Heavy trash pickup day is your friend . . .

tindel

Joined Sep 16, 2012
936
I live in a pretty uppity neighborhood with our own electronics recycle bin... I've pulled countless PC's out of that thing... I'm using a few of them around the house for various things... I pulled a fender Blues junior out of it once... needed new tubes... I ordered a match pair, replaced them, and sold the thing for $300. That was my best find... I've also got several routers, countless power packs, a few speakers that needed new foam... power amps... old tape decks that I steal the transformers out of of for various projects, etc. It's really a gold mine for an electronics hoarder - much to my wife's chagrin - but she's stuck around for 13 years, today - so she can't be too upset about it.
 

tindel

Joined Sep 16, 2012
936
Another thing I found that I need to get working is an old Sony 2-track reel-to-reel mastering unit... really nice - old, but I know there's a audiophile somewhere that would love it... need to get it out of the garage and sell it... It does have proprietary power cord that has gone missing so I need to replace it with a newer style power cord.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
I grew up near a town where things like snow shovels and lawnmowers are considered seasonal. Buy it when the season starts, put it on the curb when the season ends. The trick was to know when "trash day" was, to beat the other scavengers, and to swallow your dignity as the hoi polloi gazed out their windows.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Another thing I found that I need to get working is an old Sony 2-track reel-to-reel mastering unit... really nice - old, but I know there's a audiophile somewhere that would love it... need to get it out of the garage and sell it... It does have proprietary power cord that has gone missing so I need to replace it with a newer style power cord.
The non-standard power cords will ruin the audio quality.
 

Thread Starter

Natakel

Joined Oct 11, 2008
54
I have picked up three paper shredders in the last 10 months. People toss them out because they are "broken".

I also obtained a decent shredder this way . . . someone was throwing it out. It's an Ativa DX180D Cross-Cut shredder that will accept up to 18 sheets of paper, staples, CD's, credit cards, etc. Has a lighted bin, and alert lights when the device overheats (auto shutdown), bin full, and others I can't recall. It still worked, but would "clunk" when shredding something and sometimes just stop feeding entirely and clunk away.

I figured it had a busted gear . . . I assumed they were nylon or even some kind of plastic. I took it apart and was pleased to find heavy metal gears, four of them. Motor in this thing is huge, too . . . its got some power. Someone had it apart before me (there was a screw missing). The gears were perfect . . . the problem was the two "cups" that the main gear axle ends fit in (they look like political campaign "skimmer" hats) had worn out on one side . . . thus allowing the gear to skip teeth. Mystery of the "clunk" solved.

I just turned these around 180 degrees and applied new grease to the entire mechanism. It works a treat now . . . I have no doubt reverse will be a problem, but who really uses that much? The cups were not worn at all on the opposite side. I looked online for some replacement parts, but none appear to exist. Guess I'll see how long it lasts till it breaks down . . . I may have to re-engineer it then, lol
 
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