Don't throw that away

[drdx]

Hey folks, we need a new topic, so here goes:

I'm a career tinkerer and often save junk to use in projects. I don't save anything I don't think I can use. I can still easily park 2 cars in the garage and I don't "collect" stuf I'll never use, but now and then I can't resist a great item. Recently, my wife's wine refridgerator quit. It was an Oster counter top model. It just quit cooling one day and was bound for the trash. Having 2 young sons, ages 3 and 7, I set it aside as a source of evening entertainment. Anytime we're throwing anything away that has potential for take apart fun I save for them. It is a great learning experience for them to take something apart, and to refine their technique using hand tools, along with identifying the size of a bolt, which I mention along the way. They love the proces of tearing something apart and a couple of times, early in the disection, we discover the reason said item croaked, and then it turns into a repair mission. Most of the time we tear said item apart and it goes to the trash. The screws go into a plastic tub I have for a general hardware box. The brackets go into a large tub i have to be used when fabbing that next great project. In today's products there are usually a large variety of screws, heatsinks, fans, cases, and rubber feet that can be recycled into something fun for the shack.

Anyway, back to the wine cooler. Upon taking it apart, I noticed it had 3 nice fans and 2 of them had cool brackets that mounted them on a large nice aluminum heatsink, perfectly sized for an amplifier cooling system for something like a tx star or palomar that doesn't come with fans. Beyond that, the rest was trash with the exception of the case. It is nice, light weight, metal, and the inside (due to it's previous use) is insulated with plastic, making it a perfect candidate for a radio project. I can't decide whether it will be a home brew antenna tuner, maybe a base station in a box for camping, or who knows.

This can be extended into the hobby of dumpster diving, another passtime of mine. Just this morning, I hit the radio shack dumpster and it was full of odd items like brand new "wallwart" plug in power supplies and such, just waiting to be grabbed. I saw a nice 12 volt one I needed for an old scanner, and a few other odds and ends. Keep your eyes open and I'm sure the same opportunities exist where you are. I never dive in, but I do have one of those grabber tools. No, I'm not some old troll. I'm just resourceful.

The moral of the story is that it pays to look twice befor hauling some stuff out. What say you? I know the PC world has a small sub hobby group of housing pc's in various things like toasters and such, but does anyone on her share the same "fred sanford" syndrome as me?

-drdx

[MoJo]

Well DrDx you are not alone..

I have scavanged many things from what others thought was garbage.

Old CPU cooling fans are now in my texas start 350DX.

The timer and clock assembly from an old coffee pot use to turn my CB on as an alarm clock until it burned out.

I strip old CB's for the POT's, plugs, mic jacks, switches, speakers, and anything else useful. In fact I have 3 cobra 25's sitting here that I hope to make 1 good one out of.

The PC I am typing on has a 10GB HDD from and old compaq in it that is used as a dedicated page file drive.

My gas grill I picked up of the side of the road, it's only problem was it was the newest best model anymore.

One of my power supplies is an old 12 Volt supply out of a Direct TV Tivo. When they sent it to me and it didnt work they didnt want it back because they had their own DVR and they just sent me one of them. I got a 80 GB HDD out of that too.


Maybe the 2 of us can swap parts on out next project if one of us has something the other needs.

[4 cycle]

Old TV sets have nice speakers in them, Ive used them in radios!

[Shaft]

I am always careful what I throw away. I try to salvage what I can. Drives my wife nuts when she comes home and sees me with stuff all over the kitchen table.

Dumpster diving can be good. I found an old Pioneer home stereo once sitting on the curb from a house that was foreclosed on.

[Cain64]

I agree with this, you say the radios shacks have stuff? I might just have to head over there in the back! But keeping stuff for other projects is one of my hobbys, old mother board, CPU fans, case screws, power supplys and such are all great finds.

[drdx]

Yep, radio shack. I happen to have a non mall based one in a local shopping center. Dumpster diving is common where I am and up until today, most mornings when I go by there at 7am on my kid's school run, I see a guy IN the dumpster, same guy every time. He wears a rain slicker and pants and he gets in there. There must be something to it. I just got a few small things today, but I'll include that one in my regular route now and cut him off at the pass. I have some other favorites I hit and of all places Pet Smart is by far the best most high yielding one yet. I can't tell you how many remote and no bark collars, litter boxes, pet gates, cages, doggie doors, pet cages, you name it that I've fished out of that store's dumpster. One day, I got 2 no bark collars, with the box and manual, and a shock remote collar that was missing its battery. One battery and 3 ebay listings later, HELLO $200, from that one visit alone. I love it. I also live close to an outlet strip mall and that place is a goldmine right after christmas for several weeks. Another place I like are those children's clothing and consignment shops. For some reason they always are tossing stuff out and I'll hit them before my annual community garage sale to add to my stuff to sell.

I also went on my city's website and I know what areas and what days that the curbside "special pickup" stuff gets put out, and that is a good source for treasure as well. I'm a real junker for sure, and proud of it. There is a HUGE house near me that throws great stuff out all the time. In a 2 week span, I grabbed a mini vending coke machine, brand new, never plugged in, and several boxes of HO scale toy train building kits, all still sealed in the box, SCORE.

-drdx

[Texas Mobil 219]

Yep DRDX. I with you. Me and Fred Sanford have alot in common.



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219 Wave'n

[Foxhunter]

Good post-----it's always refreshing to see something different than the usual "this vs. that" etc etc.

Ad far as Sandford & Son-----I kinda liked Grady myself !


I grew up on the poor side of the tracks so I tend to not let good hardware and materials go to waste when I see it. I frequent a large "flea market" in my area called the "Berlin Farmer's Market" when the weather is fair, often buying much of what I need for little cost. I do know that picking up this type of stuff either curbside, dumpster or via flea market is beneath many out of principle----but I agree there is much good material to be had for little or nothing.

DrDx you got me thinking so when I went to get my haircut tonight I was scoping out the Radio Shack dumpster right next door to the place I normally go. Unlucky for me there were people out back smoking so I didn't go diving then----but will !!!

[Alien Abductor]

Same here in my family when I was a kid if something broke, mainly electronics, me and my brothers took it apart to look around inside. After it was apart it we would either smash it up, light it on fire, or it would become part of our toys haha.

[drdx]

Fun stuff. Hey, since my last post, I listed a broken abu fishing reel that i found in a trashcan last sunday. I put it on ebay and it sold for $21.00 buy it now in about an hour. I don't know why, because it was broken, I said it was broken, and good ones only go for about $30-40, but I'm happy, it's like free money. I also found a ryobi weedeater and its vacuum attachment, all complete and it is on craig's list now, and I've had calls on it already, so HELLO more free money. This morning's radio shack run produced another wall transformer and a box I needed for shipping. I spotted a VINTAGE cb external speaker box in the dumpster but all that was in it was the bracket, which is something I can't have enough of. That vintage box tells me that they are cleaning out old stuff, so who knows what may turn up. This old external speaker box was the OLD, circa 80's style boxing, so I'll keep my eye out for more.

FYI guys, this is the time of year to dumpster dive, as the stuff is definitely out there, and list it on the web. There are tax refund checks hitting mailboxes soon and we need all of that money we can get to enhance our ability to bless the radio public with our voices.

-drdx

['Doc]

drdx,
If you ain't careful, you're gonna get thrown out of the 'DDAA'! That's the "Dumpster Diving Association of America". There's also a 'DDIA', the 'International' organization. Giving away good secrets like this is dangerous. You've been warned!
- 'Doc

DDAA Lodge #1730
DDIA #217

[drdx]

Oh, I do the dumpster gang sign when confronted. You probably are familiar with it. It is the peace sign, partially covered by the forearm, the arm being the dumpster and the 2 fingers sticking up representing someone's legs sticking up out of the dumpster.

I love it. In fact, I started a dumpster and scavenger how-to book a few months ago. I'm up to about 85 pages with zero repeat information. Once I get to 100 pages I'm sending it out to my relatives for proofreading (they are teachers and tech writing experts) so maybe I'll publish it as a $5 download like some others have done with success. In this economy, everyone is looking for a way to survive.


-drdx

[Texas Mobil 219]

Oh, I do the dumpster gang sign when confronted. You probably are familiar with it. It is the peace sign, partially covered by the forearm, the arm being the dumpster and the 2 fingers sticking up representing someone's legs sticking up out of the dumpster.

I can relate. LOL

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