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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: CHERRYFAN01 on Fri, 12 June 2015, 18:37:15

Title: Chance of beam spring in e recycling center
Post by: CHERRYFAN01 on Fri, 12 June 2015, 18:37:15
What is the chance of finding a beam spring in an e waste recycling center?
Title: Re: Chance of beam spring in e recycling center
Post by: hwood34 on Fri, 12 June 2015, 18:37:45
small
Title: Re: Chance of beam spring in e recycling center
Post by: nubbinator on Fri, 12 June 2015, 18:38:48
0.1925364715%
Title: Re: Chance of beam spring in e recycling center
Post by: Touch_It on Fri, 12 June 2015, 18:41:24
0.1925364715%

this, unless you happen to be Cindy from DT.
Title: Re: Chance of beam spring in e recycling center
Post by: False_Dmitry_II on Fri, 12 June 2015, 23:23:55
People show up to thrift stores and tell tales of getting new WASD keyboards for $3. So who knows?
Title: Re: Chance of beam spring in e recycling center
Post by: nubbinator on Fri, 12 June 2015, 23:27:06
People show up to thrift stores and tell tales of getting new WASD keyboards for $3. So who knows?

And people never lie on the internet either.
Title: Re: Chance of beam spring in e recycling center
Post by: Chromako on Sat, 13 June 2015, 02:05:06
Probably the same chance that I have of finding a 2GS/s oscilloscope for less than a bloody fortune at my ecycler.


Which is.... um...  rounded down to 0%?
Title: Re: Chance of beam spring in e recycling center
Post by: False_Dmitry_II on Sat, 13 June 2015, 02:14:33
People show up to thrift stores and tell tales of getting new WASD keyboards for $3. So who knows?

And people never lie on the internet either.

To be fair, the ones I saw had proof pictures. Receipts and price tags and so on.
Title: Re: Chance of beam spring in e recycling center
Post by: Touch_It on Sat, 13 June 2015, 20:11:27
Awesome finds DO happen.  What people don't say usually is how many "failures" happen.  EG I go to goodwill maybe 30 times a year, have yet to find any sort of mechanical keyboard.
Title: Re: Chance of beam spring in e recycling center
Post by: chyros on Sat, 13 June 2015, 20:46:53
Awesome finds DO happen.
Indeed, they do. The chance of you finding a really nice keyboard at some point at a recycler's is not too bad. The chance of it being exactly that one thing you want is pretty slim, but it's not impossible :) .
Title: Re: Chance of beam spring in e recycling center
Post by: Findecanor on Sun, 14 June 2015, 06:01:26
The guys at the local recycling centre told me that most of the computer stuff they get is from businesses who decide to replace the bulk of their hardware at once. That means that most of what they get in is only a few years old.
Title: Re: Chance of beam spring in e recycling center
Post by: XMIT on Sun, 14 June 2015, 10:06:01
If you want something like a Beamspring you need to think a little backwards. Who bought them in the first place? Who might still have them? Universities, government agencies, research labs, some companies. Whoever was willing to pay 1970s prices for 1970s computing.

Once upon a time the Model M was a regular Goodwill or Salvation Army haul for $5. This is no longer true. Here is Austin we have the Goodwill Computer Works. I've found Selectric typewriters there for $20 (this is how I got mine).
Title: Re: Chance of beam spring in e recycling center
Post by: CHERRYFAN01 on Sun, 14 June 2015, 12:18:57
Well, I'm just going to pray that I find one and go there on thurday or friday.
Title: Re: Chance of beam spring in e recycling center
Post by: trillobite on Sun, 14 June 2015, 14:14:50
Hahah, sounds like many do the same thing as I.  :)) I will drop by GoodWill once or twice a week, looking for an old mechanical keyboard as it is right next to the gym I go to. I bet the store owner thinks I'm some kind of crook as I never walk out buying anything.