On Sun, 05 Feb 2006 13:24:07 -0500, John Popelish Gave us:
High quality resistor leads and diode leads, etc. are also good to collect for these purposes.
I keep ALL military resistor leads which I cut off while protoing a new design. They are the absolute best. I keep ALL silver plated diode leads.
I toss ALL ceramic capacitor leads as they all seem to have ferrous content. They are magnetic, and rust as well. I do not understand why the industry has decided to use this lead wire. It would seem that they could attach a standard plated copper wire without issue. Larger ceramic capacitors use good wire. I can't figure out why the industry has decided that this one particular component should have high quality materials used in them.