Shop fun

[Enzo]

I'm working on cleaning out the warehouse. I have so much "oh, this might be useful someday" crap, so the decision to start brooming things makes it easy. One of my favorite little activities is stripping something down the the screws. So, I been doing that. I have any number of dead stereo receivers. Fixer-uppers that really, why would I put time and parts into a stereo I could then sell for $40? SO stripped, the pile shrinks. Now I have a collection of nice power transformers, good for that solid state power amp I'll never get around to building.

Had a couple cheap Numark DJ mixers and a Gemini same thing. Let me see, some screws, a power cord, knobs - knobs are always good to have. People are always writing in here asking about putting a VU meter on their amp. I saved the LED VU meters, so I'm still anal. One had an FX section so I found a coupple of the MN3xxx ICs, those are worth saving. Those old DJ mixers are seriously junk anyway.

ANd just when I think I couldn;t have any more fun, I find some boxes of tax records. DO I really still need all the paper from the 1997 tax year? OH boy, throwing tons of stuff in the SHRED ME pile. Old gasoline slips, personal Visa bills, parts invoices, blah. Cleared a couple boxes of all that.

Oh look, my old 386 computer that won;t boot. Sure, I'll be fixing that... not. I wonder if the hard drive has anything interesting on it, like recipes? Not really a lot to save in it.

I can actually see sections of the floor that have been hidden for years.


A while ago, a guy walks in with a huge Fender Super Reverb. He lugs it over and says, "I need you to remove all the transformers and heavy stuff from this beast, ha ha." I said Sure, John, have you any idea what I have been doing the last three days? I'd be HAPPY to remove all the stuff from your amp...

[Enzo]

Then there is the stuff that might actually have some value. I think we may generate some ebay action. Stuff like a Korg M1 that needs a main board. Working used M1s going for like $400, my cost on a new board is well over $500. Someone may want it for parts. Empty speaker cabs. Korg D1600 that won't boot up. Ensoniq ZR76 for parts. etc. Hey, and some nice power transformers... oooh, this one is a Pioneer.

[J M Fahey]

You have no idea how much these two posts are motivating me.
I have been summing up courage to do the same for 3 years now.
I also have sections of my house where I don't remember the floor color, no kidding.
I bet EBay is your friend.
I'm sure you can fill up a nice little cardboard box with, say, one full set of matching knobs or similar parts kits for vintage/retro buffs and sell it "all or nothing", *because* you are not selling for the money, but to clean your warehouse !!!
You *will* make some money anyway, and then just grab the Missus by her arm and invite her to that fun Restaurant you love.
If by sheer chance it's the one run by a bunch of nice smiling well built waitresses, consider that the cherry on top of the cake.

[Enzo]

Oh, Hooters?

My wife doesn;t want me in Hooters, so naturally I taunt her. When I talk to her on the phone she always asks where I am, and I always say Hooters. Then she says No, you're not. You are out in the driveway aren't you? Um, yeah. REcently I found another place, grabbed the wife and we took off to a nearby town, where we came around a corner and there right in front of us was...Cooters. I knew I was successful when she whacked my arm and said "Asshole." We didn;t actually go in, we went to the Red Rooster across the street. Apparently Hooters and Cooters are bad, but cocks are OK.

[Enzo]

This may not be particularly interesting for anyone else, but I am having a good time.

Had a few ancient little Fostex cassette decks, like a 160 and a X15 and not sure what the other innardss are from. They coughed up some interesting knobs. I'll stick them on something one day and folks can wonder where the hell they came from.

A friend brought us a bass guitar once for some repair, and he had no knobs on it. We were not going to let him get away with that, so we found some stove knobs that fit. Last I knew, they were still on there. He could play high, medium, low, and simmer.

I keep my Dremel bits in a small cardboard box. I just realized this little box originally held a Triad power transformer I bought as a kid. I been storing small things in it for well over 50 years. The box used to live in my tool kit when i did field service, so it was not a pampered box. Not bad for a little cardboard box.

[Tom Phillips]

... Not bad for a little cardboard box.

Some of the old transformer boxes were even made with reinforcing metal strips down the side edges. I can picture them in my mind. Now I wonder if I'm be able to find one in my archives.
I'm trying to clean out things too. The stored stuff is in the way of other stored stuff. I don't really need 11 scopes but every time I look at the workmanship in the three that are old Tek tube scopes I can't bring myself to part them out.

[J M Fahey]

I have a 19 (yes, nineteen, not a typo) room house, and I can't walk anywhere without tripping over something.
This has to stop.
Worst thing is that I'm *sure* 90% is crap.
I often look at "Hoarders" on Cable TV and cry.
I'll start offering tons of dissimilar speakers on our local EBay branch, plus many "toob" amps as-is; people is crazy about rebuilding such stuff.
Oh well, wish me luck, I need it.

[Steve Conner]

Good luck! I think if I could afford a 19 room house, I'd be just as bad!

I recently had to move out of my flat while the insurance company repair some water damage. The amount of electronic junk that came out of my kitchen cupboards was quite amazing! I tossed half of it away and added the other half to our collection in the lab at work. I'm now down to one carload of possessions, and it's not a very big car either!

[J M Fahey]

It was a real cheap house.
It was in the middle of a legal dispute and I bought it straight from the Lawyer involved.
The actual owners didn't want to sign the paperwork so I took a very definite risk of losing everything, but in the long run it turned out well.

[Enzo]

Oooooh. Let me see, the resistor room, the capacitor room, the big room in the corner for semiconductors (walk-in closet for transistors, and wall unit for diodes), maybe a speaker rack, oh the possibilities...

[J M Fahey]

Well, in fact it is (starting from the front) the waiting room for customers (the magnetizer lives there=shortest wiring to the street post for this power-hungry machine); the actual servicing/sound test/delivery room by it (this would be what most of you would call "the service shop"); the Photo/silkscreen darkroom where also speakers are built and cones/voice coils/magnets/etc.are stored; the transformer-winding + lathe and various stand drills + panel bending and punching + new parts + transformer parts (bobbins/wire/cores) deposit room; the first bathroom; the silkscreen printing + cartridge reloading + paints/inks/nasty chemicals + ready to ship speakers deposit room (also known as the "nasty fumes room"); the (large) carpentry shop with all the machinery + spray painting + cabinet covering/finishing; the kitchen; the 2nd bathroom; the unclaimed jobs room; plus 2 multi purpose rooms, usually full of unused furniture, bicycles, sheet metal, construction materials, spare stove and clothes washing machine, etc.
This is just the street level part of the house (what US calls "first floor") and totals 9 rooms.
There is also another exact same house above, with a separate street door, where I used to live with "honey" and kids up to 1999.
Still technically mine (it's not common property) but unaccessible to me thanks to the "girl's club" conspiracy.
Judges by themselves are fine chaps, but they do not visit, their "eyes" are Psychologists, Social Workers and such: all "female" if you can call so "girls" which walk hand in hand, use short hair, no makeup and clothes that Dimebag Darrell would love, if you catch my drift.
Imagine their "reports" to Judges, who say "Sorry Mr but I must follow what's written on these reports".
So I have no access to the 10 rooms upstairs (same 9 plus an extra "studio" above the stairwell).
So no wonder it's hard to walk around downstairs: amps and supplies and boxes and machines *everywhere*.
Oh well.

[Mars Amp Repair]

Well you know we shut down our shop a few months ago...rather than try to figure out what all those errant transformers were & try to sell them, we just took the unidentifiable ones to the recyclers...got about $100.00 for a bunch of them that otherwise would now be in my garage taking up space with all the other stuff from the shop. Almost dropped some 'body parts' hauling those heavy bastards, too ;-]

We sold the entire parts department (minus the keyboard stuff which I still have) to a local amp repair guy. It helped us to pay off some bills as well as all the deposits we had taken on the stuff that was either not touched yet, had parts on order with parts deposits, or in some state of waiting. A real win-win on that one. That is where the bulk of the money from shutting the biz down came from as we had a rather extensive parts department.

Ya know we were only in business for 8 years, but still had an amazing amount of the stuff you're talking about. It really wasn't that difficult to decide what to just throw out, as we periodically would go through stuff anyway & get rid of it just to keep enough space for the things we really needed. I guess that's that advantage of having a spouse involved in the business. Left to my own devices...well I'd be preaching to choir.

Anyway, we're holding on to some more marketable stuff for when my wife gets her E-Bay biz going as well as a yard sale for home stuff as well. E-Bay has really become a viable way to make either a main income or certainly a supportive income these days. Even with Google, it's amazing how many folks don't know what they have.

It also is amazing with an electronics repair shop how much you find out what you've got to support your business is NOT worth. Test equipment, scopes, meters, home brew stuff, ...not worth much. Benches & miscellaneous supportive stuff...not worth much...ultimately when it's all said & done if you were thinking of selling or closing your service business, it's not worth much more than the old stuff you have between the walls which in most cases, which ain't worth much. Conversely, it didn't really cost that much to set up over time as the same equipment (mostly bought used on E-Bay) didn't cost that much over time to purchase. Again, all used on E-Bay.

The real worth of course is the technical talent you hopefully had working for you. Since you can't sell that, back to 'not worth much'. Being marketable with your own talents that you've acquired throughout your life, well that's pretty much priceless for your self-worth.

glen

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

For what it's worth.... my son and I cleaned out the "shop" a couple months ago and anything with real value I put up on eBay.
We sold tons of stuff where I stupidly said most of it still worked OK.
But I was totally stunned by the many buyers who bought good usable stuff, (up to 55 years old needing refurb).... and after a few weeks of ownership, basically demanded what amounts to a life time, unconditional warranty because some thing would get noisy, hummy or suddenly the vibrato or reverb quit working right, or the power tubes would fade in power after using it a couple gigs, or some old ass speaker would get fizzy or develop a voice coil rub after them blasting it with their amp a full volume for a couple hours!!! etc etc etc.
Good Lord! I'll never to that again.

Anything I sell on eBay, even though I know works fine as is... will ONLY be sold as scrap used parts regardless that it still works OK!!
Lesson learned....

And Glen... Tom is delighted with his purchase.

[J M Fahey]

Thanks for sharing your experience, good to learn from.
Old stuff can only be sold "as-is" , "may need refurbishing/cleaning/biasing/whatever" and specifically: "no warranty/no returns/all sales final".
Some will buy anyway (accepting your terms), some will not.
Fine, we don't need the second type.

[Enzo]

Oh Amen brother. Anything I sell will be as is. I might venture forth and say it seems to work, but sold as parts. Not expecting a lot for things liie shop equipment. Things like high voltage bench supplies are probably better sold through offer here than on the general market. And my local "familiars" who drop by now and then for advice are probably the best market for old scopes and such.

Here in Lansing, I have to pay personal property tax on the stuf in my shop. OK, seems like a money grab to me, but rules is rules. SO when I list my stuff - assets - my bench is home made from used materials. (Basically my old bench moved from another location.) My shelving is old. MY parts drawers are mostly older than some members of this forum. I don;t have to pay taxes on inventory. MY scopes and other test gear are all old, etc etc.. On the form we fill out I have to list when things were new and their value then. Riiiiggggghhhttt. Bottom line is, in this shop I have made no improvements to the building, which would be taxed. (Last place I was, we had a wall put up - studs and drywall plus room door - and we paid taxes on that for several years.) And all my stuff was fully depreciated. SO for the last few years, my taxable value was $100. I walk in to pay my taxes with a check for $5.


That is fun, but fully depreciated is still fully depreciated. How much can I expect to get for a space old Sencore scope with all the controls noisy? I have a couple nice Tek tube scopes, but one weighs as much as an SVT, shipping? Nah.

Got a friend coming up later to grab the dead M1 and some other stuff to off for me.