My first machine (CBW) was a gift from my wife, but I don't think that counts.
I pulled a Bally EM body out of a metal recycling dumpster a couple of years ago... title escapes me, but I passed along the body to Otaku for free. I sold the board with all the internals at Allentown for dirt-cheap and wish I hadn't because I now have a Bally EM that I like and would like to have some donor parts around.
I took in a TZ and T2 from a neighbor "as a loan" because they didn't have space for them. TZ was rough, but I got it running nice. They bought a bigger house and asked for the TZ back and offered the T2 for free for my work on the TZ.
-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or for my replacement LED display boards for model H & model S Skee Ball