[2muchstuff]

It's a shame that we live in such a throw away society. I would swear that manufactures/ engineers design for planned obsolesance. Some of the stuff that I scrounge up will have date codes on them and they are only a few years old. For example, you find a stepper motor that you could use, you contact the manufacture and find out that there is no info to be found because it is obsolete. IT'S ONLY A FEW YEARS OLD. At my work, I will remove the aluminum, brass and copper from equipment that is being thrown away, save it up and then it's off to the recycler. What I make goes for the parts that I can't make or scrounge up. I tend to average about $1000 to $2000 dollars a year. This may sound like a lot scrounging but it is not, it's all in WHAT you collect and of course an understanding wife helps too. Heck, at my previous job, I would collect the pure tungsten electrodes from spent Xenon short arc lamps, a box 6" square would weigh almost 100 pounds, take it to the recycler and cash it in. Fifteen years ago I was getting $1.75 a pound (copper was .50 a pound), 5 times a year, well you do the math. Now copper is almost $1.50.

On the flip side I think it is great that there are forums like this one where there are enough people with varied backgrounds and skills to be able to provide us with the information that we need so we can complete our projects, even if the parts are obsolete.