4 ms·

I love reading things like this. My bedroom started looking like that somewhat later in the mid 1980s, kicked off by the winning of some car speakers in a prim

by setquk 8y ago

I love reading things like this. My bedroom started looking like that somewhat later in the mid 1980s, kicked off by the winning of some car speakers in a primary school raffle. This inevitably raised the question of what to plug them into. Collecting discarded junk from the 1960s-1970s at jumble sales and car boot sales solved that problem and I learned a lot. I think that I was privileged to have had a childhood in the age of ubiquitous junk availability. It kept me off the streets and lead to a technical profession and some life long interests. It’s actually more difficult to get hold of stuff now thanks to electrical safety regulations, skips being locked, eBay pushing the prices of trash up and general lack of repairability of anything. A footnote: 30 years later my bedroom is a radio shack and just as messy and I’m blessed that I found someone understanding enough to put up with it :)

madengr 8y ago
Ditto. I have an uncle with a helicopter junk yard, so lots of military scrap electronics to tinker with, growing up in 70/80’s. Nice RF lab today in the basement.
arca_vorago 8y ago
"I was privileged to have had a childhood in the age of ubiquitous junk availability." Garage sales are still a thing and so are flea markets! There is still treasure around if one looks hard enough.
- qbrass 8y ago
  The world was a different place before Ebay, Craigslist and TV shows about flipping junk.
  - ballenf 8y ago
    Advent of pricey copper and more consumer goods having salvageable precious metals. There's an incentive to destroy functional goods instead of giving away.
octorian 8y ago
> eBay pushing the prices of trash up On the other hand, for those who didn't live near ubiquitous junk availability, eBay kinda did the opposite. "Surplus resellers" tend to grossly inflate the price of all this junk, so it sits on their shelves indefinitely. Meanwhile, eBay became the yard-sale of old, offering a lot of it for far more reasonable prices (so long as the seller wasn't pretending to be a "real business").
- setquk 8y ago
  Unfortunately it has got a little too popular in the last 5 years or so which has driven the prices up. The only things which are reasonably priced are broken AND require collection from somewhere obscure or buy it nows listed by idiots. I’ve had a few good bits of luck in that space only recently.
jacquesm 8y ago
I still can't drive by a dumpster without scoping it for goodies. That's a habit I'll probably never lose.
- setquk 8y ago
  Likewise. My wife has commented that she knows I’m not looking at other women when my head turns when I’m driving :)
- 2020-3030 8y ago
  Great habit. Trash picking is excellent because people throw out such great stuff. Perfect working condition, sometimes perfect condition period, sometimes just good for materials. One such Mr. trash picking is shown here with his pile of motors and hand made power tools ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d_EN4jB_BI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d_EN4jB_BI ) though I don't know if this is the video in which he mentions the pile of free motors he has. Another great trash-rescue proponent is DiResta (youtube maker person, seen in glorious trash picking mode here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epBIl4zDk8c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epBIl4zDk8c ).

by setquk 8y ago

madengr 8y ago

Ditto. I have an uncle with a helicopter junk yard, so lots of military scrap electronics to tinker with, growing up in 70/80’s. Nice RF lab today in the basement.

arca_vorago 8y ago

"I was privileged to have had a childhood in the age of ubiquitous junk availability." Garage sales are still a thing and so are flea markets! There is still treasure around if one looks hard enough.

qbrass 8y ago
The world was a different place before Ebay, Craigslist and TV shows about flipping junk.
- ballenf 8y ago
  Advent of pricey copper and more consumer goods having salvageable precious metals. There's an incentive to destroy functional goods instead of giving away.

octorian 8y ago

> eBay pushing the prices of trash up On the other hand, for those who didn't live near ubiquitous junk availability, eBay kinda did the opposite. "Surplus resellers" tend to grossly inflate the price of all this junk, so it sits on their shelves indefinitely. Meanwhile, eBay became the yard-sale of old, offering a lot of it for far more reasonable prices (so long as the seller wasn't pretending to be a "real business").

setquk 8y ago
Unfortunately it has got a little too popular in the last 5 years or so which has driven the prices up. The only things which are reasonably priced are broken AND require collection from somewhere obscure or buy it nows listed by idiots. I’ve had a few good bits of luck in that space only recently.

jacquesm 8y ago

I still can't drive by a dumpster without scoping it for goodies. That's a habit I'll probably never lose.

setquk 8y ago
Likewise. My wife has commented that she knows I’m not looking at other women when my head turns when I’m driving :)
2020-3030 8y ago
Great habit. Trash picking is excellent because people throw out such great stuff. Perfect working condition, sometimes perfect condition period, sometimes just good for materials. One such Mr. trash picking is shown here with his pile of motors and hand made power tools ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d_EN4jB_BI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d_EN4jB_BI ) though I don't know if this is the video in which he mentions the pile of free motors he has. Another great trash-rescue proponent is DiResta (youtube maker person, seen in glorious trash picking mode here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epBIl4zDk8c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epBIl4zDk8c ).