Kerbside treasure number one

Once a year, the Brisbane City Council declares it "kerbside week" (or some-such), where people can pile their bulky garbage (e.g. chairs, dishwashers) by their driveway, and a week or so later the garbage collectors pick it up.

Of course, myself and other like-minded scroungers stop by and seize the good stuff: lumber, chairs, stools, suitcases, and etc. (Those are just "for instance" examples: I personally don't bother w/ suitcases.)

Sometime here I'll do a post on all the treasures I've seized for this round. Today's post is just on a pair of answering machines.


It was raining a bit today, so they got a little wet. No apparent damage, though -- just some leaves stuck to it (see above).

Completely disassembled one; left the other one intact, since it doesn't save much storage space to take it apart.


Salvaged components included a transformer (yellow circle on left), which I'll do something clever with audio electronics (in the future...) -- and a solenoid (an electromagent, with a metal bar that extends or retracts, depending on the direction of the current) -- also something musical -- maybe trigger it with a pushbutton so it hits a bell or a cymbal. Since I have the other (identical!) answering machine, I'll have a pair of each of these.



Also two capstan(?) rollers (from the tape transports). When I disassemble the other ans. machine, I'll have four of them: make a little cart (trolley?) to roll on the workbench, or maybe a sharpening guide for chisels.



Two outgoing message cassette tapes, two "messages" tapes, and a speaker (plus another speaker in the currently-intact ans. machine). I'll wire the two speakers in parallel, mount them in a wooden box, and use them as "special effect"-sounding speakers for a guitar amp (16 ohms each, so 8 ohms in parallel, which is standard for guitar amps). The tapes will provide people's voices to be (possibly) used as snippets and samples in songs (e.g., "Uhh - hi! This is Bob. Give me a call.")



A funny switch which completes the circuit when something touches the two wires. Maybe something funky on a guitar? And three slider switches, to select between options. Again, maybe on an electric guitar.



A volume knob, and a selector switch (plus one of each in the intact answering machine). All sorts of electric guitar or electronics uses. And another transformer off to the side.



A little motor (plus another in the other answering machine), and a red and a green LED (plus another set in the other machine). Motor could be used to "bow" a string, for a sustained drone sound; LEDs have all sorts of amusing uses. Oh -- and a few misc. springs.


Also had a whole lotta small screws, and washers. Kept 'em, as they don't take up much room to store, and might come in handy.


--GG