Every part of the Buffalo

It's been said that Native Americans used every part of the buffalo. Nothing went to waste. I'm not carving up a buffalo, but I do carve up pieces of dead technology.

I gave up on trying to fix the old inverter that came with the van. It has too many obsolete parts. Just throwing it away wasn't an option. There are other useful parts to be salvaged first. The heavy duty DC cables and plug will go on whatever inverter I buy to replace the old one. It had a nice medical grade GFI AC power plug with will find a home somewhere. One prize is the cooling fan. Many cooling fans in electronic equipment run off of 12 volts DC. They make nice little fans for bringing a little fresh air into my sailboat's cabin. Then there's a big pile of screws, nuts and bolts.

As you can imagine, I've got a hard time throwing anything away. Sometimes it drives my lovely wife nuts. Over the years, she has learned. Salvaged materials can save a lot of money.

One person's junk is another's treasure. What separates treasure from junk? Knowledge is the big one. There's no use collecting junk if you don't know how to do anything valuable with it. I'm continually amazed at the number of people who have no idea how the technology of our world is put together. We are supposed to be tool using animals with big brains.

It only makes sense to have at least some rudimentary idea how keep things going. I've run into adult males who don't know how to change a light bulb. They deserve to stumble around in the dark.

That's not to say we should know everything about every bit of modern technology. It's too complex. However, with the proper tools and information, a lot can be figured out. Along with tools and information, we need materials. If the materials can be salvaged, that's even better.

-Sixbears