[Zema]

Last night i got an old printer from the dump and i got a lot of cool looking sprockets from it (what i wanted) but also alot of other cool gear like wires and assemblyline-like lines.

So if you want some stuff to steampunk your tanks or make cool scenery, get a hold of an old printer, 1 with multiple paper trays will have more cool bitz!

But be careful, some areas will be very dirty with dye, so be careful and don't wear your sunday best! 8Y

 

[Walex]

An old coffee machine also has some good bits (for scenery mostly).

 

[Sir Theobold the Lame]

A friend of mine got a load of PC fans from his work which are ideal for large Alien 3 type extraction fan thingies. Stripped down electrical goods are a hobbyists friend.

 

[Zema]

Stripped down electrical goods are a hobbyists friend.

It would appear so!

 

[wymic]

Old VCR’s, tape players, cd/dvd players, copying and fax machines are good too. 8X

 

[Sir Theobold the Lame]

Just make sure they are unplugged before you rip them apart people!

 

[Zema]

Just make sure they are unplugged before you rip them apart people!

Yeah And don't you have to wait a few minutes with tv's before you open 'em up? Because of left over electricity, or is that just a myth?

 

[Sir Theobold the Lame]

Im sure its fine, but you must ensure your hands are wet beforehand!....


...




im joking obviously, please never touch electrical equipment with wet hands!

 

[wymic]

Yeah And don't you have to wait a few minutes with tv's before you open 'em up? Because of left over electricity, or is that just a myth?

Oh no, I do the Office Space thing and just start beating the hell out of the machines with a baseball bat.

 

[rp252]

Certain capacitors in TVs and other electrical equipment can hold on to a potentially damaging electrical charge for a long time. I personally turn off all the equipment I want to destroy for a week before cannibalising it entirely for components. This may seem a bit radical, bet I've been advised to do so by a very good friend of mine who is an electrical engineer.

Old electronics do provide some amazing components for conversion and terrain. Old computers are useful, especially very old ones with massive heat sinks - they make for great antennae arrays. I also find the strong magnets used in speakers to be very useful for a variety of jobs.

As long as you're careful old junk like this can provide a wealth of hobby-bits... I wouldn't suggest wet hands though

Rich.

 

[Tsele]

Also for wires you can take old PC's power supplie, obviously a burned one, and take the wires. The rest can be used to make buildings for scenery!

 

[Canew]

Yeah And don't you have to wait a few minutes with tv's before you open 'em up? Because of left over electricity, or is that just a myth?

Minutes? Try weeks, or longer. Being careless, especially with the back of a TV picture tube can hurt. Badly. No, that's not a myth.

Anything that runs on house current has some kind of power transformer, which stores the electricity in "capacitors," which then leach the power off gently to the sensitive circuits/motors inside (if I recall right. Apologies if I'm way off about that one bit).

Computers hide them inside the "power supply unit," which is usually sealed away and harmless, but some appliances, such as office equipment, VCRs and other devices are made by manufacturers who don't expect you to rip the top off and start poking around, so they leave them sitting out in the open and UNSHIELDED. These things are designed to temporarily store power, and WILL hold a charge even after the device is unplugged. If left unplugged for a long period, the capacitors will eventually discharge and be safe to touch.

If, however, you JUST unplugged said device, I would at the VERY least leave it alone for several hours, even a day or two depending on the device, just to be safe. You do NOT want to touch a charged capacitor! Gives you a nice little jolt. Remember Jar Jar's tongue and the pod racer in Star Wars? Yeah, you get the idea. If you're lucky, it'll only tingle and/or cause numbness for a while, but in some cases it can cause nerve damage.

Anybody who wants to mess with a non-flat-panel, old-school TV is really asking for trouble. A TV picture tube is nothing to kid around with. It's a GIANT capacitor. That means it stores many, many times as much electricity as the capacitors in office equipment and household appliances, and takes much, much longer after being unplugged to naturally discharge and become safe to handle. If you touch the exposed part of the back of a fully-charged one of these things, and it doesn't kill you, you can cause really bad, and usually permanent damage, like spending the rest of your life walking funny and not being able to draw a straight line with a pencil. Yep, it's that serious. I've seen people that it's happened to. It ain't pretty, and you'll never paint models again, I can guarantee that. Your hands will shake too much.

BE CAREFUL. You don't need spare parts for your projects THAT badly!

 

[Legionnaire]

Thanks for the info! I went out and picked my self a very old printer, though it seems like it is unsuitable for modeling purposes.

Anyway, that is a really great idea, thanks for sharing.

 

[Andusciassus]

Old electronic-stuff and toys. If you got that and PVA of course, then the sky is the limit.

 

[Shadow Nugz]

Oh no, I do the Office Space thing and just start beating the hell out of the machines with a baseball bat.

Baseball bat? Axe! Wait... you are supposed to use an old printer? Oh... thats why the people at Staples were mad...

 

[The Toon]

Old electronic-stuff and toys. If you got that and PVA of course, then the sky is the limit.

Agreed, any electronic thing pretty much anything for terrain to conversions.

 

[omgitsduane]

Yeah, during hard trash around here my mum normally brings home computers that everyone throws out, they are crap mostly, but I've always told her not to do it, but after making all this scenery and needing some mek and cyborks soon, they would have perfect gubbins in them for my orks and its free!

 

[GDMNW]

Danger Danger High Voltage

The Cathode Ray Tube in the back of a television hums and the screen is covered with static because of the enourmous voltage that is built up in the TV's capacitors. Touching the contacts in the back of a TV can literally tear you open from finger to shoulder. Don't ever play with CRT Televisions. I wanted to endorse that thought. It is worth worrying about the back of a TV in the same way that any sensible person keeps clear of overhead powerlines or electrified train tracks.

On the topic of good sources of modelling material you can find an enourmous amount of stuff inside old radios or computers. These often have loads of fine wire suitable for modelling use as well as some cool components if you are lucky.

 

[InquisitorAffe]

Minutes? Try weeks, or longer. Being careless, especially with the back of a TV picture tube can hurt. Badly. No, that's not a myth.

Anything that runs on house current has some kind of power transformer, which stores the electricity in "capacitors," which then leach the power off gently to the sensitive circuits/motors inside (if I recall right. Apologies if I'm way off about that one bit).

Sort of, Capacitors aren't really used as an intermediate storage in that scenario (e.g., transformer loads up capacitor and then computer takes power out of capacitor.)

The computer runs directly off the power supply. The capacitors are there mostly as a short term reservoir and sink to smooth out variations in the supply coming from the wall or blips in the regulator (Lights dim when the compressor on the fridge kicks on?) Even the big honkin' caps they put in the power supply can only hold a fraction of a second's worth of power for the entire system.

They also have the handy property of being transparent to high frequency noise, so all the junk riding around on top of the power signal gets grounded out by the capacitor. (Really its primary function in most designs, more than actually storing any power, as it takes an extremely physically large capacitor to hold any useful amount of power.)

A television not designed by semi literate monkeys has bleeders on all the high voltage elements that will render it dead within a few minutes. HOWEVER, are you trained to make sure they haven't themselves failed? Like Canew said, better safe than fried.

Everything else was good! =)

 

[omgitsduane]

Once the wires are removed, a PC power supply would make a very simple power generator with a bit of coloring and weathering and maybe some gubbins here or there. I got one but its brand new and sort of a back up so I won't be using it, although I'm tempted.

I've been electricuted too many times already from standing on my frayed guitar cord after a shower (really stupid but thats how lazy I am).