Re: What medicinal equipment uses HV caps?

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: David Speck <dave-at-davidspeckmd-dot-org> 

Eric,
It is getting hard to find places where you can go to salvage parts. The 
local junkyard where I went as a kid with my father is now a recycler -- 
nothing stays there very long before getting cut up, shredded, and loaded 
in to rail cars for a trip to the steel mill or smelter.  If I happen to 
get there when there is something interesting, they might sell it to me, 
but there is no inventory as such.

However, the place does have a back gate, and I know one of the guys who 
works there, and a $20 bill makes a great key on a Saturday morning when 
the administration is not there.  I've tried to educate him about what 
sorts of transformers, variacs, and caps might be interesting, so 
occasionally, interesting incoming pieces get shunted to the back lot for 
my  perusal.

YMMV, but you might try some promising places on a Saturday AM.  See if you 
can talk to the employees instead of the front office.  Most of the grunts 
are paid little above the minimum wage, and will frequently be helpful for 
a little tip on the side.  Bring your hard hat, work gloves, and thick 
boots.  A comprehensive set of tools to extract what you want in the 
minimum of time is a good idea as well.  Don't look for a lot of help from 
the staff, and keep out of the way of the heavy machinery. Scrapyards are 
dangerous places even in the best of times.

Even auto yards sometimes take in other equipment for metal value, so it's 
worth asking, even if you just get a "no".  In today's lousy economy, few 
places can afford to turn down any additional income.

HTH,
Dave

>Where does one locate a scrapyard with electrical
>"junk"?  I only see one place with the potential for electrical junk. Its
>named "Theodore Recycling" unfortunately, so it doesn't look like they would
>be interested in selling anything there. Any help would be appreciated.