After reading this thread, I feel less ashamed...
Yes, I'm one of those idiots that likes to dumpster dive (esp. in hi-tech dumpsters...) This habit has given me a nickname while back in engineering school, but it was less worse than the nickname I used to have before
Plenty of hi-tech scrap around (e.g. engineering school/university, local scrapyard (even found a TIG torch there, that only needed a bit of TLC to get back to fully operational; just what the doctor ordered!), welding electrodes, cable shoes, thick welding cable, heavy duty coaxial cable (with 7/16 connectors!), new, unused. Plus the usual bits of aluminium and stainless pipe, plate and profile, industrial fuses/circuit breakers, bar bus, timers, switches, etc.
As for the rest: in our family, we haven't had to buy a television/radio/vcr/sat.receiver for over 15 years. If the things were defect, it was usually a matter of minutes to get it back operational; if not, it went in the part bins. And it's not as if our house is a mess with old, 2nd hand damaged stuff; if it isn't in mint condition (e.g. damaged housing, scratched, or otherwise not pretty), I usually don't even bother repairing it.
An example: my milli-ohm meter I published a few days ago in another thread, the power supply was from a defect DVD player, and the house from an old modem (found in the hi-tech bin of our Dutch phone operator/installer KPN).
And after a while, you even begin to develop a routine, when on the usual errands through town, of passing by the correct dumpsters. Now, I'm usually dressed in slacks, shirt and tie, and you DO get funny looks when in that outfit you start to go through a dumpster. Never mind
Peter,
The Netherlands.
(anyone has a dumpster that needs diving?)