Free is free

[CrealCritter]

So I bought a house to play around with back when the economy sucked. I paid 15k for it - it was a repo from the bank. The last time it sold when the economy was good for 95k and I have it insured for 155k. I mean I really couldn't pass it up. Older house, brand new roof, brand new high efficiency heat and air. It needs some work but I like doing that kind of stuff. I've rewired the whole thing because the existing wiring scared even me.its right in town, I would'nt live there because it's in town but it's good for renting.

I just had my first renters move out. I went over to clean the place up and touch up some paint and do a few minor things to get it ready for the next renters when I found a pretty new higher end notebook computer and charger in the master bedroom closest.

Being the nice guy I am I called my previous renters and informed them that they left a notebook computer. They said it didn't work and to please just throw it away.

Well you know me... I took it home and plugged it up the charger and it wouldn't turn on. So I got out my multimeter and sure enough the charger was not working. A couple of screws and I had the charger open. I probed around in the circuitry with my multimeter and after about a minute I found a bad capacitor. I replaced the capacitor with a new one from my electronics stash and Shazam the charger worked again. So I plugged it into the notebook hit the power button and Shazam again, the notebook came back to life. I charged the battery, wiped the hard drive clean and i'm now loading Ubuntu Linux on it.

Sometimes it pays off to be curious and try and fix something that's broken, sometimes it doesn't. But I got me a nice "new to me" $800+ notebook computer for about 15 mins of my time and a component that maybe cost a nickel. Needless to say I'm a happy camper...

Share with us what you got or gave away for free or very cheap. I'm sure this will be a interesting thread.

 

[baymule]

The best thing on our farm that was free is our Great Pyrenees, Paris. Paris was free because she killed chickens. It took me two years to turn her into a chicken guard.

https://www.backyardherds.com/threa...heep-goats-or-chase-bears-hawk-post-26.23771/

We moved and Paris had a lot to adjust to. She went from town to the country, there were HORSE MONSTERS next to her back yard! Then we got sheep and the training started all over again. Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/paris-has-begun-lamb-training.33844/

Paris loves us, the chickens and the sheep. She is a fantastic dog and we are proud of her. She had a lot to overcome from the damage her first owners did to her, she is still a bit psychotic, probably just her personality. She guards our farm.

Awesome dog and she was free because idiot people didn't know what to do with her.

 

[baymule]

Our son in law redid their front porch and had a stack of short pieces left over. He also got wooden spools and made things for his classroom. He is a 5th grade English teacher. There were a lot of the short curved pieces that form the middle of the spool. And there were two big rounds from torn apart spools. FREE!! Plus some longer pieces. AND a vise!

 

[Joel_BC]

A vise is one of the most useful pieces of gear, I find... pretty well essential. I've got two metal-working vises of roughly that size, installed on benches in two of my work areas. Plus I have one woodworking vise of the common type.

It's great that the vise was part of the freebie, baymule. That's a pretty heavy-duty one.

 

[baymule]

I already used some of the short scraps to build a rack for holding 2 buckets that are masquerading as nest boxes.

 

[CrealCritter]

i finally found time to install Ubuntu Linux on my free notebook. I'm using it to type this reply. WOW SS looks way different on a notebook than it does on a cell phone. I still cant believe I got a free notebook and it only cost about a nickel in parts and 30 minutes of my time to get it running. Wished I were lucky like this more often...

 

[sumi]

I am currently looking for that 10K foreclosure property to purchase and move in to.

Come to Ireland. I've seen houses here go for as little as 8K

 

[baymule]

I m going to use the rounds to build a bench. I'll use the short porch board cut offs to make the seat and back. I need to build a couple of nestboxes, so will use the curved spool pieces for the sides. The vise will go in the tool shed, when finished. I already have one in the portable building.

 

[CrealCritter]

CC, that's an interesting story. And good to hear about your windfall.

I've found some good stuff for free, that's for sure, but I have no real knowledge of electronics. I mean, I do know the difference between a capacitor and a resistor, but don't now how to test them, or how to track down problems in complex circuitry. I can wire a building for 120 or 240, but it's that other complicated, delicate stuff that's a mystery.

Recent experience: my household's favorite second-hand electric clothes iron. It's got a lot going for it — it's heavy enough to do a good job, got a good water capacity for steam, it sits on its haunches on the ironing board without being tippy. But it stopped heating. I figured the problem might be a stuck relay, so I got my deadblow hammer and gave it a couple firm taps. Starting working like a charm!

But that's not really "electronics" (as in computers, radios, etc).

On another topic... I've always shied away from any opportunity to become a landlord. I've just heard of so many thorny, gnarly situations. But I trust it's working out well for you. Sounds like it.

The key to renting is vetting! Financial, criminal and employment background checks. Have the applicant pay for the checks and make it perfectly clear that any and all applicants with negative results will automatically be denied. That weeds out the Lions share of deadbeats from even applying.

As far as electronics... Easy smeasy really - you can go a long ways with just some basics tools and a multimeter (diode/ amps/volts/ohms) checks

 

[CrealCritter]

I ended up selling my oscilloscope when we moved from NC to Southern IL. I've been missing it every since then. So I decided I'm going to turn this new to me notebook into a oscilloscope. Linux is a wonderful thing... and with xoscope and a very simple to build electronics gizmo ( buffer circuitry ) I can use the notebook's sound card as an oscilloscope why not put this note book to good use? But of course I'll surf SS with it to