My neighbors believe in regifting. Their discarded products end up almost weekly behind their garage, where I stare at it on my way to work. I stare at stuffed animals, old baby seats, portable butane burners, car parts and, occasionally, something I want.
The VCR showed up there the other day. We needed to take it apart.
The boys were in the mood for one of dad’s projects. They fought over the screwdrivers in their eagerness to help strip the VCR chassis. I helped with some of the tighter screws, but they did the work and made some good guesses at how the mechanical parts worked together as I pretended that I knew how a VCR works.
Colin guessed that the magnet assembly above the video drum worked like a landspeeder’s repulsorlifts or a maglev train. There are some good images of a Video Drum disassembly here. Too bad we don’t have a cat.
I’m not (yet) an electronics geek, so I haven’t started desoldering the board to salvage the LCD display or planning on a use for the timing functions. I’ll gladly take your suggestions. Ben did manage to create an ‘electric toothbrush’ from the tape transport motor we scavenged and a 9 volt battery.
They did pretty well with screwdrivers and we gave Mom enough time to get supper ready without Alan tugging on her legs. I wonder what’s in tomorrow’s alley.
