What (if anything) to save when a piece of electronic equipment dies

[pgi]

So when recapping, or rebuilding of a piece of equipment fails, what components are worth the time to desolder and save? Not just for future repairs, but for mad scientist projects as well.

[Topcat]

Re: What (if anything) to save when a piece of electronic equipment dies

fets and heatsinks is about all I salvage from broken motherboards.

[Scenic]

Re: What (if anything) to save when a piece of electronic equipment dies

fets, heatsinks, bios chip(s) and sometimes caps (if they're good ones)

I know.. reusing old caps isn't the greatest idea, but spending 15-20 bucks total w. shipping for a full recap of an old (Socket A/370/478 etc.) board which is pretty much worthless doesn't really make sense (if it's for yourself or non-critical applications).
That's what I usually re-use them for.

[shovenose]

Re: What (if anything) to save when a piece of electronic equipment dies

Power supplies are a gold mine in this aspect.
You can save pretty much hanyttyhing in there :-)

[Topcat]

Re: What (if anything) to save when a piece of electronic equipment dies

I only take BIOS chips if the motherboard is socketed for it, which is almost non-existent today. If its a hard soldered ROM, I don't bother.

[Scenic]

Re: What (if anything) to save when a piece of electronic equipment dies

^ same, but most modern mainboards use 8pin SOP BIOS chips, so it's not that hard.

The common 8MBit EEPROMs actually aren't as cheap as one might think..
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...keywords=25L80

[c_hegge]

Re: What (if anything) to save when a piece of electronic equipment dies

I often scavenge heat sinks. I then use them either to replace heat sinks which are too small, or if I build up a big enough box full of them, the metal recyclers will give me $20 or so for it.

[severach]

Re: What (if anything) to save when a piece of electronic equipment dies

SOIC-8W BIOS chips come off in about 30 seconds. That's creeping up on the removal time for a socketed DIP-8. SOIC is really nice to work with good equipment.

I like to reclaim high quality caps I can't buy cheaply, MOSFETs, heatsinks, ram slot handles, batteries, EEPROMs, and oft damaged rear sockets. What I take depends on how much it would cost to buy and stock, how easy it is to remove, and how many I have already.

[Topcat]

Re: What (if anything) to save when a piece of electronic equipment dies

^
A blast of hot air and they do pop right off....but I'm already overstocked on them, so I don't mess with them anymore.

I forgot about the batteries though, yes, I bilk those too.

[c_hegge]

Re: What (if anything) to save when a piece of electronic equipment dies

I forgot about CMOS batteries. If they're still good then I re-use them, but if they're flat, they make excellent fireworks.

[momaka]

Re: What (if anything) to save when a piece of electronic equipment dies

I save pretty much everything. If it's a bulky piece of equipment (such as a large printer), I toss the plastics and the case for metal/plastic recycling and only save the electronics (boards, motors, gears, clutches, heating elements, wires, etc.). I also always save the screws as well.