I need. Pretty good for about 2 hours of FUN. This is recreation to me.

**broken link removed**

Plot twist....your helping hand in the Workshop has mistakenly stripped the wrong TV for second hand spares.

You have to rebuild it again or pay up......

Regards,
tv

 

[dr pepper]

Re-twist, last year I salvaged a 50m length of copper armoured power cable for my boss to weigh in.
I took out the wrong one.
Oops.

 

[tvtech]

Re-twist, last year I salvaged a 50m length of copper armoured power cable for my boss to weigh in.
I took out the wrong one.
Oops.

LOL....stuff like this has happened to people I personally know...

Like my friend who decided to bring his son to work one day and show him what "Daddy does at work". Son was maybe 5 or 6 Years old at the time.
Son is bored so Daddy gives him his sidecutters and a piece of wire and shows him how to cut little pieces off.

No problem. Daddy has to go for a pee though and the building has central toilets in the building but at least 15 Minutes there and back...asks the PRO (Secretary in front) to watch him....

There is a Sony 191 with it's multitude of wires and wire wrapped joints that belongs to a Contract Customer on his bench he is almost finished repairing...

PRO gets busy with Customers for 5 Minutes...can't watch him...so he eyes his Dad's set with his newly learned wire cutting skills...and proceeds to cut anything and everything that is a wire on the set...

From channel selector wires to PSU to Line to IF board. Everything.

Happy little chappy and his Dad in the Dwang. Set had to be replaced. Nothing like a Sony 191 almost fixed (hard enough)....then all wires cut off while you are busy with it.

I am sure Nigel will remember the 191 and all the mods we had to do to get them working when GTO's became obsolete.

Regards,
tv

 

[dr pepper]

Oops, size 11 imprint on the backside deserved there then.

 

[MrAl]

Hi,

I see lots of electrolytics in that last picture with all the parts. I'd test them very carefully before using for anything. Im not sure i would feel comfortable using an old electrolytic for a new circuit i was building even just for myself.
I have brand NEW parts that i purchased that i never use ha ha.

 

[tvtech]

Hi MrAl

Electrolytics and resisitors are a waste of time. Unless there are safety resistors in the mix (0.1 to 1R) and anything in between. They are useful.

We cannot get rid of stuff here fast enough. Literally hundreds of boards with parts that can be harvested. We strip the Heatsinks out, LOPTX's out and working I.C's etc....Chopper Transformers for the Copper...and that's it. And of course Tuners.

I remember the days when Electronics was my hobby..not a job. I have seen all. Not a passion anymore...a mission.

I miss my Electronic Hobby days.....they were the very best.

I know a few Photographers that went "Professional".......and then lost all sense of creativity they had...and their photo's were not the same.

Enough. Time for me to sleep.

Regards,
tv

 

[dr pepper]

I have used salvaged cans, not had a bad one yet that hasnt been bulged out or burst, but I spose its taking the biscuit, or being tight.

There is a frequency standard on my bench, apart from the veroboard its completely salvaged, even the box is a old tape drive case, 10mc, 1mc, 100kc and 10kc o/p's, radio 4 synced accuracy from junk.

 

[gary350]

I have used salvaged cans, not had a bad one yet that hasnt been bulged out or burst, but I spose its taking the biscuit, or being tight.

LOL.....that is funny. Well I must admit I am a Pack Rat scrounder from hell. I save everything. Not so much for being a tight wad but it saves a lot of time not having to drive to the Hardware store, Lowe's or some other place to buy a screw, nail, board, capacitor, heat sink, resistor or something else. I can not drive any place in town in less than 1 hour. It is nice to have an assortment of parts around the house to make home repairs and to build all types of projects not just electronic peojects. I dont test my parts until the day I use them, no point in wasting time sorting or testing 100s of parts that may never get used but they sure are nice to have on hand. Bad parts often give themself away, burned resistors, brown color or bulged cracked capacitors, etc. If I dont like the looks of a part I trash it even if it is good.

 

[MrAl]

Hi Gary,

Yes me too more or less. I used to have my own business way back too before i got into the industry and i fixed everything anyone would bring me to fix, so i had lots of parts around and still do. I bought all kinds of stuff as well.
So i ended up with a big inventory and try to keep records of what i buy and what i use and what i give away.
Now i only buy something when i really need it. I dont buy as many extras as i used to either, but may still buy one more in case something goes wrong.
It does help sometimes to have parts around though, i was able to quickly determine a problem i had with a TV set recently because i had a similar electrolytic cap around that would replace one of the old ones and that told me that was definitely the problem.

Of all things i still like to salvage i think the transformers are best, because they are so expensive now. But also i find that fuse holders are nice to get too because they come in handy for lots of other projects. I used to have a big collection of potentiometers that i threw out about 20 years ago. Now the good ones are kind of expensive. The cheapest 100 ohm pot i can find (with endurance ratings that is) is about 5 dollars USD. That seems high just for one single potentiometer. Unfortunately many of the old ones can be very noisy so not something you would want to use in a brand new project.

 

[MrAl]

Hello again,

Anyone have any ideas for what to use this recently salvaged part for?

 

[tunedwolf]

About the only thing those Magnetrons are useful for, is repairing an oven with a duff one

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

About the only thing those Magnetrons are useful for, is repairing an oven with a duff one

Two nice magnets in them