About NixieQuest

NixieQuest is a set of webpages covering nixie tubes, and other odd and old
display technology. It also supports a few things for all the folks on the Yahoo
group "NEONIXIE-L". If you are into this stuff, you REALLY should check it out.

Major cudos to Owner/Moderator: Raymond Weisling, and Co-Moderator: Alan
"A.J." Franzman, for keeping it all going!



Click to join NEONIXIE-L



About HackersBench.com

HackersBench.com is my website, where I want to share designs, information, resources,
funny stories, whatever catches my whim at the moment. I love to build things. I love to
build thing out of other things. This site is where I share my discoveries.

But, of course, everything costs money. I will be selling things on this site. Parts, plans,
and maybe even some Floobydust! (Yea, I still have a copy of that National data book) 8-)

But for the most part, this site is about fun, exploration, innovation, fun, growth, creativity,
fun, and well, did I mention fun? Read the next section. You might get a better idea.


About Hardware Hackers

If any of these describe things you have, or might have said, then you are
a hardware hacker. If they don't, you'll get a pretty good sense of what one is.
  • "Throw it away??? But it's got a good switch, a decent line cord, and I'm sure
    I could use that motor for SOMETHING!"

  • "Yea, it's broken, but I could turn it into a pretty cool robot base."

  • "Damn, they want 8 bucks??? I could BUILD it for 6! AND WILL!"

  • "Well, I only needed two, but the price on the lot of 300 was just too good to
    pass up."

  • "We COULD sent it to the Salvation Army, but you know, I might just need a part
    from it some day."

  • "What do you mean 'clean it out'??? I'm going to build a SECOND storage shed!

  • "Yes, I fixed the hot tub. I used a relay from an old Cannon copier and a bridge
    rectifier from a dead postage meter". (I actually got to say that 8-)
BELIEVE me, I'm not teasing the hardware hackers out there. I am most certainly one
myself, much to the chagrin of my Mom years ago, my fionce these days, and a number
of past landlords. My Mom will still tell you about her fear of vacuuming my bedroom
when I was in my teens. The sound of all sorts of screws, nuts, resistors, and what
have you pinging their way up the nozzle scared her to death. And my Fionce', well,
though I love her to pieces there are just some things she'll never understand. Like
why we can't put the ice coolers in the attic because that spot is now occupied by a
WWII Radar Panadapter. And landlords, well, let's just say I gave up and bought a house.

We're the guys (and more and more gals these days) who are thrilled by the little things
in life, like buying a filthy old control panel for a few bucks, and rending it down to
a transformer, several terminal strips, a few switches, and a really really cool LCD
module. Not that we have any use for the parts right now, but someday ..... *grin*.

This website is dedicated to us. The kids who knew how a 3-way light switch worked before
we knew what an electric bill was. Who knew how to wire an 8-track, a CB, and a scanner
into a car LONG before we were old enough to drive it. We, the ultimate recyclers.

Ultimate Recyclers? You bet. Follow along. Stuff is built, eventually tossed, then melted
down or ground up to make something else, or just burried in a landfill. We step in and take
the tossed stuff and turn it directly into something that has function. No additional
fossil fuels required. (Okay, okay, that's my justification and I'm sticking to it!)

We like to build things. We really like to build things out of other things. We REALLY REALLY
like to build things out of other FREE things! Yea, you could go buy what we build. And yea,
you could go buy the parts we scrounge. You could also wait for the Monday N.Y. Times to read
the answers to the Sunday Crossword instead of sitting down and solving it yourself. It's about
creation, and creativity, and problem solving. It's about puzzles. It's just that our puzzles
have switches and cool little blinky lights.

That's enough for now. There is a lot of old Weston panel meters coming up on eBay ........

John


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