[sdiy] Scavenging the electronics graveyard

[Roy J. Tellason]

On Sunday 21 October 2007 16:17, Thomas Hudson wrote:
> I've been playing a lot lately with building various CNC applications
> (guitar pickup winder, circuit board hole driller, etc) using parts
> scavenged from old scanners. These have good stepper motors, nice
> steel guide rods and other type of guides, etc. Anyway, I was with my
> wife at the local Goodwill store, and there was an entire aisle of
> old all-in-one office machines (scanner, printer, fax, copier, coffee
> maker?) that were selling for cheap ($5 to $15 USD). I bought one and
> disassembled it and it was chock full of goodies. I've also found
> that the older the model, usually the better the parts. My old SCSI
> scanner had a huge stepper motor in it, while the later and cheaper
> USB scanners have much smaller motors and guide rods. Also, the older
> stuff is less likely to use SMT parts.
>
> All this got me to thinking about all the old obsolete electronics
> destined for the landfill, and what other goodies I might be able to
> scavenge. For example, old high speed modems would probably have some
> decent quality isolation transformers in them, right? Maybe not good
> enough for high quality audio, but maybe good enough for an old
> school ring modulator.

Yup.  I have a few transformers around like that.  Typically 600 ohms on both 
sides...

> I've found nice heatsinks in some of the scanners. I know there was a
> discussion  on here once about using the CCD's from scanners for
> audio, but don't remember the details. I know pedal builders who buy
> up old Japanese radios for the original JCR4558 chips.
>
> Seems like there would be web sites devoted to this, but I haven't
> formulated the magical search query to find these though google.

There's my "parts pages" --

http://www.classiccmp.org/rtellason/parts-index.html

which is mostly datasheets for the solid state stuff (I haven't really gotten 
going yet with the other parts).

> What other things useful to the DIYer might be lurking in things like
> dsl or cable modems, printers, or any other cast-off consumer
> electronics?

All sorts of stuff.  But as you say,  the older gear yields much better 
assortments of parts than the newer stuff does.  No need to actually *buy* 
anything,  either,  just keep your eyes open and let people know you're 
interested in this sort of thing,  and you'll eventually end up with more 
than you can deal with.

For some stuff I've ended up with a *lot* of,  have a look here:

http://mysite.verizon.net/rtellason/w4s.html

You do enough of this sort of thing long enough,  then organizing it starts to 
become a problem.  :-)

-- 
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James 
M Dakin