Question:

Does anyone know of a place either in the Rockville/Gaithersburg/Kensington neck of Maryland or the Arlington/Alexandria/Fairfax neck of Virginia (DC would work, but I would rather avoid going there if possible) where it would be possible to get odd little mechanical doodads and parts either free or very VERY cheap? I'm thinking like something on the level of a junkyard almost. I'm already watching Craigslist, and I keep my eye out for things left on the curb even though technically dumpster-diving is illegal in arlington, but so far it's real hit-and-miss. I can't even really say what I'm looking for, because I'm not looking for specific parts so much as parts that could be used to join other parts in certain ways. The closest analogy I have is to "junk art". The right part could be damn near anything, and I won't know till I see them in most cases. I know I can probably find stuff in home depot that would work, but that's kind of expensive and I'm leaning away from that for the moment but will revisit it if necessary.