Comments on: Reusing PCB components

By: chr0n1c

chr0n1c — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:22:08 +0000

just last night i pulled 6 relays, lots of diodes, about 75 resistors, a sweet transformer, a bunch of big caps and some rca jacks/speaker connections out of an old JVC tuner that someone was going to throw away! i have already built a 15vdc power supply with the transformer, a few diodes, two caps and a lm7815. everything but the small cap came out of the tuner. plus i have a sweet shell to build my DIY synth into with recyclable buttons already mounted on the front.

By: Schnulli

Schnulli — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:59:25 +0000

O_o I’ve also been doing doing this for years. You don’t want to know how many boxes of old PCBs i have lying around… I also tried the version with a heat gun once, but it only burned the board instead of making the components fall off. By the way: I never buy resistors or caps ^^

By: metiz

metiz — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:07:23 +0000

Or you could use a haot air gun for components that have more then 2 connections on the board. Makes life a whole lot easier

By: quasi

quasi — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:28:32 +0000

yawn…. how about some actual “hacks”

By: fermicirrus

fermicirrus — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:38:57 +0000

Better than a de/soldering iron is a heat gun from harbor freight. $10. It cvers a larger area and works really well. Ive salvaged 1000s of parts with great success. It will burn the board but you probably dont need it anyway.

By: LinuxH4x0r

LinuxH4x0r — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:11:47 +0000

What a waste. He is taking apart WORKING electronics for parts he probably won’t use. He didn’t know the difference between a ceramic cap and a resistor. Do you really think he will use them properly, if he even uses them at all?

By: john.s948@mint.us.to

john.s948@mint.us.to — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:18:52 +0000

*yawn* i can desolder stuff. wow.

useful hack but get yourself a desoldering iron…i got one for

By: diy audio projects

diy audio projects — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:14:51 +0000

I love salvaging parts. I find it relaxing. Not much useful information in that instructable. A lot of the time you can gets parts off by just cutting the board with wire cutters right up to the leads of the components. That way you don’t risk cooking the parts.

By: MEAT!

MEAT! — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:31:08 +0000

That’s the ‘technique?’ To hold the thing and heat the hell out of it until the entire component is hot enough to pull free? How are you going to heat both sides of the component at once? Let the internal structure transfer the heat?

By: Mordanthanus

Mordanthanus — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:36:54 +0000

I’ve been doing this since I was 8 years old… there are ALWAYS good parts on old boards. I hope someone doesn’t think this is a new idea, I was 8 over two decades ago…