AC Adapter Plague

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:38:12 -0800, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>
wrote:
(...)

This is about 5 days of wall wart and power cord collections at a
local recycling center.
<http://www.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/e-waste/slides/wall-warts.html>
What a waste.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[whit3rd]

On Monday, January 9, 2012 7:13:00 PM UTC-8, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:20:48 -0800, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com
wrote:

Those are wall warts that are not attached to specific pieces of
equipment. The cardboard boxes on the right are full of sorted and
tested wall warts. There are two more boxes ... another 4 large
boxes at home and a small box in the vehicle.

Time for a purge.

NO! The first one you discard, is the next one you need!
.... nothing but an original unit will ever connect to some
devices (my old HP-34C calculator comes to mind).

Sorting by output voltage, though, would improve the utility
of the boxes. And you can paint those boxes in bright colors
so they do double duty as decoration...

 

[gregz]

spamtrap1888 <spamtrap1888@gmail.com> wrote:

On Jan 9, 6:20 pm, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/issuecartoons/2012/01/16/cartoons_2012...
That's roughly what seems to be taking over the space under one of my
workbenches.

On a slight tangent: Does anyone make a power strip with outlets
spaced to hold multiple wallwarts?

I have some older Curtis strips with top and two sides with outlets, surge
and filtering. The only thing that remotely resembles them is these...

http://gizmodo.com/once-upon-a-time/

Greg

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:38:12 -0800, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com
wrote:
(...)

This is about 5 days of wall wart and power cord collections at a
local recycling center.
http://www.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/e-waste/slides/wall-warts.html
What a waste.

years ago, i would have taken a mess like that to a hamfest and sold
all of it. I currently have about 500 warts & external power supplies,
sorted by voltage. I picked up several hundred at one hamfest, from a
silent key's widow. I had to come home and get my trailer, to haul off
everything I picked up, that day. I used to trash pick after the Dayton
hamfest every year and could fill my long wheelbase van with no
problem. I'd take damaged or dead equipment that either looked
repairable, or was worth salvaging. Once, it was close to a ton of
power transformers, for the copper.


--
You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:31:20 -0500, "Michael A. Terrell"
<mike.terrell@earthlink.net> wrote:

Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:38:12 -0800, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com
wrote:
(...)

This is about 5 days of wall wart and power cord collections at a
local recycling center.
http://www.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/e-waste/slides/wall-warts.html
What a waste.


years ago, i would have taken a mess like that to a hamfest and sold
all of it. I currently have about 500 warts & external power supplies,
sorted by voltage. I picked up several hundred at one hamfest, from a
silent key's widow. I had to come home and get my trailer, to haul off
everything I picked up, that day. I used to trash pick after the Dayton
hamfest every year and could fill my long wheelbase van with no
problem. I'd take damaged or dead equipment that either looked
repairable, or was worth salvaging. Once, it was close to a ton of
power transformers, for the copper.

I spent my first 50 years collecting all that junk. I plan to spend
the next 50 years getting rid of it.

Here's my pile in the office:
<http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/crud/wall-warts.jpg>
The boxes to the right are full of more wall warts. There are also
two more big boxes in the closet, several boxes of just power cords,
and about 5 more boxes of wall warts at home. Time for a purge.

The local recycler clips off the power cords from the wall warts. The
transformer and copper windings are classified at "mixed metal waste"
for which they get about $175/ton (2000 lbs). The copper cords yield
about $65/lb.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558