Laser printer parts - project ideas?

I just finished dismantling four old laser printers for parts. I'm wondering if anyone has ideas for uses of the laser diode and scanning mechanics?

I may take one and replace the laser diode with a visible laser and use the spinning mirror to create a laser line for a 3d scanner. But that still leaves 3 others.

I don't see any use for the mentioned items.

There are always some parts to play around with;
but the scanner mechanics? I don't see what other purpose than optical it would serve.

Same for the laserdiodes, since they are normally pretty weak a scanner or a self made laserpointer is all I could think of

But the heated roller... if it can be modified to heat the printbed of a darwin;
that'd be nice.

Other than that... motors, gears, caps and stuff like that which comes in handy sooner or later.
If you're good at desoldering ICs you might even can salvage those maybe for a cheap stepper controller or something similar.

Well, I'm afraid: no big news on that topic...

Just like Nacy said: keep looking in other forums as well;
with some luck you'll find something you'd like to build and have just the right parts in your printer...

'sid

Ya, I kept everything except the plastic cases. I have had them for quiet some time and my roommate gave me the "strip it down so it will fit in your parts box or it goes" ultimatum. I guess she didn't like a bunch of broken printers taking up room on the porch. Not that I blame her.

If I would have had a little more time I would have traced the connections to the fusers. But as it is, I'll have to reverse engineer the power supplies. I may use one as a laminater to press printed resist screens onto home make pcbs.

Yeah, my 5 cents worth.
I'm building a repstrap using two old flatbed scanners, and custom designing the z axis.
Both driver boards in the scanners were found to be not worth the hassle to write custom code for, and wiring, so i'm just using reprap driver boards instead.
Both scanners have a single opto switch for finding home with.
I've mostly finished the frame which is wood.
I'll be posting something about it when its done.

Z axis nearly ready for laser cutting, and so are the extruder parts.

It will be using the Tamiya extruder that Vik was kind enough to print for me

Edit: Though, I have also taken out linear cameras and mirrors all of which are totally useless to me, I was thinking about using the linear cameras for a robot, but they are just way, way too big.

Which is why I chose to buy scanners as opposed to laser printers, I have more parts to use than any other consumer item to use on a single project like this

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2009 02:13AM by Grogyan.

can any one provide me project ideas related to printer.....kindly help....