Ok. Just trying to keep this site alive.......
I'm what they call in Australia a 'Bower Bird,' meaning that I collect and keep stuff. If I pull something apart that can't be repaired, I will look at the various pieces and pick a few thinking: "Hhhhhmmmm....this might come in handy one day."
I have repurposed many parts/things over the years and have a lot of what people might consider junk in my little shed.
We are staying at our beach house, and I accidently left the ignition on and flattened the battery of our little car. I have a battery charger but it's at the other house. I'm looking at the logistical nightmare of going there by public transport, getting the charger, and returning. Depressing AND time consuming.
When we bought this place the previous owner had a security light installed. It was completely corroded by the salt air and didn't work. I pulled the unit and replaced it with a new one. After testing the security light, I binned it. Didn't work. I tested the transformer and found, to my surprise, that it still worked. "Hmmmmm," I thought, "This might come in handy one day" and kept it.
Remembering that it was a 12V transformer I checked its output. 1000mA - 1 Amp. So I figured that it would work like a trickle charger without the auto cut-out when the battery is fully charged. Car battery is 35AH, which would mean 35 hours charging, but since most cars will start with a charge above 50% - I decided to leave it on for 24 hours.
This morning (after 24 hours) I disconnected the charger, turned on the ignition and it started immediately. I'm keeping that little 'throw away' for the future.