[Boatanchors] Carbon Composites Go Bye Bye

[Bill Cromwell]

Hi Dave,

All of my old junk is going away and those resistors are long gone. Old 
paper caps too. And I am suspicious of very old electrolytic caps. I 
understand the idea of "remaining time" and how best to use it.

I used to harvest parts from old, broken electronics. It finally 
occurred to me that the device was *broken*. If we knew which part was 
bad we would probably repair it instead of putting broken parts in our 
new projects! Sometimes there are known useable parts in junk but brand 
new parts could be cheaper than the time spent harvesting junk. Unless 
it is unobtanium. We have to think it through.

A little off topic..I recently bought a wonderful, top brand camcorder 
at the second hand store for very little money. I bought a brand new 
battery for it and started playing with it. Even my retired smart phones 
and an inexpensive web cam far outperform it. The battery is on the 
shelf and can operate low power gear. The camcorder is *gone*. We have 
to think it through.

Stay safe.

73,

Bill  KU8H

On 5/6/20 8:47 AM, David Stinson wrote:
> Mentioned this once, finally pulled the trigger on it.
> I have purged my 50-year junk-box of carbon-comp resistors,
> including NOS, save only obvious "antique" parts from
> the 20s and 30s and "premium grade" precisions.
> Over a gallon of them. 90%  have drifted, some of them
> substantially, and it just isn't worth my precious and
> rapidly-dwindling time to try and cherry-pick those still good.
> Will be using mostly the current "flame-proof" in
> future projects.   I'm curious if anyone else has considered
> "resistor retirement?"
> 
> 73 Dave AB5S
> 
> 

-- 
bark less - wag more