How To Get Cheap Electronic Components (Salvaging From Circuit Boards)

In this video, I will show you how I get cheap electronic components by salvaging from circuit boards. I get circuit boards from defunct electronic devices that I get practically for free, then I desolder all the useful components from them and sort them into drawers. It is a really cool way to get components cheaply.

A Good soldering iron to use:

A Solder Sucker:

A way to hold your parts:

A Good desoldering iron:

A Multimeter to test your components:

[DVDSN]

I’m 22 and I’m honestly just now learning and applying myself to electronics and I’m in tears, I wish I was like you growing up! Youre so inspiring dude! Keep killing it!

[jonathansgarden]

I'm 38 and only now getting into hobby electronics, this video is a lifesaver and very informative, thank you! I had an old lcd tv that the screen broke and the lcd ruined, so i just today took it apart and saved the boards and useful parts, now i'm going to begin unsoldering!

[petersack]

good for you, young man. May i kindly suggest, that you obtain and install a 4 inch fan, (ALOT QUIETER) from your parts, and attach it to a dryer vent hose, and have a stove range hood over your de-soldering area. Vent that exhaust outside, if you can. I've been doing this along time, and that poison WILL HARM YOU....keep on going...

[sebastian]

Aside salvaging the components, you can also repurpose whole boards as they are; for example, I used a microwave oven control board to command a UV lamp for erasing EEPROMs or for making PCBs. As is essentially a timer, I choose one with display (VFD) that also display the remaining time. Other repurposed thing was a garage door controller with its own remote control to switch on or off the outside lights. The limit is your imagination.

[hannatree]

Sooo encouraging. Good on you. I'm almost 56 yo and have lived offgrid for my whole adult life. In that time, I've watched seven very expensive inverters and other components of my solar system become junk when capacitors blew from old age or when they were struck by lightning surges. I get a lot of those here. I'm really over having to replace fixable gadgets I've paid a fortune for with new ones that arent so fixable because technology has changed and that excuse that "it's too expensive to fix and it's cheaper to by a new one" gives me no choice BUT to buy a new one. I fixed a junked spotlight torch the other day just by resoldering two wires. It had been dumped in the local skip. That was a simple fix I could do myself. An inverter is a safety issue, so I've enlisted a local electronics genius (like you) to teach me the basics and help me fix the latest casualty, the latest inverter that died from old age. It just needs some new capacitors to breath new life into it. And where will i get those capacitors? From broken gadgets. Great video. Good to see a young strapper innovating with old stuff in a world where old stuff isnt useful any more.

[oLxcid]

this guy has workshop that everyone is dreaming of

[ambushby]

You are going places kid, smart, young and resourceful.

[protektosafe]

I like that you went through each step (including desoldering with different tools), component sorting & testing. Nice work.

[videolabguy]

This is a great video! Reuse is the most effective form of recycling.

In the late 60s and early 70s, I lived out in the boondocks of Northern California. (Red Bluff is a good place to be from. As far from as possible! But, I digress.) The Tehama county dump (land fill in modern speak) was one mile away overland. I'd grab the big Radio Flyer wagon, and some ropes, and off I'd go, over hill and dale. Hours later in the 110+ degree (F) heat, I'd return home with a console color TV, standing up on end, strapped to the wagon! And they claim nerds don't get any exercise. Wrong! I built most of the SW radio receivers in the 1954 ARRL ham radio hand book, with the parts I scrounged from old TVs, tape decks, radios and mystery items. The first 4 track cartridge tape player I found baffled me for a couple of years until I saw my first 8 track unit! I was only 10 years old in 1967! I used a propane torch to heat the PCBs to get the parts out.

[nonamex]

You remind me of myself when I was 15 and salvaging old electronics from broken neighbours devices and use it to build led flasers and radio transmitters. Now I am studying electrical engineering.

[armandx.goldman]

That is the way I started back in the 70's, I would salvage parts for Henpol TV Repair. They taught me parts and then how to use them. It is a great way to learn the skills needed. Ham Radio operators are doing this as well. This is wonderful to see, made my day

[rccb]

33 years of age and I've finally found someone else like me! Can't wait to tell the missus, maybe she'll stop asking me if I'm normal 😂 keep up the good work my man 💪

[TheCerberusInferno]

I like to geat my electronic components by salvaging from circuit boards and it always make me imagine i'm in a post apocalyptic world of mad max lol ..

[ThunderboltWisdom]

I do the same thing... And I ain't no kid. Good job well done mate! Just one thing, I find that it is worth desoldering the little resistors, not because they are expensive but it means that there is more chance of you having the right resistor when you need it. It means you have a wide selection when you start making your electronic gadgets in the future.
Just a thought. Peace from Scotland 🤓👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[darrenbird]

Thanks for the taking the time to make this video, it has sure helped me to save money and get some free components! Cheers from Tasmania Australia

[paparoysworkshop]

Nice video. Great to see young people enjoying electronics. I've been salvaging components since I was about 8 years old. It was much easier back then as few components were proprietary. Today, so many components are difficult to reuse or just too small to deal with. Markings can be custom to a manufacture and no datasheets available. But it also depends on what you want to make. Most any transistor can be used for simple switching regardless of its value.

Oh, and defiantly hang on to those Flyback's. You can have a shockingly good time with them. 😎

Keep on salvaging...

[jakebozz]

I'm liking your transistor tester/identifier. Is that one of your build videos? (not finding it)

[jakub]

I suggest taking all the ceramic capacitors (the blue flat ones) since they are useful for high voltage projects such as voltage multipliers and high voltage capacitor banks

[wesmasom]

Thanks bud. Just started bout a year ago getting into electronics like this. And I have built some amazing stuff since then. Keep it up kid. Wish I got started as young as you did. Now for builds. Get into power walls and solar, wind, water for power. N teach me more. Thanks bud.

[Sloxx]

Good video. For as much desoldering as you do, you might want to just eventually get a desoldering gun. It makes things so much easier and faster.