Many useful things come through our doors and among the variety are items that could come in handy for many reasons. Of note, we have  ton (pretty accurate actually) of steel drill rod of various diameters, good for making structures or frames, and even a DIY linear slide. Our Thomas vacuum pumps have come under much speculation for their possible use in such applications as brake pumps or small garden pumps, we are objectively awaiting news of the results.  Our selection of lab ovens, kilns and drying cases is also quickly reaching a gifted clientele of crafters and builders who are using them for many purposes. Please don’t hesitate to come down and see what we’ve got, you will find that our reputation of having cool stuff is all too true.

18" length drill rod, .25" to 1.25" diameter

Thomas vacuum pump, rated 20" Hg

Cole-Parmer Lab Oven

"3 Dimension Scope" Holy Nerd Relic! $19.99

700W ATX Power Supply. $44.99

Some reserve their awe and inspiration for only the most rare or eccentric items we have in the store. Their disappointment that we just have the same ol’ cool stuff all the time is barely concealed. Every day we strive to squeeze even the slightest, “Oh that’s cool” from their mouths often to no avail.  This week is however very different from any of our past shortages of awesome stuff in the eyes of the avant geek.  Rage instead will have to be concealed as they see that, yes, in the early nineties someone DID invent a 3D oscilloscope display. “My provisional patent is ruined!” they will scream in their minds, with only the slightest beads of sweat betraying their true feelings.  Oh and yes, that 700W power supply they always brag to their friends about needing for their custom Minecraft server farm will be just beyond their fingertips as someone removes it from the shelves, showing only casual interest at something so worthy of being highly prized.

Oooh yes, geeks. We know you, and though you may sometimes underestimate us, we know what you want…

UPDATE:  Many thanks to Akiba of Freaklabs and Tokyo Hackerspace for helping us bring the cost of the workshop down by providing his FredBoards, they are perfect for tinkering and bear the quality of a gifted engineer.

Lots of people have an idea of something awesome that they would want to build, with the caveat “If I only knew how…”  and that one statement seems to be the only obstacle in their way.  For some the supposed complexity of programming or electronics is daunting and remains an obscure idea to very creative people.  Even just finding a topic to get your feet wet can sometimes be challenging. Learning to program and make cool automated stuff should be fun, and frankly, totally is once you can harness the initial fundamentals of it all.

Open-source Hardware projects like Arduino make the introduction to all of the coding and electronics components orders of magnitude easier to handle. With many exciting examples and learning tools, making ideas work in the Arduino environment stays fun and fulfilling. Participants in the Beginning Microcontrollers workshop will receive their own take home kits including an Arduino microcontroller, breadboard, components for experimentation, and any necessary stickers and fun swag needed for a geek to survive in the 21st Century.

Featured in the workshop is our Arduino Survival Kit

Topics covered will range from downloading and installing the software to be able to program an Arduino, covering the reference and learning resources available online, looking up examples, and programming an Arduino to use sensors and control components such as servo motors or LED lights.  We’ll also be expanding the usefulness of the Arduino IDE to allow programming with the Ardublock environment, which makes the learning curve of programming a lot easier to conquer in many ways.

We would like to encourage everyone to come along and participate, so if you already have an Arduino, or would like to team up with someone to share a kit, or even just would like to watch and take notes, you are more than welcome.

If you would like to sign up and reserve your kit or spot, please sign up on our store page!

The Workshop is being held on Saturday, May 19th, 2012  12pm-3pm

Cost for the workshop with a kit is $54.99+tax

Includes:

-FredBoard Arduino Compatible prototyping platform

-Breadboard

-Components pack (LED’s, transistors, servos, etc.)

-Sensors:  IR Sensors, Ultrasonic, variable resistors, etc.

-Industrial Sticker Pack

-Mystery relics fit for use in your next inventions.

This workshop is produced by David Gapen for Reuseum Educational, Inc.

Breadboarded and ready to go!

Have you ever wondered how to make a robot is made? Or how to make an LED light blink?  How does an engineer design a circuit? We are very excited to bring back one of our favorite workshops of all time to answer those questions the Circuit Basics Workshop!  The truth is, once you get your feet wet, you’ll see that many electronic circuits are not only pretty easy to decipher, but can be used with many different purposes in mind.

Anyone looking to get their hands dirty, artists and crafters who would like to add interesting features to their creative designs, or even someone interested in DIY electronics for their tinkering hobby can gain that mastery and empowerment to build their own circuits.  Please come down on Saturday the 14th of April and introduce yourself to something new!

The Circuit Basics Workshop is great for people as young as 7 years old with a chaperone, and there is no soldering required! The workshop will start at 12pm, Saturday April 7th. You can reserve your spot now by purchasing a ticket in advance via Eventbrite. Limited spots are available!

This workshop is brought to you by: Reuseum Educational, Inc.  We’re a 501 (c) (3) not‐for‐profit organization that provides materials & expertise in the support of scientific & technology education.

Here in our tiny shop of wonders, we believe that we are doing good things to help our community make new things, restore the importance and value of their not so new things, and learn from all of it. Of the greatest importance is the ability to share and collaborate on our ideas.  Globally the idea of sharing your notes and the same ethic of collaboration are widely understood by the open hardware movement, and Arduino is one of the most prolific examples of open source hardware, and we are proud to put Arduino next to our usual stock of scientific and industrial relics. They marry quite well in many projects you might see or hear our clientele and community of tinkers, builders,  crafters, and artists discussing in the aisles. We have also brought in some nice goods for your experimentation and prototyping needs, including sensors, servos and barebones microcontroller ICs.

Arduino Uno $28.99

ATmega 328 IC $5.75

9G micro servo, starts at $4.99

Ultrasonic Rangefinder $12.99

X/Y Axis

Power Supply and Drivers

Touchscreen Interface

Complete Parker precision motion system. The item was an unused spare from a fab and is in functional and extremely good, like new condition. It features a touchscreen interface and Renishaw postioning encoders. The unit has approximately 6″ of travel for both X and Y.

Price is newly marked down to $1599!

The Obtainium is basically a  gold mine for engineers in the Treasure Valley, and since its  birth, they have been a stalwart supporter of the Reuseum, providing literally tons of cool stuff for our populace.  Their inventory of over 1,300 items spans horizons that can provide a tremendous resource for people and businesses who are looking for quality and respect of the product.

To illuminate the partnership between our two businesses, Obtainium is offering the residents of the area the opportunity to pick up purchases from their online auctions here at the Reuseum, meaning that if you see something that you or your business find useful, you won’t have to pay the freight cost for it, and will be able to pick it up within 24 hours.  We hope that both the Obtainium and Reuseum can continue to earn your support, and we constantly work for this goal by seeking ways to provide better service to our community.

You can visit the Obtainium’s Ebay store, or visit www.obtainium.biz for more information about them, and what they already do for the community.