Fusor Forums

Well, another Raleigh hamfest under my belt. I was on the road at 5AM this morning and arrived around 9AM. A large lot of nice, low cost booty was to be had and I, now have it.The images in the next string of posts tell the story and are annotated. To read them, you will have to click on the images and enlarge them.

The reason for this large assemblage is to show just what can be had if you attend every large hamfest within a 4-5 hour drive of where you live should you be blessed to live within such range of a number of major cities. Check out what occurs near you, when and where. Most of what I paid was not what was marked or asked. Wheeling and dealing and a bit of luck is often required.

Richard Hull

Yes, there is more stuff........What a day it was.
Back home by 6PM.

Richard Hull

I had a good weekend. Although I scored far less at RARSFest than Richard, its always great fun searching. My best deal was the Allen-Bradley tower light for $10. When I looked up the wiring info, I learned that this would cost $337 new! My smallest was the hemostat for 25 cents. I got two like new 6 inch conflat flanges, some RG213 and plugs to make HV cables for my three PTV -50kV supplies I plan to connect in parallel (per Andrew Seltzman's approach), an unused Dremel tool for $4, and some big heat shrink tubing. Also shown, but not from RARSFest, is a new ISO100 reducing tee scored on eBay and waiting on my porch when I returned. I had spent two weeks trying to make one of these by machining and welding aluminum before concluding that my TIG skills were not up to the job. The moral is to check eBay first.
I was disappointed at RARSFest this year in that I didn't see a single NIM unit. I was also looking to replenish my stock of ten turn pots and didn't find a single one.
Flea markets have become my favorite traveling activity. While others seek out famous tourist sites, I first search for a flea market. My best finds abroad have been a watchmaker's lathe in Paris and a Soviet astrocompass in Tashkent. Still on my bucket list are the MIT Flea Market and the famous Bay Area Electronics Flea Market.

Those 6 inch CF blanks are nice! A Dremel kit for $4 was quite a coup, indeed.

I did see a small box of panel mount, 10k, ten turn pots with ten turn indicator dials at a vendor over against the back wall, but he wanted $10.00 each. They were nice and clean and looked new, but I have a box full of various ten turn pots in the lab already. Were you talking about PC mount ten turn pots? I can't remember seeing any of those, but I wasn't focused on finding them either.

Richard Hull

I was looking for panel mount potentiometers. I missed those you mentioned. Even at $10 each, depending upon specs, it could have been a good deal. I'm getting low on them having built several modular HV supply controllers recently. I regret that I missed all that stainless hardware you scored.
It appears that the supply of NIM units may have dried up.

For the last 4 years straight at the Raleigh hamfest, NIM bins or NIM modules have been offered. The same two guys always brought them. They were scrap from UNC labs where the guys worked. They always had a nice batch of NIM modules,too. We would always chat for a few minutes about nuclear matters.

I bought three bins and 8 modules 5 years ago. Sold them all at HEAS after testing and cleaning. I bought the best one of three bins the next year and a couple of modules. The next year they had only one bin that was pretty rough and only three modules. I just bought one module. Last year they only had two modules and these were nice, 3 slot wide, empty, blank NIM modules. I bought both. This year, I looked for them, but did not see them. Maybe there is no more surplus NIM stuff to put them there. Oh well. I think Andrew did get some stuff from them last year or the year before.

I was stunned to find the nice Jordan counter offered by an older lady for $5.00. Often, older ladies sitting at a table of electronics are selling a recently passed husband's goodies.

Richard Hull

I'm surprised to see all this high quality newish test equipment for sale at cheap prices. Not a thing I've encountered yet at the electronics flea market.

Many really useful and cool items are found at very large hamfests, (like Raleigh, Richmond, Manassas, Winchester, etc). In general, vendors sell at highly variable prices. (vendors being hamfest regulars... "carnie" type sellers seen at many hamfests.) Vendors occupy 5 to 10 tables. I saw three different vendors selling Arduino UNO R3 controllers. one sold them with a USB cable for $8.00, another sold them with no cable for $15.00 and another for $22.00.

Private individuals with a single table are there to just get rid of massive over-burden and will give huge cuts off their marked prices. Many of their items are not priced and when asked, "how much", they say, "what will you give me for it?" You blurt out something and 90% of the time they say, "fine!"

Vendors are a great place to restock on hardware, tape, dental tools, solder, micro-controllers and accessories, electronic chemicals, etc.

The Joe and Jane Blows at the lone tables, piled high with stuff represent your real chance to get major deals. They all say...." I don't want to take this stuff home!"..... They are not there to do business. They are there to get rid of stuff and maybe take home a little money for their junk. (Junk to them, maybe treasure for you).

Success is learning to "see at sight". A term I define in my very old hamfest blurb in the files forum

Richard Hull

After being inspired by this forum to search my local area for Hamfests and thrift events, I chanced upon a Swap'n'Meet by the local Amateur Radio community happening in the next city over from where I live. A quick decision and an early morning ferry ride saw me there, cash in hand and eager to see what was to be had. And boy did I come away with some good deals. The greatest treasure that I pulled from the event was an HP 1715A 200MHz Oscilloscope from 1980, complete with full documentation, for a mere $30! The seller (and numerous event-goers) confirmed that the unit had sat in a local museum for a decade beforehand, untouched, but ran like new when started. Hauling the 45 lb unit by hand over bus and ferry back home was worth every drop of sweat. Very excited to start using it and running some tests!

Hope this thread is for _all_ hamfests. Today I attended one in Sunnyvale, for the first time in 10 years. (they were briefly held at Lockheed, in between the Foothill era and the De Anza era). Ran into John McMaster, Mike Kan, and many other regulars.

I'm well into the de-acquisition phase of my life, but went today as a buyer instead of a seller. Took it real easy. Here are the biggest new acquisitions: Convectron readout without tube, $10. Broken LED tube, free. Harrick plasma cleaner, $10, on a whim.
Glass chamber needs a lid for the big end (front) and a vacuum connection to the small end (in back). Sellers were joking that it is a male enhancement device (not their exact words). Through the glass, we can see wire coils around the chamber and a couple of power vacuum tubes. Later I found the contemporary version online, looking basically the same: http://harrickplasma.com/products/basic-plasma-cleaner "Applies a maximum 18W of power to the RF coil". Otter be fun and educational to light it up.

Here's the little stuff. Familiar Dwyer anemometer, basically a tapered tube flowmeter with a very light bead. Any guesses as to its full scale as a gas flow meter? $1 worth of glass pipettes, about 1/20 of a box full offered for $5. $1 circuit board with more than a dozen assorted crystals. Weird gearless speed reducer (for fine tuning adjustments), $1. Not shown: a 3800 KC crystal in vintage CR-5/U enclosure, $5. Not a common frequency. I figure it can be oscillated and frequency-divided by 16 with one old CMOS 4060 IC. Then divided by four to generate two 59.375 kHz square waves in quadrature, as a local oscillator for experimentally receiving time codes from WWVB on 60 kHz. Yes, I know there are radio controlled clocks not much more expensive than the crystal. Radio controlled watches even!

Slim pickings, but still interesting. I finally had an opportunity to attend the legendary M.I.T. Flea Market, held monthly during the “warm” months in the Albany Street parking garage. Today was the first of this year’s series. A lot of stuff changed hands, but for my interests, it was a bit of a disappointment. The Raleigh Hamfest flea market was bigger. I came away with a couple of small pressure gauges for $1 each, and a big water cooled heat sink made for large semiconductor modules ($5). I was expecting a lot more current vintage high tech stuff. It was quite cold for someone from SC, and the lighting in the garage is pretty poor. As shown in the photo, knowledgeable regulars come with a flashlight. If I was local, I’d still attend each month, but I didn’t find it worth traveling to attend.

I was just over there are the M.I.T. Flea Market as well, yes, it had pretty slim pickings. It probably has a bigger turn out in the summer.

I have a friend who lives in Boston. Not to rain on any parades, but he says that the event is a shadow of its former self.

This is not to say there might not be a super killer deal awaiting the regular attendee who lives there. As the weather gets warmer keep reports coming on this event.

Most places have such events, (hamfests), only once each year. Thus, folks have time to store up, acquire, and resell more goodies in any geographic location.

Richard Hull

Stretching a bit to be fusor related, but I just scored a jewelers micro torch at the Porte des Vanves Saturday flea market in Paris for 20 Euro. It’s mostly antiques and some old tools, but I scored a German watchmakers lathe here a couple of years ago. One of my other interests is miniature books and fine bookbinding in miniature. I found some miniature books, a leather decorating tool, and a set of slightly corroded 8 point brass type for embossing letters in leather (for 15 Euro). I just saw a new set yesterday that they priced at 900 Euro! If you’re ever in Paris on a Saturday, it’s worth the subway ride. I think this one is much more interesting than the huge permanent “flea market” tourist attraction on the north edge of town.

A really nice old air-gas torch of yesteryear. Great find!

Richard Hull

Does it count as "sharing hamfest booty" if a lot of the pictures above are of stuff I sold you guys hahaha

Glad my new old stuff has found a new home. Especially the light stack and those CF's. They needed a good home.

Cheers!

The light stack has a new home on our system rack. It glows red when the HV is on. I haven’t found a use for the green and yellow lights yet, but they still look nice.

Looks great! Glad I could help

Today's (May 20) turnout MIT Flea Market was much bigger than last months, with easily 4x the number of sellers. There were tables all the way up to the top of the parking garage. I got a 22" new in box LCD display for $60 and two 1sccm mass flow controllers for $10 ea.

My haul Pictures of the MIT Flea Market

Hamfests will help fill and supplement a true builder's junk box for future and current projects. My next big one is the Manassas fest in early June. I will both sell and hunt there. Always a good fest. It is usually hot and a hat and a canteen of water is nice to have. By 1PM, the shootin' match is just about shut down and all of the best stuff is already back at the homes of the early bird buyers who left the fest by 10AM. After 1PM, you are looking at vultures rooting through trash cans for loot discarded by folk who left, ditching stuff that did not sell, and worthless, penny-less, tire kickers handling your stuff and chatting you up about it, even though they don't have the money to buy.

Richard Hull

I just visited the legendary Silicon Valley Electronics Flea Market in Fry’s parking lot in Sunnyvale. Compared to the season’s first MIT flea market, I would have to rate this one much better (although Andrew reported that the second MIT Flea had a much better turnout than the first one that I attended). The lighting here is also much better! I scored a few finds: some miniature connector coax patch cables for $1 each, a bag full of ISO flange claw clamps for $3, one 20K/100W resistor for $1 (after digging through many boxes of high wattage but very low resistance ones), and some small center drills (not in the photo). Not a big haul, but It was great fun rooting through boxes of high tech bric-a-brac. I saw a couple of high vacuum bellows valves, but they had been exposed to some very nasty stuff and were quite corroded inside. There was a fair amount of stainless gas plumbing and components (mostly VCR connectors) likely from the semiconductor industry. If I lived in the Bay Area, I’d definitely attend this one every month.

I was there too! I got an oscilloscope for $20.

Alas, the large Manassas hamfest was a bust. Rained all day here and there, too. We were scheduled to leave at 6AM, but it was pouring and so, we bagged it. Mother nature, she owns it, big time.

Great stuff from the other fests above in this post. We often see a lot of vacuum stuff from scrapped fab lines.

Richard Hull

The electronics flea market in Sunnyvale (formerly Cupertino), CA ended its 2018 season today. Alas, demands of my day job left no time to pack up for selling. Double alas, I went anyway, and fell into binge mode. Brought home many things that are small and inexpensive, or small and free.

Here are a couple of uncommon instruments, seen and left on the table: .
Out of pocket cost was about $25 or $30, in exchange for all the items in this picture: The item to save first, in case of fire, is the DC KOLOVOLTS meter. Not an easy thing to find. Or to want.
The 150 volts AC panel meter is ready to connect -- no external components needed. Most of the other meters were free.

New new lab supplies include large and medium clip leads, a DMM, and a handful of wires with pin receptacles on one end. The bundle of stranded wires with pins on both ends ("for Arduino plugboard") actually came from a garage sale on my way home.

The lamp collection now has a 100-200-300W three-way bulb with mogul base; 175 and 250 W gas discharge lamps with clear globes, and a self-ballasting mercury vapor black light bulb. All in their boxes, altogether $6, from three different vendors. One old rectifier tube that came with a loose cap, an unfamiliar JAN number, and no trace of mercury that I can see. One plain photocathode tube (free).

Then red and a near-infrared optical filters, a pair of 55-volt 315-watt toaster elements (NIB, $1), a needle valve with micrometer screw ($1), and a weird little free tube (spark gap?). The big ticket item, amounting to $3 or $4, is the hand-picked assortment of 2W composition resistors in megohm values and one 100 ohm power resistor (actually sought, and put into service today). Rounding out the bundle is a pair of unused AC capacitors full of Pyranol ($1) and a stepper switch whose relay coils operate an escapement mechanism to turn a toothed wheel ($1).

Here's a closer view of the valve and the funny tube-like thing. The latter has a pin terminal on one end and a pinched-off metal tube on the other. What is it?

Nice valve! I paid more like 30 for mine!