Surplus
Surplus Catalog
Nerdy bargains
Following behind the juggernaut of high-tech industry is a trail of odd bits and stray leftovers. This surplus is a tinkerer’s delight. One legendary source of cheap parts, weird stuff, cheap knockoffs, and plain junk is American Science & Surplus. They sell “closeouts, inventory overruns, mis-manufactures, and items whose time has not come. When a surplus item is gone, it is gone.” It’s the ultimate hacker’s mail-order junk store.
They don’t take themselves too seriously, either, often belittling the scrap they are selling. The items are illustrated with crude sketches on yellow newsprint paper in their crowded 95-page paper catalog. It’s a cornucopia of irresistible bargains. Science fair motors! Chemistry kits! Craft tools. I dare you to open it without finding something you have to have. (AS&S’s rustic tone is part of their “crazy cheap” schtick. On their website, in addition to the doodles you can also click to see a photo of an item as well.) While funny, their descriptions are always honest, and the stuff delivered will be entirely usable. More so than most catalogs, the bulk of the items listed are inspirational: ” Oh, I could do that!” Prices are, as they say, incredible. — KK
Cheap misc. containers
Specialty Bottle (Prices Vary)
This retailer sells all sorts of glass, plastic and tin containers at extremely low prices. I found the store two years ago when I set out to start my own darkroom. I knew I wanted small amber bottles to store batches of chemicals, and I learned that glass was important so I could put them in a water bath to get them to the proper temp for film developing. These bottles are available from various photo suppliers, but usually at *many* times the cost and, sometimes, only in bulk. Specialty Bottle sells thirty-two-ounce, amber, glass Boston rounds for $1.86; you can buy as few as one and, as is often the case, the more you buy, the lower the price. I originally bought a bunch of bottles for my darkroom, but have continued using the site for all my bottle-jar-container needs: tall tin containers for storing tea, and short flat tin containers for storing all my bulk spices. Recently, I bought 20 4-oz. glass jars to keep single servings of a mix of fish food. Each jar cost only $0.66. — Jamie Marshall
Where to get earliest gadgets
Dynamism.com, 800-711-6277, 312-587-0402
The Japanese consumer often gets futuristic gadgets years before the American does. For those who can’t wait, Dynamism.com imports advance Japanese goods. Their prices include appropriate duties, warranties and modifications for the US market; for that service they charge about 30% more than the same device would demand in the Akihabara electronics mall of Tokyo. Dynamism.com specializes in ultra-lightweight laptops (like the coveted Libretto) and ultra-small digital cameras. Tomorrow’s technology today. — KK
Genuine aviation surplus
I weld, build, and purposely tangle myself up in lots of computers/servers. I discovered two surplus stores that not only provide material fuel for all of the aforementioned activities but at a great discount no less. Both stores are open to the public and offer everything from large precision machinery to fiber optic cables to airplane leather by the roll (!). I spotted a Herman Miller Eames molded office chair at the Boeing store (sold tag on it) while I was walking out with my $15 in purchases, an IBM M-series (clickety) keyboard, and a portable DIGITAL anti-static electronics workspace circa 1970. If you are a grade school science teacher with a dwindling budget for demonstration instruments, or an art teacher in need of found objects for your class on sculpture or still life drawing, these places might be useful. Perhaps you’re just in need of milling equipment, pneumatic tools, safes, drafting tables, powered work carts, or raw sheets of aluminum, mild and stainless steel, titanium even. It’s there if you ask. Oscilloscopes are often for sale at less than $50. I recently acquired another Sun Microsystems Ultra-x, which was one too many, and I saw that the laser printers which I ought to have bought instead were on sale for $10 that day.
Too good to be true? Sometimes. While there are online listings, there is no online purchasing so one is bound by geography and you have to go often as the good stuff rapidly departs. Take your time on a nice day to explore both the inside hanger and outside lots for things. Bring a truck and some friends to help you move the stuff. The large equipment goes quickly and the electronic and computers/peripherals are usually untested. Drill bits and calipers are plane- and submarine-building size, though great candidates for creative adaptive reuse reincarnations into your latest robotics project. The best finds are sometimes boxes of widgets that, when asked what they are, the staff smirk, shrug, and tell you they can’t remember. Respect that most of the people there, at P&W certainly, seem to know what everything is to insure that the stuff gets priced accordingly and, more importantly, to make sure nothing whose purpose was previously classified, is marked or misplaced.
The Boeing store is the larger of the two and Pratt & Whitney is only open 3 days a week. I’m sure there are more of these shops around but I’ve only just found these. — Shin Ae