Laser printer breakdown

**tackleberry** · 10-10-2011, 08:46 PM

Circuit boards....

40ish lbs of steel

Copper (not sure what the part is called that this came from) tennis ball size

Motors

Laser cartridge (any value?)

There was also a small amount of brass among the screws holding the thing together and a handful of other insulated wires.

**easyrecycle** · 10-11-2011, 09:57 AM

the two boards are high grade the others are low grade..for anyone who is looking at the photos.

**faulguy** · 10-11-2011, 11:12 AM

Don't forget the toner cartridges can be recycled at a local office supply store such as staples, office depot or office max. From their website, it looks like they'll give you $2-3 each for store credit. Or you can save them up and mail them to an online recycler and get (from what I found) up to $7 each depending on the model.

**Dumpster-Dee** · 10-11-2011, 12:06 PM

thanks for taking the time to do this tberry......I've seen several comments lately from folks who recommend tossing them in whole with shred....each to her own, but sure seems wasteful to me....maybe some just have to see pictures !!

**tackleberry** · 10-11-2011, 04:49 PM

Originally Posted by Dumpster Dee

thanks for taking the time to do this tberry......I've seen several comments lately from folks who recommend tossing them in whole with shred....each to her own, but sure seems wasteful to me....maybe some just have to see pictures !!

No problem Dee. The breakdown was a little more fruitfull than I expected, if you can do it quickly enough I think it's worth the time.

**faulguy** · 10-17-2011, 02:11 PM

Tackleberrry, do you remember what the pre-breakdown weight was?

**tackleberry** · 10-19-2011, 09:25 PM

Originally Posted by faulguy

Tackleberrry, do you remember what the pre-breakdown weight was?

roughly 48lbs

**mardigras** · 10-19-2011, 11:00 PM

Hey was that 48 approx pounds for the one printer?
Thx, for sharing the pictures they are very helpful.

**tackleberry** · 10-20-2011, 05:04 AM

Yes, 1 printer

**faulguy** · 10-20-2011, 11:01 AM

This thread has been very helpful. I'm waiting for a local company to go through and sort out some old office printers and this gives me a good idea of what to expect when I break them down. Roughly 80% of the weight was in steel.

**junkelly** · 10-29-2011, 02:58 PM

That looks like 1980s era apple laserwriter I scrapped. There were different kinds, with different circuit boards. The most desirable were still workable a few years ago, and the circuit boards were selling for ~$50-70 each on eBay.

**Mechanic688** · 10-29-2011, 03:51 PM

There was also a small amount of brass among the screws holding the thing together

Also watch the stand-off's that the circuit board screws into, some of those little hex rascals are brass, especially on older units and computers.

**tackleberry** · 10-29-2011, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by junkelly

That looks like 1980s era apple laserwriter I scrapped. There were different kinds, with different circuit boards. The most desirable were still workable a few years ago, and the circuit boards were selling for ~$50-70 each on eBay.

Yup it's an apple. I still have the circuit boards..... how do I go about checking the value on them?

**Copper Head** · 10-30-2011, 08:53 AM

I once had 2 printers that weighed in at 620 LBs I received $68 for the bulk weight of it . one of the monsters was 5 feet tall 4 X 2 It was heavy .The smaller one was 5 tall 3 X 2 . I did not have the room or time to dismantle but now i see what a gold mine i really had . Still i did get paid for a certain amount of glass & plastic so i figured that helped to even things out.

**junkelly** · 10-30-2011, 07:26 PM

As for value, check eBay. If you don't know if the printer even worked, don't bother. I had a laser writer and spent some time trying to figure out if I could get it working again. The end result was that some models could still work and some couldn't. If you took a logic board from a good printer and put it in the not-so-good kind, you could continue using it as a printer. Those were the ones that sold.

**harrisvh** · 11-01-2011, 04:06 PM

Ok this is my first go at uploading pictures so I'm going to hope it works.

I broke down a laser printer yesterday and got different values to the OP. Did the weigh ins and thought i'd post for another POV
Printer broken down -OKI 3200 weight 20kg (not including consumables)
Copper from motors 500g (I have left most of the copper on the motors as I intend to sell these as arts and crafts wire but I did a breakdown of one you can see and multiplied this value.)
Aluminium 300g

What I assume to be high grade boards 450g, -the readers in the middle I have not across a pricing grade for these yet, anyone know?

12kg steel.

10kg plastic and rubber -some of this was non recyclable thermosetting plastic about 1.5kg

a small amount of thin wires and a couple of low grade boards.
gives a total value for the metals and boards of $8.85 Not including the lowgrade boards or wires

I spent some time breaking this down to almost clean metals and plastics which i'm sure you could have just left on and thrown in with the steel. Btw it was a very messy job, powder everywhere. broke the cartridge holders down in the bath but when I tried to rinse it down with the shower I find it repels water and instead just goes up in a huge dust cloud. Took me ages to clean the mess up and off the walls.

**tackleberry** · 11-01-2011, 06:59 PM

Originally Posted by harrisvh

Btw it was a very messy job, powder everywhere. broke the cartridge holders down in the bath but when I tried to rinse it down with the shower I find it repels water and instead just goes up in a huge dust cloud. Took me ages to clean the mess up and off the walls.

Yikes, very glad I didn't encounter the same problem. As you might be able to tell from the pictures I did the breakdown in my living room lol.

**harrisvh** · 11-01-2011, 08:01 PM

Originally Posted by tackleberry

Yikes, very glad I didn't encounter the same problem. As you might be able to tell from the pictures I did the breakdown in my living room lol.

Yes so did I to start with

for some reason all the powder had emptied from all the 4 cartridges into printer, it all emptied on my carpet. It is not like Ink however and seems not to stick to carpets and such. What it does stick to however is any organic substance, so any drink spills (no matter how old), oil and grease marks no matter how light. Finger prints come up especially well....
Luckily I vacuumed it up easy enough in the living room but the bathroom when I switched on the shower to try to wash all the power down. It shot up and EVERY finger print in my bathroom showed up. I should be thankful i'm fully tiled or it would need repainting. I've no idea how some of prints got to some spots. It was like spiderman had been in there.

**redcrossnj** · 01-17-2012, 06:42 PM

break those motors down there worth it ive done it

**EcoSafe** · 01-17-2012, 06:56 PM

thanks , Im looking at my huge pile of ,pain in the a** printers under a whole new light

Laser printer breakdown

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