O.K. so your T.V., V.C.R or D.V.D player took a **** (the stuff the dog left behind which I should be cleaning up now) and your on your way to the garbage can and you start thinking. Hey, this thing has a bunch of wires, gears, thin pieces of metal and who knows what else.
You bring it back in and start to gut its insides…oooh, this wire would make a good heater hose(auto), this one would make a good brake line(AC) and this piece of very thin metal could be made into a hinge bracket(armor)!
I sometimes do oddball jobs and the ones I love the most is on new homes, especially after the phone guy left, wires everywhere.
I once had trash dumped on me while I was going through the dumpster. Watches(not digital) have alot of very fine gears(auto,AC,armor).
Please don’t tell me im alone on this one.
Just thought I would share some possibilities of a dead toaster[;)]
i dont know about a toaster, but i know the servo that i fried has plenty of small gears that are very fun to play with, and might even be useful !
i’ve never been dumpster divin’ for scratch materials, but i have picked up the scrap wires (especially chandleleer wires) for different things. scrap pieces of 12 gauge copper wire cut about 6 inches long with a hook bent in the end makes a great paint stirrer. thats what i use, got a butt load of them. later.
nope. i search everywhere for my stuff. when me and my dad were repairing the stone steps of our house, and we were chiseling away material, i went back inside, and came out again with a cup to gather all that nice urban rubble and dust. and when our neighbors went to a nursing home, and had an estate sale, i picked up some electronics wires and stuff.
well let me see. i recently worked at a farm lumber plant. so peeled wood, sawdust, wire of all sizes, and wood chunks. all great for building stuff.
joe
Anywhere you can find and use stuff is a good idea. I save oddball junk that I my use somewhere. Some I have had and used for more years then I care to remember.
John
helicopters don’t fly, they beat the air into submission
If I am working on a project and need some thing spiecal,I’ll go dumster diving.So your not alone in this.Digger
The toaster I just threw in there, but thanks to all for replying. At least im not alone…
As far as dumpster diving…HAHA…I now have an antique aquarium, book shelf to hold more models and an EEWWWWWWWW…ok…feminine products are out of the question…
I remember years ago when mom gave up our old rotary dial phone fora touch tone model. You would not believe the detailing stuff you can get out of an old rotary dial phone. The old analog technology is just great for detail parts!
I too have torn apart old analog watches for gears, old aquarium air pumps, corupted floppy discs are great if you need really thin sheeting for anything…
I bought an electronic keyboard at a second hand shop and an Apple IIe keyboard/CPU unit for 10 dollars Canadian a few years back and got a mint worth of detailing parts from both as neither of them would ever be in working order again.
Recycling is good for the environment, be proud of your efforts! 
my most memorable scrounges were the metal wrappers off of wine bottles and an uprooted tree for the roots.( makes great trees )
Childrens board games are a great source for different shapes, and most times they’re made of styrene.
wow, you guys sure get real creative… i’ll need to try this sometime.
Now I wish I hadn’t chucked that VCR a few months ago.
I had an old clock radio that finally stopped working. I took it apart to see if I could fix it and found lots of things I could use in modeling. Almost half of the insides went into my scrounge box.
Two years ago I found half of a die used to make fishing weights, of various sizes. I now melt down wheel weights, which I find at tire dealers, and pour into it to make weights for my models.
Just remember some of those electronic equipment,T.V’s especially, can hold residual electrical charges even after being unplugged for long periods of time.
I wouldnt be tearing any Televisions apart unless your 100% sure of what your doing.
Many of them have large concentrations of mercury, and lead as well as electrical charges.
it can get hazordous.
Yes, you’re not alone. I’m constantly tearing electronic stuff apart (that doesn’t work) to look for valuable items and it’s fun too. I pull apart a 35m camera that didn’t work and found all sorts of cool little thin brass pieces that could be used for detail parts.
Nope, not alone.
When I was a kit, and even now, one of my hobbies was basic electronics. Over the years, I’ve collected boxes full of old circuit boards, resistors, etc, miles of wires, and all sorts of little doohickeys that may or may not end up on a model some day.
Lonewolf,
You can use the tv casing for a spraybooth if you have none.
Did your folks ever finish building you? [:D]
Junk isn’t all you can find. A long time ago, a friend went scrounging for empty boxes for moving in the dumpster behind a K-Mart, and found a brand new VCR in the box. Could be an employee stashed it there to return after hours to pick it up. I’ve also heard if someone makes off with, say, a socket from a ratchet set the store will toss it because the set is incomplete. There’s gold in them there dumpsters …
my greatest triumph will be the fiberoptic tree my wife has. now if i could just get someone to distract her long enough for me to make it so it wont work.
joe