OT - I Love the Swap Meet!

[Adam Shame]

Anyone else love the swap meet or flea market as much as me?  Today I got:

Four 9.5 foot bundles of cheap stereo speaker wire (like for boom boxes) red and black - $.25 each.  This stuff is PERFECT for wiriring stompboxes.

Wire strippers - $1

Two Panasonic 9v batteries - $1

Insulated alligator clips (red or black) - $.20  I got three large and two small

Mini hot glue gun (uses .25 inch glue sticks) - $1

Two tubes of super glue (and a tube of debonder) - $1

Two computer A/B boxes (perfect for a pre-amp or power supply plus they have a TON of wire in there and a crazy switch!) - $4

Anyone else get good deals at the swap meet?

[The Tone God]

Generally I don't find anything cool at local swaps. I did find a original small stone once. It looked like it was canabilzed for the 9v clip since it was missing and the AC adapter jack wiring was all unconnected. I bought it for $5 since it was not working or had the bottom part of the case. I took it home, wired up the AC adapter jack, put in a new 9v clip, and fabbed a new bottom case. Sold it for like $150. Not bad.

If you really want to know where to go for cheap old stuff check out some ham radio flea markets. Get in contact with your local ham radio club to find out where are the good flea markets are. You should be able to find a club through ARRL (for the US). Tubes, parts, cases, equipment, etc. can all be had for a good price. Hams will negotiate as well.

I was especially good since I started going to ham flea markets when I was young. Being a little kid really helps when talking an old timer down in price. If I had a hard time I would bring up that I'm studying to get my licence. Now that I'm older I can't use that trick but many of hams have known me for so long that I still get good deals.

Andrew

[Brian Marshall]

i never find anything at them either.... up here all the good stuff is invite only.  My dad used to work for intel, and got invited to stuff years ago.... lots of DC fans, and other electromechanical stuff... long before i ever started looking for DIY stuff.

All i ever find here is "vintage" clothing, furniture, and the occasional tube radio.

[sir_modulus]

Man you can't beat what i got. I bought this huge chest with a Cast Iron lock. They said it wasn't for sale, but i wanted something for storage.They said I could have it if I could open it. 5 minutes and two dremel cutoff wheels later, I found a Vintage TUBE AMP. Fully working. It was make by some company in Japan, but had groove tubes. So someone must have liked their audio and used it as a guitar amp. I bought the thing (with 2 EL84's and 2 12AX7's) for $5. I also bought a pair of Jensen Speakers (for guitar) for $7.

[Peter Snowberg]

I got a Mutron Phasor for $27 and a Magnatone little tiny combo amp for $70 from way before they made the vibrato stuff using a couple of really odd 7C7 Loctal base pentodes. It sounds like junk but I love the case design. It's 3/8" plywood with a MEC stylized logo routed into the baffle.

All the good swapmeets were happening here in the early 80s and earlier. These days Silicon Valley is filled with lots of obsolete PC parts and most of the really cool surplus is gone. Or maybe it has gone into hiding?

Take care,
-Peter

[petemoore]

But I found an A/b box at a sale, for 1$  bwahh ha ha
 
 They are nice heavy duty lotsa room, with washers, the slots can be used for jack and pot mounting holes. Plenty of room for more than one circuit, I like mounting everything on the bottom' of the two metal pieces, which comprise more than 1/2 of the total sides of the box.
 The only thing is, by using the bottom the wires would have to strech from bottom to top piece to put in a stompswitch, in which case a 4 conductor jack/plug could be used so the top could come of and be separate.

[ErikMiller]

I'm going to try to make the Livermore Amateur Radio Klub swap meet next weekend (Sunday the 6th).

Not sure what I'll find; not sure what I'm even looking for, but I just want to check it out.

If any Bay Area stompers would like to carpool, let me know via PM. I'm in Alameda. I won't be trying to make it there by the 7:30 AM start, though.

The following weekend, I may try the Sunnyvale Electronics Fleamarket. Also welcome carpool company for that.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Not much action here in Australia but I got three micrometers (in wooden cases) and a vernier slide from a dumpster in Argyle St. Collingwood this morning. Plus some weird cables!
There are a huge number of worn grinding wheels still in that dumpster.

[Brian Marshall]

you know mackie is just down the road from me.... maybe i should rummage through their dumpster.

[Ansil]

you know mackie is just down the road from me.... maybe i should rummage through their dumpster.

hmm dumpster diving. i love it. i scored big this week. a salvagable 2*12 cabinet.  150 feet of ten strand wire all color coded.  misc house wiring for the shop.  a cool flurescent light.  an old tube tv on the side of the road.  and radioshacks dumpster had some cool lookin discontinuted kits.  most of them broken but had decent parts.  and two gutiar cases  the third was toast.

[Bluesgeetar]

Well Goodwill stores and Salvation Army can be great to.  I have found Goodwill to be better.

I am the proud owner of a near mint 1968 Hammond T-212 organ with a built in 2 speed Leslie and reverb.  It has two 12" Jensen speakers in it and one very strange Leslie contraption sitting in front of what seems to be a 12" horn of some type.  How much?   $32   :lol:   The thing is pure Sound Nirvana.  Even came with the bench with a ton of organ books under the seat.

I also scored an antique imported Peugot bycycle that has been appraised at over $20,000.00  I got it for $11
All at Goodwill!  I love that place!  

[Dan N]

Best fleamarket find was a Garnet BTO head for $35. Had a very wild sounding tube fuzz circuit called "stinger".

I feel quite unamerican to have sold it off for a whopping $35!

A favorite find was a Jordan Bosstone at a garage sale for 50 cents. It was in a box of wall warts. So perfect for the Jag I had at the time.

Recently the Goodwill coughed up a Casio CZ101 for $12, a Yamaha VSS-30 for $5, and a Juno-6 for $30. All 3 are just fun as hell!

[Bluesgeetar]

Goodwill is so so sweet!

I see Dan lives out here in my nick of the woods in the PNW.  I would recommend to any who lives out here (some lurkers here)  to just get in the habit of visiting your Goodwill store close to your home at least once a day and get in the habit of that.  Goodwill up in the PNW can make a man very very happy!                            

[Dan N]

Hey Bluesgeetar,

Tacoma goodwill is an ebay seller. Space echo, geetars, amps, synths... Washingtonians must be very generous!

[Bluesgeetar]

Shit!  I didn't know that.  I'm gonna have to get down there to the Tacoma one more often.  I got my Hammond here at the Federal Way one and that cool bike.   Got some other cool stuff too but nothing that anyone here wants to hear about (mostly chef and cooking thangs).

Yeah I ever since I moved here I question the mentality of Washington folks.  They throw away some seriously nice stuff.  Goodwill has got to love Washington.  The Russian guys around here are always raiding the electronic sections of the store. I ain't figured that one out.  I should probably just ask one of them. :lol:

[Rev.Bucky]

Flea markets and Thrift stores is where I get a lot of my equipment!!  HI, I'm the Rev Bucky, this is my first post, and I need some help (actually related to what this site is about, and the topic at hand!!!

I am not an electrician, or a diyer, I was the kid who tore things apart, but could never quite put them back together again.  I am thinking about taking a basic electronic class at the Community College and learn to do some circut bending and effects box making/altering!!

But I digress.  I recently bought a MXR Stereo Phaser at the local flea market, and a MXR 2 channel 10 band graphic equalizer at the local ST. Vincents thrift store, Three dollars each!!  Both work awesomely.  Feeling good I went back to the Flea Market, and bought a Matao compressor stomp box, for two dollars... PROBLEM!!!!

I got it home, and when I opened it up to put in the battery, the wires for that, and the connector piece was gone, snipped off.  A black and a red wire, about as long as a pinky finger nail are left.  Problem number two, the place where you plug into a power adapter was loose, so I took two screws I had, and put it back on, the power adapter plug  is also connected to the left over battery connector wires.  IS THIS THING SAFE TO PLUG IN???

Sorry to yell, but I do want to see if it works, with out burning down the house or blowing fuses.  I will be using a universal adapter, and am wondering if that is safe to do.  Without the attachment piece, and with the wires being attached to the power source, what could happen?

A little help please!!