Next time you are working on a laser project that needs a small DC motor or a robot arm that is in need of a few gears make sure you have a copy of Unscrewed by Ed Sobey handy. Most of us makers and hackers have a large pile of used parts (some call them junk boxes), they come in all shapes and forms, old VCRs that got retired, the paper shredder that stopped working properly, your old inkjet printer that has a bunch of clogged nozzles. Lots of people see this stuff as garbage and toss it in the trash, we see it as gold waiting to come alive in a future project. Unscrewed lets us have a look inside these everyday items before we even get out a screwdriver, there is a list of typical items that will be found and how it was taken apart. Now this isn’t a service manual so it won’t help you repair anything, and keep in mind that the bit you might want might be the reason the unit was retired but even with one blown part there will still be a hundred other functional parts ready for the taking! Watch the video below for a look inside the book.

Get the book here.