Finding Free Stuff - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: shamanjoe
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 08:08:11 pm
content: I'm just starting out as a hobbyist here in California, and I was wondering if anyone could give some suggestions on where to find some good free scrap electronics to desolder for parts. I know in a recent video, Dave mentioned dumpster diving for the receiver, but every time I've gone around, I've come up cold. The only thing I found so far was an old computer tower case that had been stripped of everything that wasn't the actual cheap case metal. Great for scrap, not so great for finding components. Thanks all, any help is appreciated.

author: Ratib
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 08:25:28 pm
content: I would check out local landfills, they usually have an area for recycling that includes an electronics section. Dumpster diving is great, but you have to qualify your dumpsters. Look for dumpsters near office buildings, not restaurants! Many accessible dumpsters here in the US are locked to prevent others from dumping in them.

author: UPI
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 08:35:46 pm
content: Goodwill/Salvation Army and other thrift stores have a lot of donated old electronics that can be had cheaply. They may even have a pile of the really bad stuff that could be had for free.

author: IanM
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 08:36:04 pm
content: I don't know the rules anywhere else, but here they don't let you take stuff from the landfills. I had a guy that used to let me take things, but not any more.Try garbage pick up day. Drive around and take a look. I've found photocopiers, tvs, audio equipment and computers.Garage / yard / moving sales are great as well. Ask if they have and broken electronics they want to get rid of.Thrift stores are great as well. I buy a lot of stuff from there to harvest transformers.

author: kfitch42
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 08:45:14 pm
content: Check out local universities. Many (most?) have some kind of surplus store where you can find crazy good deals on very random stuff. E.g. I am not too far from College Park, MD, and I will stop by the UMCP surplus store (http://www.purchase.umd.edu/ttrader/items/showroom/index.html).

author: Anson
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2013, 01:48:10 am
content: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Electronic_Component_Exchange/Ask nicely and you may get some freebies. I got a box of transistors from one very nice gentleman. If you have some parts already you can trade list them and hope for the best. Or in reverse list what your looking for.

author: David_AVD
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2013, 02:44:36 am
content: No good for the OP, but we give stuff away occasionally. The other week the Brisbane Hackerspace guys collected a whole bunch of stuff we didn't need. Maybe ask around at service places or equipment manufacturers to see what they can offer.

author: tymm
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2013, 03:11:09 am
content: http://www.freecycle.org/group/US/California

author: ecat
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2013, 03:18:52 am
content: Friends, relatives and neighbours can be a good source of old stuff, but if you want the new stuff it's best to wait until they they go on vacation

author: mzzj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2013, 07:39:48 am
content: Quote from: shamanjoe on March 13, 2013, 08:08:11 pmThat's quite an area to coverGood for You if you happen to live in Santa Clara, less so if it's Crescent City.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2013, 08:42:49 am
content: You could try locating some surplus test equipment outlets in your area, then go and talk to them. They should have a lot of local knowledge of who throws what out, and when. I expect there'd be plenty of stuff that's too junky for them to resell.Maybe just do ebay searches for Hewlett Packard and Tektronix 2nd hand gear (for example), note the seller's locations, then go chat to them.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2013, 05:39:54 pm
content: Try to become a helper at a local repair shop. All the junk you want and you'll learn to fix stuff.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2013, 05:57:50 pm
content: Quote from: mzzj on March 14, 2013, 07:39:48 amNope. The entire vally is MINE to pick clean !

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2013, 07:25:29 pm
content: Quote from: free_electron on March 14, 2013, 05:57:50 pmThen look up Vince's address and go to his house and do a dumpster dive there, you will hit the jackpot.............

author: M. András
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2013, 09:11:14 pm
content: Quote from: SeanB on March 14, 2013, 07:25:29 pmdiapers?

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2013, 02:48:09 am
content: Hamfests!You usually find a lot of old commercial 2 way radios which someone "was gunna convert to 6m or 2m".Usually quite a few loose discrete components,computer boards,etc.This is the stuff Hams don't want to have to take home,so it should be fairly cheap.If you buy something,sellers will sometimes throw some other stuff in free.It costs the sellers to have a stall,so don't expect many freebies,---------but cheap is nearly as good!

author: mzzj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2013, 09:19:39 am
content: Not totally free but my favorite is a big scrap/junkyard.You may have to travel twice across the California to find the good one but it may well be worth of it.I think that last summer I spent 2-3 days digging trough telecom equipment at local scrapyard.One day 4 of my friends and I started early morning and headed to the scapyard disassembling , sorting and digging trough mountains of electronic equipment.No better way to spend day out in sunshine>20 pcs. 48V power supplies 500W to 2000W (total more than 30kW)-couple of other power supplies-two car trunks full of RF-amplifiers, mixers, cables and whatnot from GSM/3G base stations

author: Christopher
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2013, 02:57:42 pm
content: Best thing to do is keep trying.Phone round any local electronics companies.i recently got a job as an EE, every day they throw things out like soldering irons, probes, multimeters. When the fuse breaks oor its out of cal by a tiny bit they bin it!

author: Dylogic
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 17, 2013, 04:25:12 pm
content: Friends is the best ways to get free electronic, i got a Samsung 32 inch flat screen that wont power up and the only problem was bad caps....(i fix the TV for just 4$) i got a speaker amplifier fully working but a bit old, i got a cracked monitor flat screen that i salvage part from it and much more!

author: ddavidebor
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2013, 04:36:36 pm
content: And school too, they trash a lot of stuff!

author: shamanjoe
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 18, 2013, 06:26:00 pm
content: Wow, thank you for all the replies! I've never been on a forum where a new post got so many replies so quickly, and it's amazing. I'm going to try a lot of your suggestions. Trash days in my city are usually a wash (I live near LA, not Silicon Valley), but I will definitely have to find some business areas and scrounge the dumpsters. And a scrap yard sounds like my idea of an amazing time, all that RF stuff would just be awesome to play with, and I could be happy just taking stuff apart!Again, thanks to everybody who replied, and if you have any more ideas, keep 'em coming. I'll let you all know what works for me, and what doesn't.

author: shamanjoe
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 26, 2013, 08:19:58 pm
content: I found a random TV while driving down the street the other day, stripped the board out of it, and used one of the TAC switches on my Raspberry Pi. Woohoo for free stuff!

author: Stephenniall
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 26, 2013, 08:32:11 pm
content: Make sure to check sites like Gumtree (I think Craigslist is bigger in the USA), you'll always get free gear, or someone who doesn't know what an oscilloscope is and is selling it for peanuts !Stephen.

author: Anson
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 26, 2013, 08:51:08 pm
content: I see lots of goodies in there. I would keep everything but the small resistors and the crt transformer. Haven't found a use for one of those yet. those look like useful heat sinks as well. Even if you never use them it's a good supply of scrap aluminum.

author: The_PCB_Guy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2013, 10:07:35 pm
content: I live within 30 miles of two recycling centers (I'm up in the boondocks of the US, Vermont to be exact) and I can usually find old TVs, DVD players, VCRs, even computers just piled up there. Try doing a bit of research and see if you can find any recycling centers near you. If you can't find any, then you can try landfills, as someone already mentioned, though I have found you generally have to pay to take things out of the landfills. Another thing you can do is just put an ad in the paper, saying you'll take old electronics. You'd be amazed how many people are willing to just give away their old stuff. In most cases they'd have to pay to junk it, so giving it away is a good deal on both accounts.Hope this helps!MattThe_PCB_Guy

author: Anson
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2013, 10:27:48 pm
content: Vermont huh? Your probably related to me then.Seems like everyone in that state is related to me.

author: The_PCB_Guy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2013, 10:37:14 pm
content: Quote from: Anson on March 28, 2013, 10:27:48 pmHaha, may very well be! I have a lot of relatives in the Bethel/Stockbridge area, and branching out from there. Personally I live over in Thetford, about 10 miles north of White River Junction. Would you mind if I ask the general area you're from?

author: Anson
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2013, 01:24:21 am
content: I'm actually a native floridian but my parents were bothe from vermont. My dad was from chittenton my mom is from vergennes. But have family all over rutland montpelier burlington richford just everywhere. My dad was a Williams mom was a Whitcomb. related to the Turners Stanhope's Myer's and a bunch of others I can't think of right now.

author: The_PCB_Guy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2013, 01:34:24 am
content: Quote from: Anson on March 29, 2013, 01:24:21 amYou're kidding! I'm directly related to the Whitcombs of the area!

author: BobbyK
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2013, 01:52:23 am
content: While not 100% free, I have had a lot of luck with searching eBay for local pickup stuff. A lot of companies or people use eBay local pickups to just dump their stuff. I have gotten really nice gear, transformers, and some audio amplifier cases for under 5 bucks that way. Dumpster diving used to be awesome in the good old days, nowadays I find most people hang on to a lot of broken stuff, because they can't afford better, at least here in the US. Also, there are a lot of people looking for parts (and gold recovery is big here!!! ) so you will have a lot of competition

author: Anson
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2013, 12:35:42 pm
content: Knew it.

author: Christopher
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 31, 2013, 06:33:48 pm
content: VCRs and CRT TVs normally have high power power supplies (for hacking into custom power supplies).I have a homemade supply made from the AC-DC converter from a VCR, the aluminium case is 9 times /10 perfect and all ya need is a custom front panel! Ooosh!

author: Lui
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2013, 10:27:15 pm
content: try gumtree.com !

author: shamanjoe
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 13, 2013, 02:12:00 am
content: Another couple scores. Found a huge laser printer with separate colour toner cartridges behind a warehouse that looked like somebody had dropped a pipe on it, but everything internal, besides the basic mechanicals were fine, got a great bit of parts out of it. Awesome! I'm also gonna have to check out the ebay pickup suggestion too, seems like it would be much more reliable than craigslist. Thanks!All the crap I pulled out of the laser printer, and a couple small desktop printers..

author: ddavidebor
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 14, 2013, 06:42:26 pm
content: yeah printer has very nice encoder, stepper and stuff like that