General > General Technical Chat
When to part out perfectly functional boat anchors?
octillion:
I'm looking for some validation here: When the value of components within obsolete equipment exceeds the going price of the equipment, and historic value is minimal, there's little reason to keep the equipment intact (barring some personal reason). Are there other metrics you go by?
In particular, I have an HP 206A Audio Signal Generator that operates flawlessly. However, it takes up an entire shelf, weighs a ton, and I have plenty of other equipment that does the job. I rarely see these for sale, but there's one on eBay now that isn't selling, setting an upper bound on what I could expect to sell this for (with shipping taking a substantial cut). Stripping it for parts will yield some quality components, like multiple variable air capacitors (including two four-section capacitors, each section 12.4 - 535 pF), and fancy knobs.
bd139:
I reckon if you screwed a light bulb to the top of it and relisted it as upcycled steampunk it'd sell within the week :-DD
More seriously, it's a fairly nice bit of kit and it has collector value. But you'd have to find the market for it. Worth advertising it on here. It'd be a shame to strip it for parts and I wouldn't do it myself.
Gyro:
I would say when the front panel becomes cosmetically degraded to the point that it affects operation (that one looks in excellent condition). You often see stuff on ebay where the lettering has gone (not engrave and fill - that can be restored), heavily scratched, or where corrosion has set in, lifting the paint etc. I would class those as parts mules.
Equipment with badly damage cabinets would probably come under the same category, unless replacements are easilly available.
james_s:
Yeah if it's in good cosmetic shape I'll give it to someone who wants to use or display it before I'll part it out. If it's beat up or damaged then I'm a lot more likely to part it out, especially if some of the parts are useful to restore more desirable gear.
bob91343:
I agree; it would be a crime to part out this splendid instrument.
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