Where to find surplus components for "Jewelry"???!!!!
Invent-O-Doc
Posts: 768
Ok, so this one is a bit off topic:
My wife makes jewelry at home and has started to make steampunk jewelry as well as stuff made from some of the electronic components in my workshop. Her thinking is to do a sales booth at some of the science fiction conventions. She has been doing things with IC chips and putting jewels on junk circuit boards cut into jewelry bezels I have tried ordering some surplus blank circuit boards from sparkfun, they were cheap but we got a gazillion of the same tiny red board.
Anybody have suggestions on a good place to get surplus blank circuit boards or cool looking components?
My wife makes jewelry at home and has started to make steampunk jewelry as well as stuff made from some of the electronic components in my workshop. Her thinking is to do a sales booth at some of the science fiction conventions. She has been doing things with IC chips and putting jewels on junk circuit boards cut into jewelry bezels I have tried ordering some surplus blank circuit boards from sparkfun, they were cheap but we got a gazillion of the same tiny red board.
Anybody have suggestions on a good place to get surplus blank circuit boards or cool looking components?
Comments
-Surplus stores
-Recycling centers
-Used computer stores
-Dumpsters
-Electronics repair stores
-Phil
Circuit boards may have lead solder on them and parts
may have leads that have lead solder on them.
holly,
I agree. That's why she is looking for bad PCB copies and the like because of all heavy metals and junk left over from a teardown.
OBC
My wife has also decided to re-enter the jewelry biz, but we have some (for a long time unused) lapidary equipment and rough stone. She made about 8 cabochons yesterday that will probably sell for $50+ apiece. We used to do local gem / mineral shows and gave it up when it all got taken over by jewelry, because people actually selling rocks (us) couldn't afford the constantly increasing booth fees. The last show we did in the mid 90's we broke even on profit vs. booth fees, and only came out ahead on trades with other dealers. When we asked them for a break since we were their last dealer selling actual rocks, they removed us from their mailing list.
Jewelry making with uc's for brains, LED's for bling and various colorful
and strange looking parts sounds like so much fun! :-)
I think that attendees at SciFi conventions might also like copies of some
of the famous props from SciFi movies and TV shows. You could easily add sound
and light effects to the props using electronics. You could cast them from
plastic. I have seen some TV props and they actually seemed to be made
of something like plaster of paris.
erco turned up a bargain on ebay recently that might be useful for you.
They are tiny solar rechargeable flashlights. He got some for .77 each
and they have a 3.7v rechargeable button cell and a tiny solar panel plus
3 LEDs. You guys could use the parts from these to make the steampunk
jewelry items solar rechargeable.
WTH is that?
DJ
This kind of stuff.. http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/category-technology/channel-steampunk/
OBC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk
I always think of it as the art direction you see in flicks like the old movies based on Jules Verne. Captain Nemo style.
Here's a steampunk computer workstation, complete with stereo speaker horns:
Some people have a lot of time for their hobbies!
-Phil
@ $1.00 each... you can cut and shape as you desire!
KK
I learned something today. Not sure where this new found knowledge will fit in, but I learned something.
DJ
We like the link to the bad IC die and we do intend to have active uC electronic jewelry next year. Right now, it is not functional, just decorational.
Of interest, we haven't considered custom PCBs but that might have some artistic merit. We have thought about doing some custom cut outs from Ponoko. Inger, my wife, has already made a 'mad scientist' bracelet that includes embedded images like with Tesla and sparks flying everywhere.
Steampunk is a retrofuturism motif that emphasizes Victorian era industrial symbols like welding goggles, gears, valves,etc with other periods such as earlier aviation symbols or zeppelins. It is very eclectic.
I'm working on getting her to do something star trekish.
Thanks for the advice, We'll probably try most of what has been recommended.
BTW, her first electronic themed item is here: http://shinythingsbyinger.com/circuit-envy.html
(sorry, I don't know how to embed hyperlinks)
-- Jess
@erco: WHAT?!?!? I paid $2.50 USD at Radio Shack for one of those, now I discover that they're $15 for $50! One more disappointment from "Ripoff Shack"....
@Jess - my wife, Inger, broke her foot last November and started making this stuff because she couldn't move around. She never considered herself a creative person.
The item shown on the link uses some surplus Sparkfun PCBs, we got hundreds of them, but they are all red which she says isn't the best color for most things.
@Microcontrolled - flexible PCBs? Never heard of it.
Also, thanks for the link to the self blinking RGB LEDs. They look dazzling and we ordered a set.
Eventually, we will do some stuff with active electronics - probably using SX chips.
This is a Flexible PCB. It looks like the ribbon cables you see coming out of LCDs.
Advanced circuits has a service for them(http://www.4pcb.com/index.php?load=content&page_id=133&gclid=CLPd19GM5acCFUvd4AodIww6DQ), and so do other major PCB fab houses. They are more expensive than a rigid PCB, though.
@erco: Well, they look exactly the same, and do the same thing. The price difference doesn't make up for the little bit of control they give you with an extra pin.
Better yet, Spark Fun has 'Dings and dents'
http://www.sparkfun.com/categories/100