Quote:
Originally Posted by MrBungle
I've taken to not bothering to keep parts in now. I never use most of them which is a bit of a false economy. Had a bit of a clear out in the end. Just buy stuff RS next day mostly.
|
Me too: a decade-and-a-bit back I moved house and so did a serious 'cull' of my acquired cruft. Out went all the old 1950s/60s/70s-style Erie carbon-resistors (they were only ever specced as 10%-tolerance but some of them had drifted 20, 30%) and loads of TCC Metalpack/Metalmite waxies-disguised-in-a-metal-case capacitors, along with bags of 'unmarked' transistors bought ages ago from the likes of Bi-Pak and Bi-Pre-Pak (two companies with similar-sounding names but no actual connection).
Similarly, I threw away the wooden cases of some 50s/60s broadcast-radios, on the basis that the cases increased the bulk but didn't improve their shortwave performance...
These days I'm happy to start on a project, do a quick 'needs-assessment' and stick in an order to RS - the bits arrive by 9AM the next day and I know the parts I'm then using are good.
About the only things I keep a 'stash' of are variable capacitors (old 500+500pF types, Jackson C804, Eddystone high-voltage VHF ones and the WWII-era Wingrove&Rogers types as used in RF24/25/26/27-units) and generic transistors [BC10x/17x, BF115, 2N2926/2N3702, 2N3055, NKT404/OC35 and the beefier RF types [MRF-series, Mullard/Philips BLY-series etc].
And I've got a stash of valves - again mainly RF-types: a few Acorns, some Octals [a complete set for my AR88 and S27, for example], B7G 1.5V ones for my R209-colony, some 6L6 for modulators, and power-bottles like the QV04/7, QV03-12 (5763), QV06/20 (6146), QQV03/10, QQV06/40A, 4CX350 - all of which I need because I have gear that uses them.