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What Do I Look For?

Now that you know where to look, how do you know what to look for? Sorting through dozens of electronic items to find what you need can be daunting if everything just looks like a pile of odd-looking bits and pieces. Some devices are richer in reusable components than others, so it’s helpful to know which devices are guaranteed to be a good score. One key piece of advice I can offer is that older devices tend to have components that are easier to reuse. Newer devices have smaller and more integrated components that are more difficult to extract. With that in mind, here are a few devices that are worth considering if you come across them.

Printers, Scanners, Faxes

Old printers, scanners, and fax machines are great finds because they contain reusable motors and generally a sliding mechanism. Most of them will also have buttons and maybe an LCD screen or two that can be salvaged. Scanners also have really cool light bars that can be used for…something.

VCR and DVD Players

With how quickly media formats change, those poor VCR and DVD players went from being heroes to zeroes in a little more than a decade. But lurking inside those old video titans are motors, infrared LEDs, LEDs, buttons, and some cool female RCA jack adapters. There are tons of scavengable items in these devices!

Routers and Modems

Remember the good ol’ days of dial-up? Even though these nostalgic devices aren’t as useful themselves, they are chock-full of easily extractable components that are just begging to be reused. Expect to find tons of resistors, capacitors, diodes, and LEDs.