Dumpster Diving
It's amazing what people will just throw away!
Here, I will describe all of the items that I have found in dumpsters and other waste receptacles over the years.
2x Pioneer CS-420 speaker system
Though a bit old, these speakers were discovered in near-perfect condition. The foam surrounds on the tweeters were beginning to deteriorate, so I used some Elmer's glue to reinforce them. I washed the grilles out in the shower (they were absolutley gross, during washing the water was turned the color of beer) and now they are perfectly good. The woofers are in mint condition.
They make nice party speakers!
Pioneer car head unit
A friend's boyfriend bought a new head unit because he thought the one that he had (this one) was broken because the faceplate fell off. Little did he know, the faceplate is removable as a security feature. Now I've got a great car stereo!
Boekamp "Original" Quartz Heater
A 1.5 kW quartz tube infrared electric heater. Has a master thermostat and a smaller thermostat for calibrating the main thermostat to a particular sized room, along with 1500/750 watt settings, grounded power cord. Worked fine "out of the box"! I am going to guess it was made circa 1980. Pretty advanced and well-made, I must say, though it isn't the prettiest thing to look at!
Maxi-Heat Ceramic electric heater
A 1.5 kW ceramic element forced air heater. Worked great "out of the box" as well. This is a very nice heater for in the bathroom to warm up after a shower.
Extension Cords
Various extension cords of various lengths were found as well. Electric power cords, an RCA audio cable, and a 3.5 mm mini jack extension was also found.
Toaster
A toaster was thrown out - it had only one defect: The spring that pops the toast was held down by an electromagnet when the toaster was operating, when it reached temperature a bimetallic switch cut off the magnet and released the spring. The electromagnet had become desoldered from the circuit board and the toaster did not stay "down" when depressed. It took more time to warm up the soldering iron that to actually fix the toaster!
Broken Sony bookshelf stereo system
Contained a 190 VA power transformer, which will be great for an amplifier project. Also contained some very interesting amplifier chips, heat sinks, and a boatload of capacitors and resistors to build up my inventory! Also has lots of connectors (RCA and spring clips) which might be useful for audio/speaker projects.
Keg Tap
A keg tap was thrown out. All that it needed was a little cleaning, some lube in the pump, and a hose replacement. Good as new now!
Incandescent Torchiere
This torchiere was in perfect working order when thrown away. The only defect was that the twist knob for the switch was missing. That's like a $0.25 part at the hardware store. The previous owners even provided a perfectly-good 100-watt bulb with the lamp!
Incandescent Torchiere #2
This torchiere didn't have its shade, so I made one from a piece of heavy paper. Works wonderfully. The paper is not a fire hazard because 1) it now uses a compact fluorescent lamp rather than an incandescent space heater or one of those 500 watt halogen monsters, and 2) I am not the dumbass who throws his/her underwear on top of the torchiere where they ignite and burn down the entire apartment complex.
Milk Crates
These are invaluable for storage, and they can be painted and stacked and used for all kinds of purposes.
Copper Scrap
Copper is a quite valuable metal and it can be sold for around $5.00/kg as scrap (2008). It is also very beautiful and excellent conductor of heat and electricity and when found in the proper dimensions it makes wonderful heat sinks for amplifiers.
Wilkes-Barre City recycling bin
One day during my freshman year in college, a Wilkes-Barre city recycling can (32 gallon trash can) full of garbage was thrown from a 3rd floor apartment window to the dumpster below. I dumped all of the trash out of it and now it makes a great can for trash/recyclables.
Last Modified: August 03, 2009. 16:48:20 pm