How did you all start your amazing component collections? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Bean99
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 10, 2020, 08:21:36 pm
content: Ive been looking around on the forum and ive seen some photos na descriptions of alot of peoples workshops and im a bit jealous lol. I have a cheapo walmart soldering iron and I have been slowing building up a component collection by salvaging boards from the TVs, Computers, et centra form the town dumpster near my apartment but I dream about having one of those collections where everything is at my fingertips. When I'm working on something. So how did you all get started? I'd really like to hear what yalls stories are.-Thanks,Bean the releaser of magic smoke

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2020, 08:26:57 pm
content: As a 8 year old kid in 1978 , running around on his bicycle with pliers, two screwdrivers and wire cutters. Whenever it was the annual 'large-junk' day i would run all over town for tv's radios and other electrics to rip the circuit boards out and salvage parts.

author: unitedatoms
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2020, 08:30:01 pm
content: To answer the question: New old stock parts are usually the leftovers from failed and never finished projects.I wish there was a tradition to have a "free components shelf" in local libraries where I could dump perfectly good unused components which keep distracting me from choosing right components I should use in projects, instead of hoping to reuse existing stock.

author: Sal Ammoniac
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2020, 08:31:32 pm
content: I have a component collection too, but it's different from the one you describe. In my case my "collection" is a collection of early microprocessors. I have the Intel 4004, 8008, 8080A, F8, SC/MP (AKA scamp), 2650, 6800, etc. I'm always looking for more, especially obscure ones.

author: jogri
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2020, 09:39:21 pm
content: Tbh, i don't see the point in having a humongous parts collection in the age of next day delivery. Personally, i have a habit of keeping entire parts/PCBs of things similar to what i am likely to encounter. Power supply in a Tek scope is busted? Grab the PCB of another Tek, chances are that you will find the same/similar parts on it. When it comes to acquiring new parts, i mostly use ebay or go and take a look at junkyards. Looking around for companies throwing out old equipment is also an option.This works fine as long as you have enough space to store huge amounts of junks (because let's face it, you won't use 80% of those parts). If you don't have the space, get yourself a sortiment of resistors, ceramic capacitors and common transistors/IC and order everything else.

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 10, 2020, 11:58:41 pm
content: Quote from: Bean99 on January 10, 2020, 08:21:36 pmYou're ticking the boxes nicely. Just keep doing what you've been doing and it will happen.The reservation is you will never haveeverythingat your fingertips ... there will always be something extra, whether componentry, test gear or tools. All you can hope is to have a moderate level of inventory for the majority of situations. Almost invariably, there will be regular situations where you will need something you don't have (or can't find). That's why there is online ordering and express shipping

author: DaJMasta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2020, 02:36:54 am
content: You start with some salvage, maybe a couple of grab bags, and then some incomplete kits. Then you buy parts for new projects and get a few extras.... then sometimes the project doesn't actually get finishedIn my case, I also got a couple lots of unsorted parts, and while often not worth much, they give you some variety to test out and maybe have a few bits that are valuable if resold.If you actually buy parts for things on somewhat of a regular basis, it shouldn't take too many years before your unused extras to be in the thousandsWorth noting, though: even with literally thousands of parts with all sorts of varieties.... you will always find stuff you don't have, or stuff that's better suited to your application than the one you have on hand.

author: mc1822
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 03:35:34 am
content: The guy in the alley who sold me my first resistor told me, "It's just one resistor. Go ahead and buy it, it won't hurt you!"

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 03:59:06 am
content: Like others I started taking apart junk radios and TVs for parts. Part of creativity was figuring out how to make something useful out of the pretty strange assortments of parts that results. A truth that most of us learn is that income disposable on this hobby is strangely independent of gross income. Even during my peak earning years I felt constrained because there were many other things vying for financial attention (including savings for retirement). Now that retirement has come I finally have moved hobby spending up on the list and buy parts plus learning units and spares for projects as well as digging into the scrap pile. Today I run more new than used, but still depend on that back stock for late night thoughts and fill in.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 09:43:29 am
content: Quote from: unitedatoms on January 10, 2020, 08:30:01 pmIs there a local hackspace or makerspace?

author: Jester
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 02:58:39 pm
content: Back in the 70’s the last page of the electronic magazines was often a Digital-Key order form, that you would tick the boxes on and then submit by mail with a money order. My first order was for a resistor selection kit. I’m sure I still have a few in my resistor selection😀

author: Kleinstein
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 04:05:53 pm
content: With the components usually the aim is not get a large collection. Many part end up in the collection because they are left overs from project, especially those that never get finished or even left the paper level. As usually one wants to have a spare part and sometimes there are alternative parts to test. In the old days it was high shipping cost that made me order a few extra parts - now it tends to be free shipping for > $50.There are also a few odd old part from old electronics that are salvaged - though rarely used. I still have a few resistors and relays that are now about 95 years old. Similar no real need for old alloy type Ge transistors or a 256 byte EPROM or plain old TTLs.

author: dietert1
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 05:15:45 pm
content: I remember my father coming in with several salvaged electronics units from US American rockets. He didn't tell where he got them. As a boy i loved ripping such things apart, cleaning each and every single resistor and capacitor. Free parts! I still have a nice set of those small tubes that were used before transistors became popular. There were some microwave components, too, but those are long gone.As a boy i also got a 23 cm diameter scope tube as a gift from a school friends father, who was a teacher for engineering. Spent a year or so of my free time to build a scope around it. The amplifier was good for some MHz and had a large tendency to oscillate. Don't remember where it ended up.With ebay everybody has access to the strangest and rarest parts if a little patient. Last thing i got from Ukraine were some Russian Teflon capacitors. And parts keep coming in from distributors. Sometimes it gets a bit difficult to remember where is what.Regards, Dieter

author: david77
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2020, 12:10:43 am
content: I also started by taking apart scrapped radios, VCR's and TV's, especially the stuff made in the 70ies and 80ies was very good for parts salvaging. I've still got a ton of old Wima foil type caps in stock. I used to desolder everything, even resistors. Would not recomend that, it's not worth your time. Good soldering practice, maybe.A collection of parts is something that automatically accumulates over decades.I'm still convinced that it is a good idea to have jelly bean parts readily to hand: Resistors, caps, some transistors and op-amps, for example.It depends on what you do in electronics. Maybe some of the common µC's, some glue logic TTL stuff is also handy, some trimmer pots and tactile buttons.One advice I would give: Become familiar with using SMD parts as fast as possible.

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2020, 12:20:13 am
content: Like most of the other posters, I kept a cupboard full of old PCBs to pull bits off when required.Years ago I migrated from second hand to new parts. The aim is to keep enough stuff around to effect a "quick fix" while the right parts arrive, or to allow a rapid prototype that's "near enough", again while the right parts arrive.I've pared it down to a folder of resistors, folder of capacitors, a small box with a smattering of low ESR electros and a couple of small shoe boxes of semis.So my collection is less "amazing" than targeted to achieve an outcome.

author: shakalnokturn
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2020, 05:51:11 am
content: For parts the madness started when I was about 10 years old with a first transistor radio pulled to bits. After that it never really ended, mainly CRT TV's but basically anything electronic.Eventually moved on to buying parts once in a while, It is true that you never have everything needed for a project.Lab equipment is a tougher problem, as a teenager I used a red RadioShack iron, then a white/orange JBC, also had a manual range Metex DMM for ages.Finally at the end of highschool I got to upgrade to an adjustable Weller soldering iron and Hameg 203-6 oscilloscope.Finally since 2008 thanks to a little industrial disposal and mainly internet I have had access to used test equipment more easily.

author: wilfred
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2020, 06:17:53 am
content: Normally I wouldn't encourage someone to set out to accumulate a collection of parts. I still don't. Times have changed and the internet and online ordering of parts and also the massively greater variety of parts has made a parts stockpile more a liability than a help.Yes there are some useful parts to keep at hand but they should be excess from past projects. At least that way you stand a chance of using them if you make similar projects again.Any old timers who have stockpiled parts for 30+ years did it at a time pre internet ordering, before the variety of parts increased exponentially and when you could pull apart an old thing that wasn't just a PCB with tiny SMD components.I'm typing this as I have spread out around me a pile of little plastic bags with a selection of parts I bought on sale that I thought would fuel my dreams of future projects. Oh well. At least they were cheap.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2020, 06:40:26 am
content: Internet ordering has changed things some, but I don't think it is the dominant change. It is that parts have gotten cheaper. Much cheaper.When I first started doing this, minimum wage in the US was $1.40 hour and a decent quality carbon resister was $0.30 in unit quantities. So about a fifth of an hour labor for that resistor. Now minimum wage in the US is over $10 hour and you can hardly buy something as shoddy as that carbon resistor. The closest equivalent would be a 2% film resistor that can be had for maybe $0.15 in small quantities. So that resistor's value is now less than a minute of labor.While that value equation goes all over the place depending on the component, it "pays" far less now to salvage than it used to. Except for rare parts or other special cases.