Your Best Dumpster Finds

[NormanSaxon86]

Originally Posted by Gianni

I found a naked Sharp LCD panel... the panel, PSU and the small PCB with buttons.

I thought it was dead but with surprise it was working... so why not to replace the old Philips 17" CRT? This one is 1280 X 1024 against 1024 x 768 and of course... it frees a lot of space on the desk for all my trash.

I bought some aluminium bars, aluminium plates, aluminium corners... the kind of material used to repair stairs/steps... and with a drill and some screws I built the panel chassis.

Ok it is not artistic... as you can see from pics... the corners are not perfect and the screws are visible... but it is working fine since end of 2004.
The worst part is the left side, I have never found a solution for the regulation buttons I glued only a small piece of rubber on the ON/OFF button.

The funny thing is when somebody sees it... at first they don't care but after few minutes they ask me where I bought it because they say it's quite original

Ciao
Gianni

Very cool and inspiring great find!

[kc8adu]

was on my way to a friends place yesterday.was almost to richmond in on us35 when i spotted a box with a bunch of tubing sticking out.i stopped quickly and got out of the truck.its some sort of antenna.well its 2 antennas!an m2 kt34 and a cushcraft 13b2!
i loaded up the truck and the folks who set them out came out.hollered you want some more scrap?
sure!.got 2 more antennas and a kenwood ts-430.their grandfather went sk years ago and this stuff was just gathering dust and getting in the way.
got 2 more boxes to get tomorrow when they get them out.they didnt think anyone would want this old junk.but they are happy to see it go to good use.
my friend gave an odd look as i unloaded the stuff into her barn.hey enough stuff to make your motorhome look like a porcupine too!

[ben7]

Originally Posted by kc8adu

was on my way to a friends place yesterday.was almost to richmond in on us35 when i spotted a box with a bunch of tubing sticking out.i stopped quickly and got out of the truck.its some sort of antenna.well its 2 antennas!an m2 kt34 and a cushcraft 13b2!
i loaded up the truck and the folks who set them out came out.hollered you want some more scrap?
sure!.got 2 more antennas and a kenwood ts-430.their grandfather went sk years ago and this stuff was just gathering dust and getting in the way.
got 2 more boxes to get tomorrow when they get them out.they didnt think anyone would want this old junk.but they are happy to see it go to good use.
my friend gave an odd look as i unloaded the stuff into her barn.hey enough stuff to make your motorhome look like a porcupine too!

Awesome!

-Ben

[Keatah]

I typically throw out a lot of slot one and pentium pro setups. It's just so difficult to find good homes for these things. This and a lot of vintage computing stuff.

[Pentium4]

Last May, I got a free Dell Dimension computer: 1.5GHz Pentium 4, 384MB PC133 RAM, Radeon X1050, Seagate HDD. I use it to play movies on my 24" tube TV and it does its simple job great! Really silent too. I cracked it open and the Mobo consists of only Rubycon, and nichicon. The PSU has Rubycon's (Delta unit), and the GPU has purely Sanyo caps. This thing should keep chugging along for a long time!

[SuperDuty]

I go to the recycling center about once a week, and I always come back with at least one thing. Those last three weeks, I found :
- A HP Pavilion a1407.fr computer with a Sempron 3000+, non RAM, a 160Gb SATA hard drive, an ECS motherboard (OEM), works fine, but the ATi chipset seem to get hot sometimes. Using it with a graphics card is better.
- A Bélinea 19" wide screen with bulged CrapXon caps, recapped and works fine now.
- An unknown 17" screen, seems to work fine (tested it for an hour), I haven't opened it but I have no clue why it was thrown away.
- A cheap PROline portable DVD player, the wire of the adaptor connector was cut, took me 5mn to repair it...works fine but the drive is a bit noisy.

But my best find yet (in July of last year IIRC), are two computer thrown away by the same guy (same owner on the installed Windows) :
- A Packard Bell iMedia : Core 2 Duo E8200, 3Gb of DDR2, 320Gb Seagate HDD, GeForce 8600GS. The Fortron PSU was on of those elcheapo FSP 250W, it was dead. Replaced it with a LiteOn PSU and sold it quickly at a nice price.
- A Sony Vaio VGN-A417M : Pentium M750, 2x256Mb of DDR2, 80Gb Fujitsu HDD, Radeon X600M, 17" screen, the brick came with it ! It had a back light problem, a CCFL wire was burned, a single weld and voilà ! Replaced the HDD with a 160Gb Seagate, put 2Gb of DDR2, installed Windows 7 and now it's my main computer.

[mockingbird]

I found one of these today:

Back-UPS VS-500


I'm curious, it states that the output maximum is 325W, what does this mean?

The innards are pretty impressive... Circa 2001 SMT stuff, two Panny NHG caps on the secondary but a "B&H" input cap... Only now are some MFGs catching onto this trick - using Chinese input caps (Which last long), and good Jap caps for the secondary.

[SuperDuty]

Last friday, I got four laptops from the keeper of the recycling center, he will give me all the ones he finds so I can get him one to work.
Here's the list :
- HP DV6 1120ef : Pentium Dual Core T4200, no ram, no HDD, HD4530, battery is there, no DVD, very good condition overall, but won't start when plugged with my Dell adapter. I'm trying to get an original adapter and a few parts for it.
- HP DV9000 : Athlon 64X2 TK-55, no ram, no HDD, no battery, excellent condition (still has the plastic protection on top of the screen lid), dead mobo with a big scratch on the board. Replaced it with a better mobo I've reflowed in the oven six month ago, and it works...for how long ? I've found someone who will give me a few parts to get a complete one.
- Acer Aspire 7004 : no RAM, no HDD, no battery, good condition, has a Sempron 3500+; Reflowed with my heat gun during only one minute, and it came back to life
- Asus A2500S : complete, Pentium 4 3.06Ghz, 512Mb, dead 60Gb IDE hard drive, Radeon 9600, must have been a good machine back then. No problem apart from the dead hard drive. It's the one I will give to the keeper, it's the most robust and the most reliable (it will be a garage laptop for checking docs, music and basic web browsing), I've found an adapter for it, I just need a decent HDD.

Also, last week I've found an Acer Aspire T120 that looked really bad, I tore it apart and found an Athlon XP3000+ under the heatsink My best Athlon XP right now.

[walking]

Found a few flat screens 19" and smaller and working 98,XP & Vista comps. Usually one every 2-3 months or so. Ride a bike every morning and learned to take the 5 mile one way thru the alleys mostly. A lot of people upgrade and just set stuff out back for someone to find.

Best so far is a HP1720n dual core 1.86 & keyboard along with a 1815 MFC and a 19" widescreen.

My girlfriend saw some pickup dumping a bunch of junk into our dumpster so she went over to lock it and there was a birthday bag with $100 bill and a $300 gold necklace plastered with a pc of cake. I ate the cake, she got the $ and gold .

[momaka]

Found a nice looking stainless steel microwave the other day left outside for trash pickup. Pic:
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028
So I got it home. Turns out it's a Panasonic NN-SN797S. Although pretty on the outside, this is what it looked like on the inside:
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028

I haven't tried testing it yet. Am I correct in assuming that I shouldn't run it like this? On the inside, there was a cover of some sort on the side that has started to burn. Looks like it has aluminum foil or something similar in it. Anyone know what that is and what it's used for? Magnetron cover, perhaps?
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028

Other than that and the rust, the electronics looks fine. Nothing obviously burned. Pics:
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028

So can I do something about it? Everything looks very nice on the front but IIRC those rust spots will make the magnetron short, correct? Can I cover everything in aluminum foil or something like that? Or is there a special paint that needs to go on top of the metal inside the microwave?

What do you all think? Make a new thread and fix it or just trash it?
I'm thinking save the electronics at the very least, maybe even the door and frond panel as well (a lot of reviews mention broken latch mechanisms on the door so maybe someone else can use those parts).

[ben7]

Originally Posted by momaka

Found a nice looking stainless steel microwave the other day left outside for trash pickup. Pic:
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028
So I got it home. Turns out it's a Panasonic NN-SN797S. Although pretty on the outside, this is what it looked like on the inside:
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028

I haven't tried testing it yet. Am I correct in assuming that I shouldn't run it like this? On the inside, there was a cover of some sort on the side that has started to burn. Looks like it has aluminum foil or something similar in it. Anyone know what that is and what it's used for? Magnetron cover, perhaps?
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028

Other than that and the rust, the electronics looks fine. Nothing obviously burned. Pics:
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1342333028

So can I do something about it? Everything looks very nice on the front but IIRC those rust spots will make the magnetron short, correct? Can I cover everything in aluminum foil or something like that? Or is there a special paint that needs to go on top of the metal inside the microwave?

What do you all think? Make a new thread and fix it or just trash it?
I'm thinking save the electronics at the very least, maybe even the door and frond panel as well (a lot of reviews mention broken latch mechanisms on the door so maybe someone else can use those parts).

Theres only one way to find out if it works, turn 'er on! But, seeing the magnetron wave guard as it is, I think it will start making some plasma

[momaka]

Originally Posted by ben7

But, seeing the magnetron wave guard as it is, I think it will start making some plasma

Yeah, I think it has already been doing that to the previous owner. Hopefully nothing else has been damaged by that. From what I gather online, the microwave can be used without that cover so that's good news. I'll try to clean it this week and test it. I don't think my family will be happy when they come back and see this microwave - they really hate it when I bring "junk" in the house. But hey, at least it doesn't have roaches!

If nothing else, I think this microwave will be fine for some "science" experiments . Or maybe I'll fix it one day, who knows (granted I would need to get a welder and some steel sheets first).

[ben7]

Originally Posted by momaka

Yeah, I think it has already been doing that to the previous owner. Hopefully nothing else has been damaged by that. From what I gather online, the microwave can be used without that cover so that's good news. I'll try to clean it this week and test it. I don't think my family will be happy when they come back and see this microwave - they really hate it when I bring "junk" in the house. But hey, at least it doesn't have roaches!

If nothing else, I think this microwave will be fine for some "science" experiments . Or maybe I'll fix it one day, who knows (granted I would need to get a welder and some steel sheets first).

Haha, I know, they hate it when I bring 'junk' in the house here too xD

Try smoothing off (with very fine sandpaper) the arced metal areas, plasma balls usually form on sharp edges. Its not guaranteed to last though.

Shame it has an inverter instead of low frequency iron core transformer, you can make arcs with them (WARNING: VERY dangerous, they can provide up to 2000v at 2+ amps!).

[momaka]

Originally Posted by ben7

Shame it has an inverter instead of low frequency iron core transformer, you can make arcs with them (WARNING: VERY dangerous, they can provide up to 2000v at 2+ amps!).

Yes. When I saw it, I was a little disappointed as well cause I always wanted to build a welder out of one.

It would have been funny if I did - use the parts from the microwave (the traffo, that is) to fix the microwave itself (by making a welder and welding a new back piece), then put the parts back in the microwave to make it work.... then sell it on ebay as a "self-healing" microwave

[kc8adu]

you can sand down the bad spot and repaint with special paint made for microwave cavities.the waveguide cover is sheet mica and also availible and cheap.cut it to fit.

[momaka]

The problem is, it looks like the metal has rusted all the way through to the other side. But I'll try cleaning it anyways just to see what comes up. After all, you're the know-it-all guru around here, so if you think it can be fixed, it probably can be . Thanks for the tip on the microwave cavity paint. Saved me a lot of time researching.

[momaka]

Update on the microwave:

The good news is - it works! I tried heating a cup of water in it, and in just 20 seconds it got really hot.

The bad news: the back where the rust is also gets very hot :| . Also, as soon as the microwave inverter kicks in, you can hear all of the fans slowing down and the inside light dim a lot. I think the rust on the back is definitely shorting it.

The really bad news: I tried cleaning the microwave and unfortunately, the metal on the back has indeed rusted all the way through . As I was cleaning it with my putty knife (since the paint really was pealing in big chunks), I accidentally tore a few holes right at the bend on the back. So yeah - a new back is needed for sure. The whole thing is soft when I press it with my finger. I think I'll just cut the whole back out and screw a new one in there if that's possible.
The bottom piece has started to rust quite a bit near the edges too, though. I hope that doesn't have any areas that are rusted all the way through because that will make the repair much harder.

[goodpsusearch]

I would try to save it

[Topcat]

I found one of those 70's-ish Amana 'Radaranges' in the garbage many years ago....that thing would nuke your food to the glowing point, powerful bastards! I used it for ages and ended up giving it away. It had a bad door switch when I found it. 30 cents fixed it.

[larrymoencurly]

I once found an ancient convection/microwave oven with all-mechanical controls. Convection/microwave ovens aren't cheap. The convection blower fan bearing had seized, and it was hard to find a new one because it had to take the full heat, being mounted downstream (dumb design).

I've managed to retrieve 7-8 IBM keyboards in various condition, enough to make 4 complete 101-key model M keyboards.