Jason S wrote:

>
> > Rule 1:  Never order less than 200 resistors, or less than 10 more of
> > anything that you need.
>
> 200 of the same value?  There are very few values I use 200 of in 10 years.
> If you're getting an assortment, how do you pick which values you need for a
> project you won't think of for 6 months.  If you're missing a single one,
> that's another order so you've lost any advantage of ordering 200 in
> advance, and you still have the disadvantages.

The price of 200 resistors is US$6.00. If I have to run to town and buy a
blister pack of five resistors for 35 cents, I've just wasted $$$$ for them plus
the time to drive to town to get them, and the gas it took. Total? $12 for 5
resistors.

>
>
> Same goes for ordering 10 or more; it means the price for your project is
> multiplied by 10 *and* you have to store all the junk, probably for years.
> This is probably reasonable for business, but not for the hobbiest.

It depends on how much of a "hobbiest" you are. As a hobbiest, I can stuff over
50 resistors in a simple single project.

>
>
> > Rule 2: Get good at desoldering stuff.  Rob a few caps from old VCRs
>
> What good is that?  Caps only cost pennies, there's a chance the recovered
> part won't work, leading to hours of frustration, you now have a huge time
> investment in your junk box, you still have storage issues, and where do you
> get the VCRs (even used and junked with a much higher chance of faulty
> parts) for less than the price of the handful of parts that might be
> salvagable from modern equipment?
>

VCR's and other switching supplies have low ESR caps and other good stuff. I
have robbed a few chassis in my time and it has been very beneficial. Caps are
easy to test. Takes only about 10 seconds to recover a dollar cap.

>
> Some of the repair people I know swear by the technique that the first thing
> you do is replace all the caps because they're the first thing to go.  You
> want to salvage and reuse them?
>
> Even if you do get anything out of it; you'll probably end up storing most
> of the parts for the rest of your life never finding a project that calls
> for them.

Again, I have a shop full of parts. Some I may use and some I may never. I have
friends and neighbors come over all the time asking to fix something of theirs.
They pay me well. Well enough for me to look at a lot of parts just sit there.

> Then you kids will throw them out because they're worthless.
>
> > Rule 3.  Keep a big, well organized junk box with lots of littlle labeled
> > drawers.  Avoid the H*** Box syndrome.  "Aw H*** I will just throw it all
> > in a box.
>
> Again, much more time and space is needed than it's worth.  The local retail
> store has thousands of little drawers full of parts.  Maintaining such an
> inventory at home just isn't worth it for a hobbiest.
>

My "hobbiest" shop is a 24X36 foot garage. Everyone's impressed when I can
repair almost anything.

>
> I had set of little drawers that was stuffed with carefully sorted parts,
> many of which are over 20 years old, and except for the resistors, I don't
> think I'd used anything in there for 10 years.  I junked them in the move.
> What am I going to do with 20 year old red LEDs that are very dim by modern
> standards?  in metal housings that are covered in corrosion and I don't have
> specs for?  Assorted power transistors salvaged from old circuit boards
> decades ago?
>

Things do age if stored and not used. Cull out what you will never use and
hamfest them. Turn it into money.

>
> Now I do have a few H*** boxes.  I try to keep an inventory for each one up
> to date on the computer.  It does take 10 times longer to find anything, but
> compared to all the time wasted sorting parts I'd never use and labelling
> drawers, I'm way ahead this way.
>
> > Rule 4:  Jameco is your friend.  Mouser and Digikey are nearly your
> > friends.
>
> Yes, your friend at a $6 surcharge for shipping every time you need a part.
>

I never buy less than $200 from Digikey at a time. I have a wantlist and when it
gets big enough and component is needed soon, the order goes in.

>
> > Rule 5.  Grab bags, assortments, and so on are good.
>
> They're good if you love diagnosing problems.  Radio Shack was always the
> worst for that, but grab bag assortments is where companies put questionaly
> or faulty parts.  The best was my grab bag of 100 "untested" 7-segment LED
> displays.  Every one had an "N" hand printed on it with a sharpie, and every
> one had at least one segment that wouldn't light.  $10 for 100 7-segment
> displays sounds like a bargain, but 5 hours of my free time testing 100
> displays and having nothing to show for it but a pile of garbage sure isn't.
>
> > Rule 6:  Round out those onesies orders to $25 by adding a few NIMH
> > batteries each time.  You know you will need them.
>
> This is totally illogical.  You're still only placing the order for a few
> dollars worth of parts, so effectively you're only paying the shipping for
> that.  Stocking extra batteries you don't need doesn't mean you've gotten a
> better deal on shipping.  You can wait until you're ordering a few parts and
> need the batteries, and then order all you need for the same flat shipping.
> Why be out the money and have to store the batteries before you need them if
> in the end you've spent the same amount of money?
>

I have numerous portable devices. All have been upgraded to NiMH. I can always
use more.

>
> > Rule 7: Yes, radio shark stinks.  I still give them a lot of business
> > because there is no alternative locally.  They *DID* have a USB:RS232
> > adapter in stock when Circuit City didn't.  They *DO* have many types of
> > obsolate cables and such, and the store near me still stocks some
> > components.  All of the shops here that catered to real hobbyist went out
> > of business.  Radio Shark got the message and sold stuff that makes them a
> > profit.   I don't blame them.
>
> They are a ghost of their former self.  I just bought an enclosure from them
> with an integrated membrane keypad covering the top.  It's shaped like a
> remote control and inside, it has a 9V battery compartment and space for the
> project board.  The front panel is removable and they included a transparent
> red replacement piece (for using IR LEDs inside).  It seems like it will be
> very useful for a lot of possible projects.  It's the sort of unique and
> very hobbiest oriented part they used to be famous for.  It even came with
> the 9V battery snap.  When they specialzied in products like this, it's easy
> to see how they were truly great.  They only had one left and the package
> was covered in dust.  It's probably been sitting there for 10 years, and I
> doubt they will be restocking it.  I also got the last small piece of perf
> board with an IC friendly pad layout.  I can only hope they'll restock that
> item; I must have bought dozens of them over the years.
>
> Jason
>

It's been so long since I've been to RadioSlack, the last time I drove by, it
had moved across town.....4 years ago.
Rick

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