Wrecking Photocopies for Goodies

I picked up an old photocopier for nicks last week and spent several hours ripping it to pieces. It was a Canon with document feeder and a stacker. This is the third one I've wrecked over the last few years and they are a great source for good quality steel rod (4mm, 6mm, 10mm, 12mm and 14mm) that machines beautifully, steppers, motors, solenoids, micro and other switches, transformers, power supplies, gears, belts, bearings, sheet metal, plastic, wheels, struts, wire, rollers etc and heaps of 3mm, 4mm and 6mm screws.

Sounds very familiar.

I dismantled one a few years back and got 4 really good rollers out of it that I made in/out feed rollers for my bandsaw. It had a beaut set of large rubber wheels which I put on a planer at the mens shed. I still have a few bits and pieces from it. It reminds me it's about time to pick up another one.

Ive got one at school that is awaiting demolition. Thats quite a haul you can fetch out of them, I was only looking for the steppers!

I reckon I've broken down a dozen or more printers now for the shafts. As you say, it machines beautifully and I've made a bunch of stuff with them.

Any idea what the alloy is? I've heard it might be a leaded steel or some free machining stuff but whatever it is, I'll keep grabbing printers when the come available. Hard rubbish days are very productive. I'd like to get one of the big copy centres from work places to see if they have bigger shafts.

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Originally Posted by Hornetb

Any idea what the alloy is? I'd like to get one of the big copy centres from work places to see if they have bigger shafts.

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Not sure what the alloy is, maybe lead?

The larger machines have several of the larger shafts that have rubber and plastic rollers attached but they drift off pretty easily.

I've done the same, mainly for the cogs and shafts. If anyone wants some steppers I've some they can have for gratis + postage.
Kryn

old sewing machines are good too

This sounds like a great idea. I've just got to think of a way to jam the door to the photocopier room first, or someone's bound to complain.

Oooo Can I add a "Me Too" for this one.
There are some really nice bits of salvageable goodies in those machines. One of the problems here in the UK is that virtually all of the larger photocopiers and printers are rented or leased by the manufactures or their agents. As a result it can be quite difficult to get you hands on them. I've had the odd one.

One of the most unusual and useful bit of gear I managed to get some buts of was bits from an old X-ray machine. They are perfectly safe to work on (although really old ones might use PCB filled transformers) and because they are high current/voltage devices the quality of components is usually military grade. The metal panels are typically 2 mm powder coated and there are often some seriously chunky bits of metal such as stainless inside them. I must have pulled more than a dozen 15A microswitches out of one. I used one on my bandsaw brake. I also made my lathe coolant tank from a coolant tank.

Yeah used to work at Ricoh in Melb. All sorts of goodies in the graveyard.:)

Sales guys used to try and resell/lease copiers that done too much work, or hadnt hard too hard a life. Dusty joints like quarries, building sites dont do much for em.

There were old machines that had been traded in that were scrapped for parts. A guy used to come in and buy up the crappy units.

if you can get past all of the BS these places are gold for the aquirers of bits.

The prized goodies were the network interface cards and any associated items. Got to the point where I would take these items out upon arrival, so the sales guys and field techs couldnt pilfer em without coming and seeing me first.

The value of a unit was greatly reduced if they couldnt be connected up to a network. Once you take out the laser (scan) unit, fuser and drum unit, then theres not much thats considered of value left.

I'll join in many an old printer started this about 15 years ago now with the likes of scanner printers there is more to be had.

I am pressing some of these plastic gears into service. In this case literally.
Some will remember the photo of the gear box. Well one of the long gears has been cut down and bored out with a 30 degree taper and it is now firmly fixed to the output shaft of this motor gearbox.

But more about what I am up to in another thread. I've a lot of design work to do yet.:U:U:U

The pictures show the original gearbox,
The gear used,
The motor,
The gear on the motor shaft.

The last photograph shows the motor on the mill table being machined. There is a brass collar to be pressed onto the machined surface. The only reason that I decided to machine it was because of the taper. It wouldn't have been wise to try to force a collar onto a tapered form. Plus the shaft wasn't truly concentric with the casting.