I've recently aquired one laser printer and one ink-jet printer/scanner that I decided to chop up for parts. Disassembling the printers was quite easy and so far I've collected:
1 DC motor
3 different stepper motors
An assortment of springs, screws, cogs and belts.
A couple IR-sensors (i think)
1 scanner head
1 laser + mirror
1 electro magnet
6 tactile pushbuttons
Theres also a couple of circuit boards with a alot of capacitors, resistors, USB-ports, relays and whatnot.
I've already tried to desolder some of the parts (the pushbuttons) but I quickly realized that it was quite hard to desolder. I know I wont be desoldering any resistors since they're to cheap to bother.
But are there any parts in particular that I should bothter trying to desolder? I'm new to electronics and well don't really know whats best for me
If it has a nice beefy AC transformer you might scalp that out as making DC power supplies is pretty easy and something you might want to tackle as a learning project. I suspect the newer printers mostly use switching power supplies so there might not be a useful transformer to salvage.
I have no idea as to what an switching power supply is (probably something I will read up on in the future though). But the Canon Laser printer did have a 220V mains directly connected to the printer. And a part of the circuit board is labeled transformer (secondary and primary).
