Recycling old TV's VCR's etc

[Adey]

Has/does anybody here ever salvage components from old circuit boards and stuff to make stompboxs and other DIY goodies?

 

I know very little about diodes, capacitors and such, but i'd like to learn.

If i can learn with free parts, then i'd feel more motivated to try something.

 

Am i just a cheapskate?

 

[AMZ-FX]

About the only thing that I look for in old equipment is tubes or vintage transistors... old carbon film resistors are too noisy and many capacitors will be dried out and have changed value. Not worth the hassle most of the time.

 

Newer electronics will all be surface-mount and difficult to salvage.

 

regards, Jack

[mike42]

Folks have done this forever. If you can get some older "full size" devices or boards you might be able to find some very usable stuff.

 

There are problems, however, trying to salvage off of a lot of the new stuff. A lot of stuff now uses so much surface mount technology - tiny components mounted flush on the board - that most of it's pretty useless for DIYing. Point to point wiring, where the leads may be left long, is pretty much a thing of the past, except in "boutique" designs. Even with standard board mounted components the leads may be so short when you pull em that it's just not worth the time and trouble. Also , most imported production stuff will use the absolute cheapest components available, so that's another issue to factor in.

 

But, it would be an excellent practice exercise to desolder some stuff, and some of it might actually turn out to be usable.

[WRGKMC]

I usually remove switches, knobs, Jacks, AC cord, Pots, and anything else I feel is usable. Something like a stereo headphone jacks saves a few bucks and is worth scavaging. Since I gave a good stock of resistors, caps etc, I may not bother with much on the boards.

[Adey]

Cool thanks guys, i might just have a poke around and see if i can find anything useful.

 

Ade

[mrbrown49]

Careful opening up old TVs. They can zap you pretty good.

[Fred Buzz]

I have boxes full of used stuff, but I agree, the modern stuff isn't fun anymore, all smd components, everything in one chip or processor instead 200 separate components.

 

I like the single chip amps though, simple to use. Most interesting parts for me are heavy duty transformers, voltage regulators, heavy duty bridge rectifiers, capacitors, good potmeters, led

[Adey]

Loud and clear.

[sailorman]

 

Careful opening up old TVs. They can zap you pretty good.

 

 

Yes indeedy. My uncle was a TV repairman during the 50's. As a youngster, I still remember him poking around in my grandmother's TV and flying backward across the room; those big caps hold power for a looooong time. And he knew what he was doing.

[drewl]

I'm a pack rat and have boxes full of old circuit boards full of great parts and stuff.

You can find alot of great stuff in old radios and such, things like germanium transistors etc.

Alot of the newer stuff may look like junk, but they use the same type of surface mount parts like switches etc. that are used in newer pedals and other musical electronics:thu:

[isaac42]

The problem with surface mount stuff isn't the quality of the components, it's that it's nearly impossible for mere humans to work with.