West Coast Event?

[heroic]

Where do you work in Mt VIew?

I could tell you but I'd have to kill you.

[Laser Ben]

Very cool ben! I installed and ran the laser light show at DeAnza Planetarium in Cupertino! We cross paths! Do you ever shop at haltek or halted? I loved those places when I lived in Mt View.

Wow! I love Halted (HSC) They have everything you could ever want. The guys there are great.

Did you ever go to the Swap Meet at Deanza on the second Saturday of the month? For sure my best place to get laser gear! Stuff shows up all the time! How long ago were you here? I live just up the road from De Anza! If you are ever in town let me know and we can meet up somewhere!

[Laserman532]

Wow! I love Halted (HSC) They have everything you could ever want. The guys there are great.

Did you ever go to the Swap Meet at Deanza on the second Saturday of the month? For sure my best place to get laser gear! Stuff shows up all the time! How long ago were you here? I live just up the road from De Anza! If you are ever in town let me know and we can meet up somewhere!

Sure did go to them, all the time. Lasers were rare at swap meets, but there was tons of other stuff. I worked with Uniphase when they sold henes before they ever joined with JDS, so I'm kind of old school. Keep in mind when I was in the silicon valley we kept saying...Who is this "Apple Computers" we keep hearing about... I was in Santa Cruz last Christmas, I may make it down to San Jose for Photonics west...dont know yet.

[Laser Ben]

Things have sure changed at the swap meets! Now lots of the stuff there is laser or optics related. Tons of stuff from Coherent. So you were there Late 70's? Seems to match up with the Apple deal!

If you are down here, let me know!

[Laserman532]

Things have sure changed at the swap meets! Now lots of the stuff there is laser or optics related. Tons of stuff from Coherent. So you were there Late 70's? Seems to match up with the Apple deal!

If you are down here, let me know!

the surplus world in SV is golden. most people knew me by my tennis shoes because that is all they saw of me sticking out of the dumpsters Have a ton of history with Coherent too, the laser community was small in those days, vicious...but in a friendly sort of way.

[Laser Ben]

Nice! There isn't too much dumpster diving going on any more. Most of the companies have realized that they can get something for their rejects. Where do you think sellers like Junktronix and SVC Compucycle get their stuff?

[Laserman532]

Nice! There isn't too much dumpster diving going on any more. Most of the companies have realized that they can get something for their rejects. Where do you think sellers like Junktronix and SVC Compucycle get their stuff?

dumpster divers within the companies...very common. it is easy to toss a hundred diode lasers in your pocket after work, it looks a little obvious if you have an ion laser in your pants.

Most companies policies will not allow rejects in the market place, it makes the companies products look bad. If I ran one of those companies...the last thing I would want is "rejects" in circulation making me look bad. They are taken out before being hammered for scrap or recycled...my guess, no evidence, just a guess..an educated guess

[Laser Ben]

True, I know a lot of people do that. It may be that the companies are selling their stuff to disposal companies who are then reselling it. I know Kevin at Junktronix gets his stuff through a dealer of Coherent surplus and disposals.

[Laserman532]

Rejects that dont make it past quality assurance should be delivered to an internal material review board that is RESPONSIBLE for destruction and recycling within SECURE areas. Any company that dosnt follow these strict guidelines are fools. Surplus is waste, waste is not profitable, not profitable is irresponsibile, irresponsible is foolish, foolish is a pirate walking on thin ice...(sorry i didnt have any other analagies)

[Laser Ben]

Rejects that dont make it past quality assurance should be delivered to an internal material review board that is RESPONSIBLE for destruction and recycling within SECURE areas. Any company that dosnt follow these strict guidelines are fools. Surplus is waste, waste is not profitable, not profitable is irresponsibile, irresponsible is foolish, foolish is a pirate walking on thin ice...(sorry i didnt have any other analagies)

I could not agree more!