I personally don't use salvaged parts, not even for a trivial hobby type circuit at home. Most of the ICs that are able to be removed are either so inexpensive that it isn't worth the time or they are obsolete. Not to mention the waste of time debugging an otherwise perfectly operational circuit because a recycled IC isn't functioning properly. EE is complicated enough without introducing this uncertainty.

My philosophy: If it has been scrapped, most likely it is scrap.

I can't even fathom selling a product with a recycled IC. One's reputation is far more valuable than than "saving" a few bucks. Jay has a strong point about the cost of reusing ICs.

This conversation reminds me of the UK's Scrapheap Challenge(Junkyard Wars here in the US). Perhaps we should assemble teams in an electronics scrapheap, then be issued a challenge, and in 10 hours build a recycled IC device for a subsequent competition. In that context only do I think this practice would be appropriate.

Cory Spackman