Salvage Parts and Sources

For ideas on different ways to use some parts see Salvage Ideas. You may also find Free From Salvage useful. Got an idea, please add it.

Cellular phones
Full of incredibly tiny electronics, but for automated manufacture, many are in modules joined by contact springs instead of solder or connectors so many parts come right off. Small speakers, mic, power connector, SMD bulk caps occasionally, tiny eccentric weight vibration motor. A few models have display modules you can find specs for.

Don't forget about the gold on the boards...front and back.

Computers
Power supply is useful as a unit, or can be taken apart for transformer, caps, diodes, and similar. Many have a filtered input connector which is rather valuable. There are usually some LED and switches on the end of wires that plug into header blocks. They also may have CD DVD Floppy Drives see separate discussion. The connecting wires are often useful, sometimes taking the connectors off the mother board makes them more useful. Individual boards may be useful as they are. The mother board is not usually useful for its chips, most are too small and specialized for much use. Crystals may be found, not sure if frequencies are useful. AT-era PC's often had D-connectors of both sexes on ribbon cables and peripherals have matching cables. Some have RTC modules, others have CR2032 lithium batteries. The big BIOS flash/eprom may be recyclable. Certain vintages have nice SRAM chips as cache. SCSI and other smart controllers have serial eeprom's for settings. Old ethernet cards and cables yield 50-ohm coaxial wiring. Loads and loads of screws in the case.

Digital cameras
Card slot if you can get it out. Battery, contacts and charger. Switching regulators. Very nice displays but hard to use. Be on the lookout for EL backlights, though, if you can power them. Nice smooth squares of very white light. Optics of varying types, connectors if you can get them out. Marvels of miniaturization and cramped-space engineering worth looking at in any case.

Floppy Drives
Often have stepper motor and Brush less motors. The old 5 ¼ drives are most likely to have reasonable power steppers. most of the chips then to be too small and specialized for much use. The 3.5" power connector is reasonably easy to remove with most equipment.

Hard Drives
Pretty platters, spacers and stator coils, strong magnets, odd motor or two.

CD/DVD Drives
Laser diodes, motors (usually brushless for the cd spindle, stepper for the laser position, and DC for the tray), volume wheels, open/close limit switches.

Tape Drives
Rare. May contain springs under considerable tension! Some have beefy power components. SCSI terminators have resistor packs for picking.

Microwave Ovens
Make sure you discharge high voltage capacitor prior to salvage, if you do not know how to do this find out first. High voltage transformer ( dangerous ), high voltage capacitor and diode. Good magnets in the magnetron tube (WARNING: there may be beryllium oxide ceramic present in the magnetron tube, wear a respirator or N95 capable of filtering out fine dust. do not attempt to take apart a magnetron tube w/o a proper mask, the BeO dust can cause an incurable lung condition or cancer.) Lots of micro switches. Small motor, motorized fan.

Printers
Often have stepper motors. Plugs, jacks, power transistors, diodes. Gears, shafts and other mechanical components. Control panels may have led's and push button switches. Many laser printers have standard type LCD modules. Many inkjets have nice big external power supplies.

Stereos, boom boxes, radios
Plugs, jacks, power transistors, diodes. Audio power IC (TDA2030 is very common). Transformers and power supplies, sometimes symmetrical +-. VFD modules.

TV
May not be a good salvage candidate: There are high voltage dangers and dangers from imploding picture tubes. Also when you are done there is often a disposal fee as the picture tube contains a few pounds of lead. Do not dispose of irresponsibly.


 * [How to dismantle a CRT monitor]

VCR
DC motors, plugs, jacks, power transistors, diodes. VFD modules, neon lamps on few models.

Salvage Techniques
Use a propane torch to salvage components from printed circuit boards ( from russ_hensel ).

First, this technique can be dangerous, in addition to possible burning yourself or burning your house down the components can emit dangerous fumes including fumes from the lead solder. Make sure you are operating carefully in a very well ventilated ( perhaps outdoor ) area. If you are not an adult have an adult approve of your procedure.

I use a propane touch with about a liter container of propane often used for plumbing work. I take the board and clamp it vertically in a vise. The torch is adjusted for about a 1 inch flame. Play the flame over the component leads while pulling on the component with a pair of pliers ( have several sizes available ). Work the component out and drop in a box. Move on to the next components. Some components can be pulled out with your fingers if you do not mind occasional burns, some can be pull out with your fingers but will burn you almost every time. If a component has heavy duty leads and light duty leads ( as some transistors that are connected to heat sinks do ) heat the heavy duty leads first. If the components has much plastic near the board ( for example ) headers, you may destroy the part. Practice will improve your technique. Keep your head out of the fumes. Try not to set the board on fire too often. When you do make sure you put it out. Do not leave the site of the work until the boards are cool. Even surface mount components can be removed, apply heat from the side away from the component, this will often ignite the board. This technique is at least an order of magnitude faster than using a soldering iron. Some people replace the torch with a paint removing heat gun, I have tried this but like the torch better.

Do the parts work after heating this way: for me almost always.

Using a Desoldering station and/or tool is a much better idea. These are available cheap on EBay.