Most of this video is a handheld-shot look at the inside of this laser cutter that tesla500 seems to have found in the garbage. If you don’t take things apart to see what’s inside, you probably won’t be too interested in most of the content of this video.
Toward the beginning of the video, he shows how the laser beam gets out of the machine. The laser goes through a long “delivery arm” that has many articulated joints and who knows how many mirrors; it’s pretty awesome!
The name “tesla500” might be somewhat familiar with YouTube watchers because he’s the guy who built the “Chronos” camera, which is a low-cost high-speed camera (for recording slo-mo video) and had a Kickstarter campaign for a while. Several of the more popular YouTube creators got early builds of the camera to play with and show off.
Man, this got me thinking: In NYC, we have specific “drop off old electronics at this spot” days. Basically a private company collects your old electronics FOR FREE and makes a killing mining the precious metals and recycling the scrap and plastic.
Cars line up and slowly drive for a mile to the collection spot…
I wonder if it would be worth it to peruse down that mile and ask what people are giving away for free, and offer to take anything good from them right there and then, so they don’t have to wait in line for an hour.
Offer a small amount of cash and they will probably run each other over to get to you…lol
I waited in line three hours to drop off old CRT TVs. People were even hanging “need gas” signs outside their cars as they waited in line. I would have killed to find someone to relieve me early.
What a waste. A row of idling cars in order to dispose of hazardous electronic waste… I’m a fan of businesses that will accept old electronics (whether it’s a result of industry-crippling regulations or corporate greenwashing - I like it).
Around here the local solid waste district has a location where you can drop electrical/electronics off for recycling, including batteries and phones and fluorescent tubes and so forth. Off to one side they have a couple of big tables for stuff that might still work. It’s sometimes surprising what’s there.
The start button on my 11-year-old microwave (that I bought a year and a half ago at goodwill for $20) just died. The rest of the thing works perfectly fine. Not sure if I should try to tear it open and attempt to fix the button, strip the whole thing for parts that I might someday use, or just bring the whole thing down to the weekly hazardous drop-off days at the dump.
our drop offs are free and easy; they have huge sections dedicated to categories, so you just pull up behind the slot you need. makes getting rid of things like our awful dishwasher so much easier.
I noticed that at the last hazardous waste drop off. Tables of stuff still in original containers. Sign said “free”, I said any of this - free? Yup.
I picked up 2 gallons of WD-40!
I have “harvested” many, many free cans of spray paint, wall paint, and primer from the haz-mat recyclers.
In return, I have given them many dead batteries and jugs full of used antifreeze.
