Originally published at: http://blog.tindie.com/2016/01/a-visit-to-an-electronic-surplus-wonderland/
Recently I went to an electronic parts surplus store here in Silicon Valley and wanted to share the trip, especially if you are local. There is something really interesting about seeing thousands of tiny components neatly organized in one space. Surplus stores are usually hit or miss. You can sludge through aisles of obsolete equipment looking for something relevant and useful for your projects. Occasionally these are the only places to find that last little part you need. For me, it’s just fun to look and get ideas for future projects. On one side of the warehouse, they have a long shelf of equipment. At the end of that row is a large table with access to outlets labeled “customer test bench” to test out the pieces. Additionally, at the front counter they have LED testers so you can check those as well. and they have plenty of them to test. In the back of the warehouse there are spools of self-serve wire. I also found shelves stuffed with bulbs, nixie tubes, and LED strips. There was no shortage of fuses, connectors, headers, and screws. And then my personal favorite aisle of switches, buttons, and toggles. Do you have a place like this near you? What’s your favorite source for electronic components? Share this:TwitterFacebookRedditGoogleEmail
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I wish we had a store like this here in SC.
I have found a surplus store online that is pretty nice called Surplus of Nebraska, which has the transformer parts I need.
For prototyping, i also like All Electronics and Jameco.
All our local Radio Shacks closed down.
-Louis
It’s too bad they don’t have anything nearby 
I remember a long time ago when Radio Shack had cabinets of fuses, nuts, bolts, etc and they were neatly sorted by size and such. I don’t know if they still had that towards the end of them being around.
Jameco is also local here, although I think you can only pick up. I don’t think you can shop the warehouse.
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