Dumpster diving for gear/misc./part scrounging..

[Silas]

I dumpster dive, and more than I should.. Here's a topic i started on EM-forums..
Original thread: http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=201048#201048
Below is my post's and link to pic's/explenations..

Yes, dumpster diving is good for you.. Other than all those great things you can find, mind you I ONLY take electronics, can't be bothered with the rest, you once in a while happen upon a great piece of gear.. Today I found a Yamaha G100-212 II in great condition..
Not my picture thou.. My camera is dead..

http://fotos.marktplaats.nl/kopen/5/8d/UZNTQaG5j2cp/U44u82YDQ==.jpg

Yes I know..  But I tell you, this thing is one heavy motherf*cker.. 50 kg I guess.. And those little wheels underneath SUCKS, even on good tarmac.. Yes, I had to lug that bitch home on the bus.. No fun. But the sound of it, oh my, it's so good. Totally worth it  :!: I'm thinking about removing the 2 channel reverb tank from it, and rehouse it on it's own, but I'm not sure.
Anyways, if there's an interest I can try and borrow a cam from a friend, and snap some pics of some other nice dumpster finds, that I haven't sold/traded..

Yep, I'd love to see what else you've un-earthed. 

Yamaha PSR-150.. Crap keyboard, but meh, interresting sounds..

http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27070

Offcause I forgot to snap some pics of the rest of the stuff lol... Anyways I'm in the progress of moving so I'm unsure how much I can actually find..

Yep, I'd love to see what else you've un-earthed. 

REMEMBER I GOT EVERYTHING FOR FREE

Ahh, finally.. Pictures! Since it's about 2 months  :shock: since I started this thread, and not much update, I can tell you your in for a little treat of dumpster found treasure..!


I have been so fortunate to find a Sony Ericsson K810i cell phone, on the middle of a street, not in a dumpster mind you, and the camera on the phone is 3,2 MP so good enough for snapping pictures of gear I guess.. Anyays, this is still not all, as I haven't unpacked my stuff yet..

Here's some random parts that I scrounged from dumpster finds..
There's 10 boxes, so just look at the rest of them pic's if your interested..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26039450@N08/2767023364/

Here's a Hughes&Kettner Edition1 (4000 made) Amp I found and traded with a friend for Aprrox. US$ 100 and a cellphone at that time..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26039450@N08/2766080545/

Here's some joysticks I found reacently...
http://www.terralab.ru/pubimages/54043.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26039450@N08/2766928800/

The first step in the becomming of the FRANKENSTICK :twisted: Wich offcause will be an abnouxious noise generator!
The reason for the frankenstick is that the grey joystick has the best handle with 5 switches an 2 LED, but the movement is switch based. The Saitek ST50 is resistance based.. So they were merged togheter.. 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26039450@N08/2766079877/

An old danish credit card terminal... If your wondering it's a DKT-1.. I'm planning for this one to become some crazy noise/samples box, and use the magstripe reader for "scratching" with mag. cards.. hehe.. I can just imagine it with echo efx.. :lol:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26039450@N08/2766079103/
http://www.point.dk/upload/Denmark/Billeder/Gamle%20terminaler/DKT_1.jpg

Also I have more pic's, that will be uploaded on flickr..

[Circuitbenders]

My main guitar amp is a WEM Dominator III made in 1972 that i pulled out of a skip / dumpster in perfect working order with all the original valves intact!

which is nice..........

[PolyPhuckin]

where do you tend to dumpster dive? i live in a city all i can find in skips is rubble =| not much use to me.

[Silas]

where do you tend to dumpster dive?

In the country i live in, at most appartment complexes your supposed to sort your "big trash," I'm not talking about your everyday garbage here.. In most of the places, this is then put into the basement of the complex, if possible, or in a locked room outside to prevent Dumpster Diving.. When you live in the same city for many years, you start figguring out where they don't lock the trash inside something or where you can just jump a wall or something..

Theres the regular categories to sort it by.. Wood/chemicals/metal and so on and so forth.. And then theres electronics.. And all the electronics is being gathered by one company, so they have them in metal "net" cages.. So I guess I'm "browsing" more than any actual diving.. Also then there's offcause your regular "dump" or whatever, and they have the metal net cages too.. So when I'm out there to thrash some stuff, I usually very conviniently carry a big cardboard box with something that has to be thrown out, very conviniently close to the electronics... So when the dude is not looking im digging in, for the stuff I spottet a few minutes earlier and very conviniently "drop" it into the box...  BTW. DON'T get caught doing that! 


Uhh, maybe I should make a video of me "browsing" for electronics..

[PolyPhuckin]

Uhh, maybe I should make a video of me "browsing" for electronics..

sort of, an 'educational' how-to 

[hoffy]

Where I live (Melbourne, Australia), we have this thing called Hard Rubbish.

Twice a year, at different times the local councils will have hard rubbish collection which means that any house is welcome to dump all the things that don't fit into bins- tables, chairs, electronic/white goods, beds, computers etc. on the pavement outside of your house. It lasts for two weeks, and then a truck will come along and pick everything up.

I've found an Antonellli Organ and a Korg A5 guitar multl-fx) both less than 100 minutes from my front door (Thanks neighbours!), tonnes of childrens keyboards (various Casio and unnamed things) and lots of other stuff. My MIDI controller is a Casio EDP electric piano. And i've found tonnes of other stuff. TV's, stereos, turntables, lots of things.

Hard Rubbish is where students get all their washing machines. It's great.

[computer at sea]

We used to have Heavy Item Pickup where I live (US, east coast) until just recently.  Unfortunately this year was the last year and I didn't find too much.  In the past I've turned up some lovely typewriters.

[goldenbaby]

That would be a ceremonial event for me each year, if my city did that.  I'm from a small city of 11,000 people, fat chance of scoring any electronics.

However, I am known to go dumpster diving, mostly for food.  I usually hit up the coffee & donuts shops with a 12-hour-sit-only policy on the baked goods.  Tim Horton's, for Canada.  We slept behind and dined at one in Winnipeg last summer, because we were unable to catch a freight train out.  And one time, we got busted for compiling subs out of spare ingredients found in a Subway bag, and my buddy offered the guy some food, which he politely declined.

Anyways, I never found anything worth taking home before getting into c bending, but not it might change everything.

[Circuitbenders]

Over christmas and new year my 'dumpster diving' has produced a 15" LCD TV/monitor that just needed an SMT fuse bypassed, a line6 uber metal pedal (doesn't appear to work but its all surface mount and i can't even tell what the compnents are!), a marantz graphic EQ and a box of marshall guitar amp valves.

Now thats what i call festive 

[mr ibrahiem]

Where I comefrom you would get sent to the police for this why is it any different where you live
I give it a go but all i found was a clockwork toy organ and a yamaha dd-7 wich i have but police saw mw and had to pay man who owned the drum machine over 40 ponds
live in place in britain there is close to n electronics in Darnall exept scrap shop I been for over 5 years and I havent turn up nothig not a verry nice area either can be verry dangerous round here like a boy stole a scooter from a skip and another boy wanted it and the boy picked up a pipe to hit the other boy but he didnt and no one got it .it went to the  landfill  something e;se that pisses me off is that there is no recycling plants reclaimage sites (like hard rubbish but in big skips cross between fleamarket trade shop and skip diving) This place has no redeeming features I could fid morte interesting  stuff on surface of mars

[Circuitbenders]

Do they have punctuation or a spell checker where you come from? 

Surely theres no reason why anyone would care what you pull out of a skip in the UK, its in there for a reason after all. If in doubt just find out who owns it and ask beforehand.

The rubbish bins of universities and colleges at the end of term are always a good place to find cool stuff. Especially just before the summer holidays. If your local college or uni has an electronics department then even better.

[ZedAxis]

Yeah, University buildings but also the private rented student accomodation areas are great to find stuff at the end of term. The landlords chuck stuff out on the street for council collection In JUne/July when they've finished the 9 month let.

I haven't been inside a dumpster/bin for a few years - I used to eat out of them too. With business premises it is tecnically illegal in the UK I think. But what usually happens if you get spotted is some security/police tell you bog off coz it is theft of THEIR PROPERTY !! But usually you're trespassing if the bins are hidden away or if locked & forced open then OOPS! criminal damage - so best not to get caught too often or leave a mess as this really peaves the companies. They like to throw blue gloop on stuff to stop you using it.