Office Printers

[faulguy]

I got a lead on some printers. Quick transcript of the conversation was:
"I work for a computer repair store. We're going through our printers and getting rid of some. Will you take them?"
"Yeah"
"Ok, we'll give you a call when they're ready"

Now I'm thinking 'crap - hope they're not throw-away inkjet printers'. Those would be a waste of my time. So I googled his name and it points to an office supply/repair store. Now I think "Phew - laser printers with lots of steel, hard drives, circuit boards, etc...". Then I notice that printers are exempt from Washington's Ecycle program, which means I won't be able to just drop them off if something goes wrong. There's a place close that charges $50 per large format printer to drop off.

So, if it is the larger laser printers, here's my plan. If it works, stick it aside to resell/part out. If it doesn't work, quick tests on components such as trays to part out. Tear out hard drive, circuit boards and wiring. Sell the rest as scrap steel. Recycler here will take the rest for free, or I can take off most of the plastic and get $.10/lb steel rate. I can also take out the toner cartridges and recycle those. Am I missing anything?

If it's small desktop inkjets, I can sell the cartridges, but is there anything worth scrapping on those? Would it even cover the cost of having to dispose of the plastic?

Which reminds me - anybody know of an ABS plastic recycler in SW Washington?

[faulguy]

If I pick these up, I'll do some pictures and a "how-to" for tearing these down.

[submarinepainter]

cool because I have had the chance but passed it up . partly because of vechicle size and places to store them til I get to them.

[PartTimeScrapper]

I rip the boards out. Ink carts out and take to staples 10 a month for 2 bucks each in store credit. Then I pull the couple small motors out then throw the whole carcas in the shred pile.

[faulguy]

Do you get paid for the steel + plastic? If so, I'll have to call around and see if i can find one that does. Otherwise, it might be worth taking a sledge to and busting off the plastic. At $.10/lb for steel here, 100lb printers can add up.

From what I found, Staples and office Depot both pay $2/cartridge with max of 20/month and Office max pays $3 for each HP, Dell or Lexmark. All pay out in "rewards". Or there's other places where I can tell them what I have, print out a label, box them up and send them in and they'll cut me a check.

On a side note, if anybody needs to get rid of monitors, Best Buy charges $10 but gives you back a $10 gift card - effectively making it free if you need anything from them...

[rca987]

On a side note, if anybody needs to get rid of monitors, Best Buy charges $10 but gives you back a $10 gift card - effectively making it free if you need anything from them...

Non-gutted monitors, and also ONLY Dell monitors. I have a friend who works at Best Buy.

[ixcelr84scraps]

Staples is now only giving $2/max 10 per month.

Anyone every tried TonerBuyer.com? I have never, but looks pretty easy.

[Mechanic688]

If it's small desktop inkjets, I can sell the cartridges, but is there anything worth scrapping on those?

If the smaller printers have small memory card slots, then there is a small hi grade board with some memory in there.