Will's Blog

These are some broken coffee machines I've had hanging around for a while. The cheapest Mr. Coffee that Walmart sells and some fancy Morphy Richards coffee/espresso machine. The fancy one was from my first and only Woot Bag of Crap - they sent me a broken coffee machine. Rather than throw them in the dumpster I decided to take them apart then throw them in the dumpster. Here they are:

Today we have a Sony TC-800B to take apart. This is a portable Reel-to-Reel recorder is from the late 60's or very early 70's and is the same device that was used to record the watergate tapes . Unlike the TEAC 360S I took apart last week, this machine was very easy to take apart. The one I came across even had a carrying case, you might notice that the handle is crooked. This thing was somewhat busted up, if you look closely you can see through the window in the case that the plastic covering the reels is cracked too:

Usually I treat taking something apart like a puzzle.  It is strangely satisfying to have something come apart nicely without resorting to brute force and wire cutters. This cassette deck didn't provide that satisfaction.  It got to the point where I was taking out every screw I could find hoping something would budge.  To make matters worse it was greased up in places so by the end it looked like I may have been working on a car instead of taking apart a piece of consumer electronics. The reward were some swanky dB meters and a pile of switches, so it was certainly worth it. As you can see, this was scrap so there was no guilt when it came to gutting it:

Occasionally while tossing a scrap into the discard pile it occurs to me that the scrap is composed of multiple pieces, and that I could throw multiple scraps into the discard pile instead of just one. That is what happened while I was throwing the broken LCD Screen + Digitizer from my GPS Screen Replacement project. From the get go this was obviously a bad idea, evident by the shattered glass. I've also taken LCDs apart in the past and know that the only piece of real interest is the polarized sheets glued to the glass, those sheets are a pain to get off so that wouldn't even be fun. Regardless I opened it up and have slivers of glass stuck in my arm some sort of badge of honor:

When I came across this clock the first thing I noticed was that it was branded an "AM-FM DIGITAL CLOCK". This wouldn't be unusual except that there wasn't a single digital component in site, not even an LED. This is a classic "flip" clock with impressive mechanical properties that we would barely consider digital today. Not only that, but twisting the various knobs provide satisfying mechanical clunks and ticks! The thing makes a lot of noise though, so it wasn't approved for use as my nightstand clock. The internal components of this are very similar to the clock used in the movie "Groundhog Day". Thanks to this clip I can say the actual flip mechanism is probably identical. Here it is, in all its digital glory. Take note of the bug lodged behind the plastic - this beautiful device is dirty:

I couldn't find any references to this camera aside from the tube - a 20PE13A which has a few ebay auctions for $50-$70 right now. If anyone knows anything about its history I'd be curious to hear it. Since I don't know anything about it, here it is:

This is how I replaced the LCD in a fairly new Garmin GPS device. The thing is not designed to be consumer serviced so it was a huge pain - likewise I couldn't find any information from other people who have been through the ordeal. Everything begins on ebay, where there were several vendors selling replacement LCD's. Be sure to get an LCD + Digitizer combination, it is likely to cost somewhere between $30 and $60. Here is the damage:

I came across a Bell & Howell 2143 XL, a quick search on ebay showed that this thing had little to no value. Its from the 1978-1980 's and is an impressive mess of electronics and machinery. This particular device is video only. Here it is:

Received a Magnavox BH3908 portable TV recently. I've always wanted to take apart a TV but didn't want to worry about dangerous voltages and tube disposal. Well this one runs off of 12v and the tube is very small, so hopefully neither of those will be an issue! Its small size also makes it a great candidate for one of those fancy CRT -> Oscilloscope hacks I've been wanting to do. Here it is:

As far as I can tell this was a pretty standard tape deck. These things have a bunch of DC motors but not much else. The potentiometer was pretty small but I harvested it anyway. Finally there were a few motor driver chips, some op-amps, push-button switches and transistors I pulled off. Here it is:

Not much to this one. The case is a nice size for a project box, which is why it was picked up in the first place. The mess of wires inside is impressive. As usual click the pictures for more (and in higher resolution).

More treasures from the landfill, this is something I took apart a year or two ago. The only reason its still kicking around is because of the motor, which will be re-purposed in another project someday. There's nothing left to identify what model it is, anyone know? There isn't much left for the front. Everything interesting has been ripped out including an old bulb, lens and a switch. The bulb's reflector was actually used in another project. In the top corners are a couple spokes which were probably used to attach the reels, film would go through the slot in the bottom right where the bulb and lens used to be.

When I saw this fine piece of electronics at the landfill I knew it was special. Not only did it have a plethora of nice looking knobs and various shiny areas, but it also had a wooden enclosure. Although stamped steel cases are nice, its a little impersonal, not like this finely crafted device. I had already thrown it in the trunk before I even noticed - the thing was an 8-track player. Click below for more pictures.

From time to time I come across an old piece of electronics that I want to harvest some parts from. Stepping motors from floppy disk drives, Solenoids from zip drives, small DC motors from CD drives to name a few of my favorites. Audio Amplifiers in particular are my very favorit. They have lots of interesting and hard to find pieces. Without further adieu, here's a before shot of this vintage 80's "Nikko NA-550 Integrated Amplifier" that I picked up at a landfill a few weeks ago. For anyone curious, the power button was jammed in the off position, which is probably what earned it a spot at the dump. Got a bunch of nice metal knobs, some dB meters, some very nice Alps selector switches, some Alps potentiometers, a 2.5A breaker and some other misc parts.