Finding stuff

[dosxuk]

Have you ever been wandering around your own building to suddenly come across a stash of useful gear?

 

Reason I ask is that last night, we got access to one of the plant rooms in our building, and discovered the electritians store from when the building was refitted. Amongst the stuff we found was rolls of cable (from 3 phase down to single core mains, audio, cat5 and more), some of which were unopened; Over 100 15A Duraplug plugs; lightbulbs and spare fittings for the entire building; and what seems to be the entire MK grid switch range.

 

We know that it was all left by the leccy's when they finished, and no-one else in our building would be interested in it (apart from the lightbulbs, but we generally end up replacing them anyway), so we've been told to have a dig around and see what we need...

 

James

[Modge]

In student venue's this happens rather a lot as people who put stuff places leave with out telling people whats where. Under any stage in our venue is a vertitable treasure trove. A lot of rubish of course but some good stuff now and then. A lot of funny stuff when as well.

[Stutwo]

Started work at the Arts college I'm at now, was poking around and found an old staff loo near the media studies dept that hadn't been used in years. Got the key from some dusty cupboard somewhere, and found that the old media studies teacher had used it as a store.

 

There were 4 fully cased SVHS cameras, a MX50 vision mixer, a mountain of BNC and other AV leads, 5" monitors and power leads!

 

The other staff vaguely remembered having the gear, but when the Media studies teacher had moved on, he didn't bother telling anyone it was all there!

[Renal]

I've just been shown a huge great load of assorted sound kit; speakers, some form of desk and some stuff I can only guess at, which has been stored in someones store room for the last five years with nobody actually noticing it.

 

Just have absolutely no idea what to do with it.

[paulears]

I got an email from the college I used to work at saying they had found huge Strand SP60 on the roof of the Green Room. I had forgotten when it was first built I stuck it there for 'safety'. since then, other bits have been added, and they can't get it out! They wanted to break it up and scrap it - which, I think they did.

[Solstace]

On my wonderings around my venue today, I came across 3 hifi-separates amps, 2 pairs of hifi speakers (that actually sound half-decent), a dual-channel compressor, 2 Sony MD decks and 2 Aiwa tape decks, and 2 Sony tape duplicators. Also found a 4-channel Revox reel-to-reel unit!

 

All tested and working - methinks a session with Ebay could be on the cards...

[willystyle]

Last week one of my casual technicians came across two 12 channel A&H sound desks with built in amps, and a few fairly substantial Martin speakers whilst clearing out the linen store!?. My manager (Who has been with the company for three years) had no idea where they came from or who may have put them there in the first place. I was chuffed to bits, I now have enough equipment to put a simple PA in both of our small studios. :)

[James]

Nothing quite as spectacular as some of the finds here but at my old venue we found a 1K Sil 15 outside the back door of the projection room sitting on the roof.

 

Elsewhere at university we found a spare store room that had many 12' flats and a number of lanterns for a stage that had been removed many years previously. The flats now couldn't physicaly come out of the building in one piece.

 

James