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Tales from the Surplus Store #1

Bob E.

Bob E.

Well-Known Member
I have worked in (and am now part-owner of) an electronics surplus store in Silicon Valley since 1978. We deal primarily in electronic components, test & manufacturing equipment, computers & parts, along with the occasional strange oddity...not so much in the audio realm. But it does happen once in a while!

We have a system for getting rid of stuff that isn't selling, we load up several wire-shelf carts with stuff, hang "Half-off" signs on them, and even have a couple carts of "your choice, $1.00" stuff. These get rolled outside the front door in the morning, and they get a lot of attention as guys (face it, our clientele is mostly guys) stop and give the lot the once-over for bargains. If they find something they like, they bring it inside to pay for it (honor system works pretty good here, thankfully).

The unintended side-effect of this merchandising system is that sometimes stuff will "magically" appear on these carts as folks surreptitiously drop off things they can't bear to throw in the garbage (and putting electronics in the garbage is getting more and more problematical in California anyway).

This morning, I was looking out the window at the looky-lou's perusing our bargain carts, when I saw one fellow carrying something that made my eyes lock onto it. He carried it over to a flat-topped trash receptical by our front door for a better look. The front-panel was turned away from me, but something said "that's a Scott amplifier!", and I watched the guy carefully...I could see it had a bunch of empty tube sockets and some multi-section caps, and a pair of beefy output transformers, and a hole where the power tranny would go. He decided against it, and put it back on the cart, and I was out the door like a shot.

Yes, I'm proud to say I recognized a Scott amplifier from the back, without ever having seen one "in the flesh" before. To be precise, it's a Scottkit Stereomaster integrated, with push-pull 7591's (no tubes of course), and missing one multi-cap and the power transformer (as well as the cut-off power cord). It did however, have all its knobs (one damaged) and switches, and the face plate looks like it should clean up pretty good. Needless to say, it is here on the floor in my office right now, while I ponder the likelihood of finding a power transformer...

It's funny things like this that I love about my job!

--Bob

P.S. I numbered this tale #1, I have a few other stories like this that could be amusing, I can post more in a similar vein (audio-related, of course) from time to time if anyone is interested.
 
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Bob E. said:
I have worked in (and am now part-owner of) an electronics surplus store in Silicon Valley since 1978. We deal primarily in electronic components, test & manufacturing equipment, computers & parts, along with the occasional strange oddity...not so much in the audio realm. But it does happen once in a while!

We have a system for getting rid of stuff that isn't selling, we load up several wire-shelf carts with stuff, hang "Half-off" signs on them, and even have a couple carts of "your choice, $1.00" stuff. These get rolled outside the front door in the morning, and they get a lot of attention as guys (face it, our clientele is mostly guys) stop and give the lot the once-over for bargains. If they find something they like, they bring it inside to pay for it (honor system works pretty good here, thankfully).

The unintended side-effect of this merchandising system is that sometimes stuff will "magically" appear on these carts as folks surreptitiously drop off things they can't bear to throw in the garbage (and putting electronics in the garbage is getting more and more problematical in California anyway).

This morning, I was looking out the window at the looky-lou's perusing our bargain carts, when I saw one fellow carrying something that made my eyes lock onto it. He carried it over to a flat-topped trash receptical by our front door for a better look. The front-panel was turned away from me, but something said "that's a Scott amplifier!", and I watched the guy carefully...I could see it had a bunch of empty tube sockets and some multi-section caps, and a pair of beefy output transformers, and a hole where the power tranny would go. He decided against it, and put it back on the cart, and I was out the door like a shot.

Yes, I'm proud to say I recognized a Scott amplifier from the back, without ever having seen one "in the flesh" before. To be precise, it's a Scottkit Stereomaster integrated, with push-pull 7591's (no tubes of course), and missing one multi-cap and the power transformer (as well as the cut-off power cord). It did however, have all its knobs (one damaged) and switches, and the face plate looks like it should clean up pretty good. Needless to say, it is here on the floor in my office right now, while I ponder the likelihood of finding a power transformer...

It's funny things like this that I love about my job!

--Bob

P.S. I numbered this tale #1, I have a few other stories like this that could be amusing, I can post more in a similar vein (audio-related, of course) from time to time if anyone is interested.
Click to expand...

Name our your store? sounds like a HCS type place as I've been to the one in Rohnert Park many times and heard they have one in your area.

Lefty
 
Ever get in any communications receivers? Frequency-selective voltmeters? Any of your stuff work ? Sounds like just the place for aspiring Mad Scientists....Like any number of us here, myself leading the pack, of course....<grin>
 
Hey-Hey!!!,
Audio is in the eye of the beholder! I scored a big piece of UTC power Iron from an RF power supply. I found its mate, and it had the same colour wires still hanging from it.

Regulated PS is a *BRILLIANT* supply of iron. You should be on the lookout for anything Iron. It does well on ebay( with me for a customer ). I wish you were in my neighborhood, that's for sure. Hell, I'd more to New Mexico/Arizona for the salvage opportunity!
cheers,
Douglas
 
You don't work at Weird Stuff do you? That used to be my favorite place in the Bay area...
 
"Weird Stuff Warehouse"... I remeber that place from our brief sojurn in the Silicon Valley. I worked in Sunnyvale for two years, and we lived in lovely :-P Milpitas.
 
No, not Weird Stuff...they're the newcomers. My company has been here since the mid 60's.

I didn't mention the name since I didn't want to give the appearance of self-promotion and possibly get the thread yanked. Promotion was not my intent in telling the tale...I just love a good story! I'm still learning my way around the protocols and conventions of AK.

--Bob
 
Sandy G said:
Ever get in any communications receivers?
Click to expand...

I have about a dozen Hallicrafters on shelves in my office, but I don't have time to recap and tune them up...so they're just for looks. I like the looks, though!

--Bob
 
Hi all,

Reminds me of a couple (actually 3) different episodes while I was living near and going to UC Berkeley from 1978-1980. Of course, at the time, we were just starting the computer age, companies like HP, IMSAI, Osborne computer, and some obscure outfit called Apple were at the forefront of Silicon Valley, and there was lots of military surplus outlets in the Bay Area to visit and peruse. And there were all us closet nerd/science/engineering types reading and DIY'ing - I remember fondly the Lampton-Zakaucus (sp?) 5532 IC-based preamp in Audio Amateur and got to meet Mr. Lampton while he worked at the Lawrence Livermore Lab.

Anyway, 1st recollection was a great surplus shop that was a single person's name Quinn's (or more properly, Mike Quinn's) near the Oakland airport. It was filled with all sorts of stuff and was the best for discrete components like resistors and capacitors. They had a ton of IC's that were cast from military and I even stumbled upon some secret Dolby IC decoders that weren't supposed to be for sale. Very unorganized but always interesting to look around, made it a habit to go 2x/month. Never got to check their tube stuff though. More here:

http://www.bluefeathertech.com/technoid/surplusmemorial.html

Second place was in Berkeley call Electronics Etc. a small basic warehouse which was very organized and specialized in metals, hardware and lots and lots of mil-spec parts and heatsinks. I still have a Leach Amp parts stash composed all of parts from EE including mil-spec Corning Metal film resistors and caps. All the semiconductors up to the outputs were sourced from there too. The Motorola MJ15003/004 outputs were from the Local SF Bay Motorola distributor. Was a great place, I don't believe they exist today though.

Last was a small shop that was on the south side of Oakland IIRC, Don't recall the name, just that it was a very plain white storefront and had a reasonably well organized shelf/stack system of parts inventory. I only remember 1 specific fellow who was there whenever I dropped by. On one of my forays, I stopped at the transformer table and was looking over the power tranny's when I spotted something that looked familiar. It was a power tranny but had no upright mounts, wires exited from two holes in the endbell that was meant to be horizontally mounted. Also, the wires were cloth covered and there was the number PA060 and a stock number. There were 3 of them right there, pretty much new, no boxes. I enquired if there were any more, I think he brought out 5 more and said they were all Navy surplus from the nearby Alameda Naval Yard. I bought them all for $60 total.

Those tranny's were Dynaco Stereo 70 power transformers and I sold them off one by one over the intervening 7 years. I do wish I still had them. So yes, audio stuff happens every so often even in the surplus stores.

One other, a surplus store near San Diego had a Tek tube curve tracer for $75 but I didn't have anything to haul it in at the time. However later I had them ship me two Apt 1 Power amps for $250 that came from a local radio station remodel. That was a good deal.

Regards,

Bart

2nd
 
You can get a brand new replacement transformer from Heyboer Transformers- www.heyboertransformers.com.

The cost is $90.00 plus shipping and the part number is HTS-4831-2- It will apparently fit the LK-72, 299-C (with 7591's) LK-72-B and 299-D. I just received one for a Scott LK-72 that I am repairing.

The transformer is a drop in, and is very well made and you cannot beat the price!!!
 
I remember a place in Sacramento that carried all kinds of stuff like that, I'll never forget it because outside they had a radar antenna spinning around. You couldn't miss it.
 
el-37 said:
You can get a brand new replacement transformer from Heyboer Transformers- www.heyboertransformers.com.

The cost is $90.00 plus shipping and the part number is HTS-4831-2- It will apparently fit the LK-72, 299-C (with 7591's) LK-72-B and 299-D. I just received one for a Scott LK-72 that I am repairing.

The transformer is a drop in, and is very well made and you cannot beat the price!!!
Click to expand...

Excellent! Thank you so much! I had a stack of transformers I was holding up to the chassis to compare size, but I noticed when I was studying the schematic that they used the bias-voltage source to power the heaters (in series) for the 12AX7's. I had not seen that practice before, and it sure looked like the transformer would have to have a little extra oomph to the bias winding. Not your run-of-the-mill transformer, especially with the low profile of the case...

--Bob
 
CarlV said:
Yep. :sigh:

Carl
Click to expand...

Yes, we bought a bunch of the older components that still sell well (power resistors, rheostats, etc.), but we couldn't take it all. They had about a 50-year collection of stuff!

By the way, Carl, I like your Avatar...John Cipollina sitting in front of his crazy speaker stack with those Wurlitzer horns...I never saw him live, but I was nearly able to convince school staff to book Quicksilver for a show at our high-school in 1969...their appearance fee was $1,200! Duller heads prevailed, though...
 
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Bob,

I've got your hook-up!

I've got a good power transformer from a Scott 299C. Heck, I've got an entire unit minus the outputs-they were pulled for a project a while back, but put aside when I found the old dry leads were cracked right at the core.

They were repairable-but I have an major dislike of anything "cobbled" together, so on the shelf they sit.

It won't win any beauty contests, but it's no dog either. Power transformer is good as are the multi-section JJ filter caps and "Orange Drop" coupling caps. It was my first go at restoration a few years ago-kind of a "learner" amp...so keep that in mind when checking out the solder work! :thmbsp:

PM me if you're interested. I bet we could work something out that would be impossible to refuse! :D

Nice to help a member out, nice to know the chassis will find new life again with someone who appreciates it... :banana:

Sounds like yours is an maybe an LK-72? Don't know if the 233 was offered in kit form. Either way, a great amp and well worth the effort to bring up to snuff!

Take care,
mojo
 
Forgot to add: I had the folks at Heyboer wind my power and output transformers for my DIY 7591 amp as well as the iron for my current project.

Not only do they wind a great transformer, they are truly first-rate folks to deal with in every way.

Can't go wrong, no way, no how if you decide on Heyboer!

Best,
mojo
 
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