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Just like this Vintage component harvesting thread viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4845&hilit=harvest, but with quite modern and recent components.

'Course we all know about CRTs and so on, but some appliances are less known than others, and can give nice results... Here's my first input:

My bro's just gave me this Saunier-Duval furnace card, left by the technician as dead (melted fuse):
It has Nichicon and Elna electros, Piher trimpots, some metalfilm caps, and metalfilm resistors... It feels better quality than some audio appliances I know, but is no audio at all...

And there's the transformer (24V to 48V), diodes, DIP switch, fuse folder, regulators, heatsinks, etc... I would NEVER have looked in these appliances for electronics...

Hope some of you have other tips like this one to share!

Hope some of you have other tips like this one to share!

Hi Laurent. I must say...salvaging components from the broken units sometimes could be exploring another universe, specially when something rare is found. You mentioned the CRT's and that reminded me that sometimes very useful stuff could be found there...like high voltage caps, other tantalum and ceramic caps, higher wattage resistors, SMPS driver chips like UC384X or TL494 series, even some op amps used as comparators like LM393, LM324(nice for tremolos) even small Atmel controler chips, high voltage MOSFETS (ultra high speed) rectifier diodes also, inductors etc etc you named a few also.
I know "some of us" do not have these practices but one thing I can do always with harvested components is to test them out!

I am lucky enough to be working in product development (albeit as a mechanical engineer, and not electrical), and the stuff you find in dumpsters never ceases to amaze me. Usually, this stuff goes to industrial auctions to be recycled, and sometimes those recycling firms don't mind you buying some stuff their (pay in cash, so they can all go bowling or something ).
But, working at a firm making medical equipment (MRI scanners and other stuff), they got these great power supply boards. These are diveded in four, and sometimes one quadrant explodes, while the rest of the board is intact. I have gotten a lifetime supply of 450volts 450uF electrolytics of these. On other boards, there are LT1083CP regulators, excellent LDO 7,5amp regulators (expensive too).
Some other stuff I scavenged are heatsinks, and low voltage fans (the small ones from PC's).
In the old days, you had those switches to share printers, excellent enclosures for free!

I have an old laserprinter here, I wonder if something good can be had from it, mainly mechanical I reckon, any ideas?

By the way, in the "Everyday Practical Electronics" magazine, they had a number of articles regarding the stuff you can salvage from common household appliances before chucking them. I think they had this series last year.

I was just wondering about you guyses harvesting techniques. I have recently broken open some old electronics (some old remote controls and a reallllllllllllllllllly crappy digital camera) and there are some caps and resistors on them which I am interested in but I was just wondering, do you desolder these off or just tear them off/cut them out? I haven't touched them yet but was just wondering what others do.

Thanks for your help.

gruforevs wrote:do you desolder these off or just tear them off/cut them out?

If the legs are long enough, then I cut. If they aren't, I desolder. It's not always as cheap as it could be if you use braid, but you can practice your desoldering with these units, so it's a double win...

And you can break components, without caring much, but learning what an overheated PCB/cap/transistor/etc look like...

lolbou wrote:And you can break components, without caring much, but learning what an overheated PCB/cap/transistor/etc look like...

More like sounds like! You sparked my curiosity so I blatantly held my soldering iron next to a cap which for some weird reason would not come off. It started hissing quite loudly and just about gave me a heart attack!

I scored a bunch of AWV 2n406 germanium transistors out of some old radio's i picked at a farm clearance sale. Full of carbon comp resistors to. Plus audio transformers that are great for octave's. Also scored about 50 RCA CA741 ic's from an old mixer that had had it's day. Plus transformers, transistor's, analog VU meter's, CLIFF input jack's, diodes, tropical fish caps, more carbon resistors and about 130 CTS pots that range from 50k to 100k. Plus all the knob's. And 18 100k slider pots. If I see junk on the roadside out the front of someone's house I'll do a midnight raid and strip all the bit's i want and then dump the rest back where I found it. Cause I dont want all their junk lying around my house. And the tip is a good place to find old stuff too. I know one of the guy's there pretty well now and he save's all this junk for me and I give him a box of beer's and everyone is happy.