Source of 8mm rods

I am printing Mendel parts on my repstrap. While they print I am getting together all the other hardware that I will need. It looks like 5/16 threaded rod will do for 8mm studding. I have a lot (my wife would say a ridiculous number) of old inkjet printers acquired at garage sales. I discovered that many old HP printers have 8mm rods in them to serve as linear bearings. The 6 rods that I have scavenged range from 362 to 438 millimeters in length.

Apart from the length not being exact, this looks like an excellent source for scavenging mendel hardware.

fdavies

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I wanted to say thank you for this information. Would you care to share which HP models had 8mm rods in them, and which lengths?

Here's some more information in case someone found this page by searching about scavenging rods from scanners and printers:

I found a ~9mm rod inside an Epson inket printer (can't remember which model, plastic went to recycling, bur probably a Stylus 660), I say ~9mm because I kept the whole rod+motor+belt+head assembly intact and doing small tests with a BIC ballpoint pen, an ATtiny85 and a L293D.

I also found a 10mm rod (around 425mm long) inside my old Agfa 1212U scanner,

Also FIY:
- the rod inside an old Tandy DMP-105 was NOT a metal rod, it seemed to be a plastic rod with a metal sleeve and brass caps on both ends.
- a recent Canon printer (also can't remember the model, but it had a USB port on the front, no LCD display) only had DC motors with optical encoders.

IMHO there should be a "sticky" thread about scavenging parts like motors, pulleys, belts and rods. Or is there one and I missed it?

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/2012 01:11PM by Yvan256.

Hi..
There is a spreadsheet started by some people from the french user group.
Any additions will be appreciated I'm sure

I found that MicroTek flatbed scanners were my best source for scavenging 8mm precision ground smooth rod. Each one contains a single (approx 400mm) length of 8mm smooth rod, which appears to be stainless steel (non-chromed), ground to better precision than drill rod. You'll also get a small power supply, some fairly useless electronics, an optical endstop, glass and switches. The glass is taped in, and can be painful to remove without breaking it.

You'll want to avoid Epson flatbed scanners - they use 7mm smooth rod.

That said, if your supply of scanners isn't free, you'd do better to buy chromed precision linear rod. You'll find yourself wishing you had eventually anyway.