Perhaps you’ve heard of TGIMBOEJ? The Great Internet Migratory Box of Electronic Junk is a great concept: a few USPS medium sized flat rate boxes floating around amongst the country’s electronics nerds. A sort of cross-pollenation for junk bins.
A box of junk shows up on your door step. Take what you want, add some new gems, and send it back on its way. One of those boxes just arrived here at TE Motorworks.
I’ve heard plenty about TGIMBOEJ. Partly because it is a great idea, and partly because it seems like one of the inevitable secondary effects of a TGIMBOEJ visit is an article about it. Like this one.
In 2008, the “Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories” started this project, which they described as “a progressive lending library of electronic components.” From its inception, the project has grown, apparently largely on its own. The tracking page of the TGIMBOEJ wiki site now lists over 50 boxes in play. The box coded “Grey-E” that arrived here had a few gems, a few bits of junk, and a bunch of stuff that was neither. I added a few things I hope will be useful to someone farther down the line.
What I would really like to see, however, is some documentation of things made with parts harvested from this roving personal flea market. I’d like to suggest a Flickr pool called “Made From TGIMBOEJ”. Right now, it is looking pretty lonely. I’m hoping some of PopSci’s readers will beat me to it and add some pictures before I do, as it’s going to be a while before I find time to do anything with my new junk.
