Dollar Store Iron Man Arc Reactor Contest

I have a dismantled stepper motor from a dot matrix printer sitting in my drawer. I was planning on using it to build a cnc machine, but it looks perfect for this. Would it count, or do I have to stick with the dollar store purchased guidelines?

Can't use it. You can ONLY use what the guidelines state.
 
Seems to me that found items should not be allowed to be used. I'm sure everyone here has all sorts of bits in their parts box that they'd love to use. The challenge here is to source the materials only at the dollar store or equivalent.

I totally AGREE. It's not much of a creative challenge if you can use you're own junk. I built mine with money to spare and I'm proud of it, every part came from a dollar store and I only went to two different stores.

On a second note, all the photos of the non qualifying builds are pretty neat! Hopefully you will all submit an actual one as well.
 
Is that $20 before or after tax? I've been browsing the Dollar Tree near our house since this thread went up, I think I might be in on this one!
 
Is that $20 before or after tax? I've been browsing the Dollar Tree near our house since this thread went up, I think I might be in on this one!

I would assume this works the same as the Pound -> Dollar conversion question. It's not really about the exact amount spent, it's about the number of items used. At least here in the UK, each individual item in a Pound shop costs a Pound (if you start picking up each item and asking the price, the staff get quite annoyed). You can use 20 items. Shylaah summed it up nicely in an earlier post:

We all can get up to 20 (?crappy?) items with which to build 1 really cool thing!
 
I would assume this works the same as the Pound -> Dollar conversion question. It's not really about the exact amount spent, it's about the number of items used. At least here in the UK, each individual item in a Pound shop costs a Pound (if you start picking up each item and asking the price, the staff get quite annoyed). You can use 20 items. Shylaah summed it up nicely in an earlier post:

I sure hope mine ends up 20x cooler than the Hello Kitty light up yo-yo I was looking at today. I struggle to comprehend that there are companies somewhere cranking out these products at an such an alarming rate.

Thanks for the clarification, I'll go into it with those guidelines in mind.
 
Gaaah! I lost my copper wire evidence receipt! Going to the dollar store tomorrow to get supplies and start on this fun project. Paint you own is still outside the $20 right?
 
Count me in!

One question about the rules... does it have to be fully functional?

I can only get about 1000 watts out of these Dollar Store parts and I know the real one puts out quite a bit more than that!
 
How is your father doing Darth?
I hope he is doing well.

He is doing very well! He has made a full recovery and back to normal. I'm sorry I haven't been updating the list. I plan on going through later tonight and updating the list. And just to clarify, being on the list isn't essential. The important thing is that when the due date comes for entries you submit one. I will write up the rules for how to submit entries when the time comes. I am sure there will be a lot of people signed up who drop out and people who didn't get a chance to sign up that want to enter. As long as your entry complies with the rules listed in this thread, your name being on the list is optional. The list is more or less just a way to gauge how many entries to expect.
 
Okay, we're one day under 4 weeks!! Crunch time!!
Okay, maybe not exactly crunch time, but, will be soon!

Dollar store junk! Yeah, right. You don't know how good
some of this "junk" is until you go trying to dismantle it
and salvage the pieces!!

Shylaah
 
I'm sad to say that after an extensive search of the 3 dollar stores from PSL to Stewart, I can't find anything that is even close to what I am looking for and would like my name removed from the list of entries.
 
Still no entries huh? I was considering building one myself, but the local dollar store didn't really have squat for making a decent arc reactor when last I checked. (I didn't really feel like spending hours unspooling copper scrub sponges to get some wire!)
 
Is this going to be anonymous? sorry for all the questions but I am not 100% use to these forum contests yet.
 
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