Today I saved from the landfill / Dumpster Dive / New finds from the scrapyard

[Wobblestone]

Hi,

I don't know if such a thread exists here already. At least I could not find one (maybe i should have searched better...).
Perhaps this thread is completely useless.
But maybe not.

I love to repair and restore old computer stuff. My preferred objects are Commodores - Amigas, C64 and so on. I grew up with them, I still like them.
But I also have many Macs, Acorns, PC stuff.
Of course I spend way too much for buying old scrap.
But sometimes this old scrap is for free. That's what this thread is about. Here in Austria we have a very good recycling system. If you have technical devices which you do not longer need, want, which are broken - you bring it to your local recycling center and forget about it.
But if you ask, you can also take stuff with you home. My home..."town" is just a village with 1000 inhabitants. Small, silent, nice. Maybe boring. What do you expect to find in the recycling center in such a village?
Well... a lot But since we are here in Austria - no Acorns. Sorry ...

Here ist my list of top-finds:
-) Amiga 500, Rev 6. Nothing special. But it looks like new and worked out of the box... uhhh... out of the scrapyard. I just had to clean it a little. Everything else on that machine is almost mint.
-) Commodore 64 with PSU. Same as the Amiga 500. Worked perfectly fine as I switched it on. No bad PLA, no bad SID, no bad RAM.
-) Apple Studio Display CRT 21". Yes, the monster which weights 35kg. Just a few scratches, but still works fine.
-) Power Mac 6200 with 16" Apple CRT, keyboard and mouse. An iconic machine - perhaps the worst computer apple ever built. And I got it for free! The PSU was dead; I had to replace it with a modern one. But the rest works great. Unfortunately the CRT died some weeks ago. Once I need to fix that big thing.
-) Playstation 3. It did not work, switched itself off just 2 seconds after switching it on. I just need to disassemble and clean it. Now it works as new.
-) Three Pentium II and/or Pentium III - all worked out of the scrap.
-) Many - MANY - Pentium 4 or newer. I do not care about these. They are too new and boring. But well - i do not want they being scrapped. And sometimes I need the PSUs to revive some older machine.

[nicolagiacobbe]

Well, I envy you. Here in Italy it is not permitted to collect old electronics people want to throw away, once on the recycling system's parking they are property of the city and cannot be touched.
Please send a photo when you'll find the first acorn.....

[geraldholdsworth]

Here in Italy it is not permitted to collect old electronics people want to throw away, once on the recycling system's parking they are property of the city and cannot be touched.

I think that is true in the UK too.

[tricky]

Yep, ours taunts me with its crt stash. They keep saying that they need testing and then they will be back for sale, but the"testing" company scrap them for the odd components.

[Wobblestone]

Oh dear... that makes me sad. This means that certainly a lot of cool old gear gets scrapped, just because no one is allowed to save it.

Officially it is not allowed here either; basically this is theft. But if you ask the guys at the recycling center and they allow it, you can take what you want.
I often bring other stuff like old tools or anything else and ask them to allow others to take this stuff. Even if I don't need or want this, maybe others do. It's always better to give it away for free, then scrap it.

[paulb]

Oh dear... that makes me sad. This means that certainly a lot of cool old gear gets scrapped, just because no one is allowed to save it.

Sounds like we need a retro-themed version of Money for Nothing. Obviously with the same narration.

Your own salvage activities are perhaps a bit like those of the Retro Hack Shack and his second channel's e-waste hauls, whose e-waste facility appears to let people acquire discarded items, albeit at a price.

[a1exh]

In the UK once they have been put in the waste electronics section of the recycling centres they cannot be (officially) removed. It's a massive shame because there are always lots of CRT TVs and Monitors at our dump.

The staff at our recycling centre (at least here) often will look the other way at small items such as PCs for a small donation to their xmas party (i.e. a cash bribe). That said I've never seen any classic computers at our recycling centre ever. No home computers. Just crappy PCs most of which look like they have been left outside in the rain for multiple days. eBay, GumTree, Facebook Marketplace and Freecycle mean most stuff never makes it to the dump in UK.

If while you're there, if you see someone dropping it off, despite what the recycling centre staff might say, it is still the property of the owner until they dump it so you can ask the owners directly if you can have it. Be prepared to be persona non-grata if you get caught though.

HOWEVER this is variable from site to site and shift to shift. Some staff are "jobs worth" and won't allow you to take anything. Others re-direct anything that looks like it could be worth something to their hut.

[a1exh]

Sounds like we need a retro-themed version of Money for Nothing. Obviously with the same narration.

Retro Electro Workshop on Yesterday?. They cruise 2nd hand shops, charity shops etc. and renovate / retromod classic stereos and computers. But they regularly choose extremely dodgy stuff (e.g. widely available items that have zero commercial value like a C64 or Atari 2600 woody and a b&w 1950s analog TV) presumably because the producers recognise the items and think it will make good TV? They overpay and then never discuss if they were able to sell it for a profit in reality.

[Wobblestone]

It's a massive shame because there are always lots of CRT TVs and Monitors at our dump.

Here too. I easily could fill my entire house with old CRTs.
But - of course - I do not have enough room. And I hate to repair CRTs. There are never schematics available and I am scared to work with a device which has 20000V or more.
So far I only took CRTs, which I knew: The Apple Studio Display, the Apple 16-inch Color Display Model No. M1298 and a little Atari SM124.
What I take home are small LCD Displays. Then I try them on my old machines. If they work better then what I already have, I keep them. If not, I bring them back to the recycling center.

My last find was a little TV "Grundig 22 LVE 5421 SG" I could not use it without remote control, so I bought one for 9€
It turned out, that its scart input works great on Amigas. It even has an almost perfect picture on interlaced modes.

Others re-direct anything that looks like it could be worth something to their hut.

A friend told me, that in vienna it is similar.
That's one of the advantages, when you live in a rural village: No one knows, what an old C64 or Amiga is worth. It's just old scrap. And that is my advantage

[BeebMaster]

I salvaged a VCR and DVD player from a neighbouring house a couple of years back which was being cleared by the son of the recently deceased owners. The VCR was actually already in the general rubbish wheelie-bin! I was offered a brand-new boxed printer that was in the garage but I turned it down and advised them to sell it as it was probably still worth something.

A few years before that, there was an Amiga outside a house near to the bus stop I used to wait at for hours every day attempting to go to work. That's the only time I've ever seen a vintage computer on the pavement. I didn't take it or ask about it as I had no use for it.

We had a skip on the drive at the start of the year when we were moving, which was ransacked at least 3 times while it was there. At one point a family of 3 were inside it ripping open black bin liners to see what was inside!

[vexorg]

I salvaged a VCR and DVD player from a neighbouring house a couple of years back which was being cleared by the son of the recently deceased owners. The VCR was actually already in the general rubbish wheelie-bin!

Pretty sure it's illegal to take rubbish out someone's bin in the UK too.
Lots of stupid laws on that, I think it was made worse by the scrap metal thefts in recent years.

[Multiwizard]

Here in Italy it is not permitted to collect old electronics people want to throw away, once on the recycling system's parking they are property of the city and cannot be touched.

I think that is true in the UK too.

Yep, the Netherlands too...

[1024MAK]

It is illegal to remove items from private property even if it is in a bin.

It is less clear if the item for disposable is on a public (council) street and it's clear that the item is no longer wanted by the owner.

The owner can of course give permission if asked or by displaying a notice.

I'm not sure about items in a skip on a public road. As it could be considered that the ownership is being transferred to the company that owns/operates the skip

Mark

[BeebMaster]

In the case of the salvaged JVC, I saw the gent footling about with the DVD player and asked him if he had anything else and he mentioned the video. When I said yes, he reached inside the bin himself and fetched it out! Obviously I wouldn't go rummaging about in other people's bins, I'm not a tabloid reporter.

[tricky]

I did get a portable with scart a couple of months ago in a seaside charity shop, so not really saved from the tip but looking at the price ticket it probably wasn't far from it.
At Christmas currys were offering £5 trade in on your old TV and my wife intersepted a chap with a similar portable headed for the sales counter, he was happy to see it get a new life for £5
I'd I hadn't had the extended family I would have gone dumpster diving out the back and off it wasn't the last day, I would have gone back until it was

[vexorg]

I do wish the law was changed on recycling centres. I cant see a good reason why they wouldn't let you help yourself if there were things that could be salvaged or fix, or even just as spares for something else you own.

[tricky]

I even tried, "it's for an art installation, we are going to take all the insides out" but, "it needs pat testing first". You can cut the power lead off for me nowhere either!
I didn't realise it was the law, I assumed it was just council health and safety

[e668ecp]

A month ago I got an Opus Challenger boxed and complete for free as my friend mentioned to his friend that I was into old computers. It was in a pile ready for the tip.