I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one pulling apart old broken printers. Have to watch out for those darn globs of ink though. I'm a PC technician in a school district so I hold on to all of the broken cd-drives, hard drives and anything else that could have some interesting parts inside.
I was taking apart an old printer last night and my wife came into the room to ask why I was doing it. She has gotten used to my pack rattishness, but it still drives her nuts. She just left me to my work. She still bugs me once in a while about the large pile of deodorant caps and containers I had at one point though. 8)
I always relish the time when the VCR breathes it's last. It takes about two hours to strip it to it's washers, but it's almost always worth it...
Bar.
I must retire to my couch of perpetual indulgence...
Captain Jack Sparrow wrote:Guard the boat, Mind the tide... Don't touch my dirt...
Same here with an old shaver that just died. Lots of nice hull-type pieces and a mesh to boot. The new shaver even yeilded a protective cover that can be an impulse engine.
Did you eat your Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs this morning?
I seldom through anything away. I'm always judging itmes I find by what their model part potential is. I currently have 6 small rubbermaid-like containers and another half dozen shoeboxes full of parts, pieces, bits - o - metal and sundry other detritus stacked next to the kit cache. I also have a coffie can sitting on my little workbench (such that it is) where I toss any little potential greeblies that I might come across.
Pat A.
=============================
50% Nerd, 50% Geek, 100% Cool
Sometimes I even lose track of what I have... It's great, though to reopen one of the boxes, rummage through it and find the most amazing little things I had completely forgotten about.
Sheer elegance in its simplicity.
Political unrest in dictatorships is rather like a round of rock-paper-scissors: The oposition goes on denouncing the regime on the papers, the regime censors the papers, rock-throwing ensues.
You want Greebles? The other day, Goodwill yielded a complete Star Wars Walker kit (in the Empire Strikes Back box, no less), for two bucks. Alas, no instructions, but that's okay
"A Good Magician never reveals how a trick is done.... and an EVIL magician never leaves any evidance that there was a trick in the first place!"
-Kaja Phoglio Girl Genius (advanced class)
I don't collect anything I see, but tend to stock up on things I'm using for a recent project. In fact I seem to be trying to come up with the weirdest source of material I can find. Must be Joe Brown's influence. The stand for the Time Machine is the tube container from a chest tube, and LP trays are great sources of sheet styrene.
Chacal wrote:Sometimes I even lose track of what I have... It's great, though to reopen one of the boxes, rummage through it and find the most amazing little things I had completely forgotten about.
Chacal wrote:Sometimes I even lose track of what I have... It's great, though to reopen one of the boxes, rummage through it and find the most amazing little things I had completely forgotten about.
I always relish the time when the VCR breathes it's last.
Try a local (indepent) TV and electrical retailer. They often have old TVs VCRs and DVDs thay have collected from customers ho have bought new sets and if they can't repair/refusrbish will just trash them.
I've manager to get lots of bits and pieces over the years, Old TVs are best with dial and knob controls.
Plus old sets with wooden cabinets. Snag the cabinet, clear out the innards and back with some ofcuts of fibreboard or hardboard. Put in some shelves. Makes a display cabinet or paint rack etc
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage
to change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those I had to kill today because they got on my nerves.
And help me to remember when I'm having a bad day and it seems that people are trying to wind me up, it takes 42 muscles to frown, 28 to smile
and only 4 to extend my arm and smack someone in the mouth!
I didn't stop to look. They are in bags and may be in dollar stores as well. These no-name brand products are here today and gone the next. Many ultra-cheap consumer goods.
many years ago--when I was quite young, I saw a birthday cake with tiny Saturn V rockets and lunar landers on it--long before STS ever flew. I have been trying to track down these little cake ornaments for years!
No luck. Thats tougher than trying to find "Space-food sticks" that are still produced down under--and way better than waxen Tootsie Rolls.
I used to collect the tubs out of VCRs which contain the deck and boards. My employer at the time called them Milk crate technology. I wanted to use them for buildings as they were so well shaped for the purpose.
I had to downsize the load recently though, anyway I can't store that much scenery in my unit.
Well, that is until I started coming here so much. No I see potential starship parts everywhere. Now I troll around the house looking for stuff to take apart!
Sure I save stuff. Stuff like sheet styrene and renshape and pieces of aluminum and large miscast parts I can cut down and use as resin blanks to manufacture parts out of and and clear sheet acrylic.
As for kit parts I never use them. The only "found" bits I use are spheres from gumball machines that come with little stuffed animal ketchains encapsulated inside (hopefully in stasis!). They cost $2.00 and are perfect as fuel tanks and such on real space subjects.
BUILDING THE FUTURE!
"In the universe, space travel may be the normal birth pangs of an otherwise dying race. A test. Some races pass, some fail."
- Robert A. Heinlein
Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain lurking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space.
- Stephen Hawking, 2011
Yes Chad builds supper detailed big rigs. a raidator for a big truck and a transam transmission pan have been on a GGRU sheet before, they are very popular.
The light fixtures used in the space station project aslo came from chad, they are miniture car stero speakers. Cast in clear they are nice 70's era light fixtures.
I think you Discovered the inspriration for the NX-01!!
"When you leave my academy you will be weapons! focused! and full of Purpose! Hot-rod rocket-jocks of prescision and strength, tear-@$$ing across the cosmos hunting for heaven!" -- Sgt. Maj. Frank Bougus [R. Lee Ermey, S:AAB] jocuri cu nave
I'm a PC technician in a school district so I hold on to all of the broken cd-drives, hard drives and anything else that could have some interesting parts inside. 
She has gotten used to my pack rattishness, but it still drives her nuts. She just left me to my work. She still bugs me once in a while about the large pile of deodorant caps and containers I had at one point though. 8)
