Scavenging old electronic equipment

[formula KZ1000]

I have just recently started fooling around with electronics.<p>I do not have many components lying around and the prices of full assortment can be quite high.<p>I have many hobbies so it is hard to justify the cost of all of them.<p>In an attempt to acquire some stock I have been scavenging of old electronic equipment.<p>I got an old fax machine from work along with some old Pent I computers that I have been striping for parts.<p>I noticed that the last issues flashlight uses an old floppy drive motor.
What other commonly trashed electronic gadgets have useful components that we all might be able to salvage?<p>Thanks,<p>Eddie

[Chris Smith]

Everything used has a value. I built up quite a stock pile of stuff to re-use this way, and still do. I picked up about 40 bad VCRs out the back of the video store, and thats translates into 40 ac cords, 40 transformers, 40 motors, 400 diodes, 5 zillion caps, etc.

[Bernius1]

Go to garage sales. Older alarm clocks, guitar amps, 'all-in-one' stereos, early corless phones; the older ones ($.50 > $2.00)have more discreet parts. Newer stuff doesn't always have hobby-applicable parts( read PIC16 w/ ROM burnt).

[Dean Huster]

You also have to consider what "type" of electronics you want to work with. If you salvage pagers, cellular phones, newer computer boards or newer VCRs, you'll end up with mostly SMT (surface-mount technology) devices. Go with televisions, stereo equipment, older computers and older VCRs and you'll have mostly thru-hole components. With products of the 1960s and earlier, you're more likely to end up with parts that were mounted using "point-to-point" construction using lots of terminal strips, tube sockets, etc.<p>I've found that 5-1/4" full-height floppies that were made in the 1980s have a lot of nice parts on them, including larger stepper motors. The half-height floppies weren't bad in the electronics parts but the motors are skimpier.<p>I don't know if you're only worrying about the electronics parts, but don't throw away the hardware. Somewhere along the line, you have to build stuff for your electronics to fit into, and you'll need the nuts, bolts and washers. Myself, I have at least 200 drawers of Akro-Mills plastic parts cabinets devoted to hardware only. Another 300 drawers are for diodes, transistor and ICs while 164 drawers take care of 1/4-watt resistors (the 1/16, 1/8, 1/2, 1 and 2 watt and larger sizes are in another set of larger metal drawers). So, when you really get into this, it'll take a lot of storage space if you want quick access. I'd say that 99.9836% of my components were salvaged and I've been salvaging for around 40 years, so you can imagine what one can collect during that time! Good luck!<p>Dean<p>
Since you're starting out, I might add a warning about storage. Make sure that you always keep your electrolytic capacitors (usually with value of 1µF and higher) in a better-controlled atmosphere. Hot attics and such are killers for those parts and equipment in general.

[Moe74]

I have found that Conair answering machines have a LOT of diodes, caps, transistors, inside. Now these are the ones that dont use tapes. I'v been finding them for 2 to 4 buks at DAV or Salv. Army stores.