# office printers/ copiers



## maltfoudy (Jan 21, 2011)

i just got a semi trailer and a warehouse full of this stuff,some help on where to look for the hidden pm's would be a great help.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Jan 21, 2011)

Without knowing what you have there is no way for you to be guided. Some pictures would help.


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## adam_mizer (Jan 21, 2011)

maltfoudy said:


> i just got a semi trailer and a warehouse full of this stuff,some help on where to look for the hidden pm's would be a great help.



Looks at the ends of most cable connectors.
Pull the circuit boards.
Toner cartridges may be refillable/recyclable.
Check laser assembly.
Maybe several other pieces to check.
On demo stuff, just dig in to it. Its plastic garbage unless you reuse it.
Be creative!


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## rbramsey (Jan 21, 2011)

adam_mizer said:


> maltfoudy said:
> 
> 
> > Toner cartridges may be refillable/recyclable.



If you don't mind me asking, who are you selling toner cartridges to? I have been taking them OfficeMax and getting $3.00 each on account.

Richard


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## glondor (Jan 21, 2011)

If it is a dot matrix tractor printer, some have gold on the fingers on the hammerhead. Laser printers have gold pins where the toner tank connects into its slot. Most have some under the controller key pads. There are also various micro switches and contacts. You have to look with care at the various types and repeat your tear down process on each type. Large tractor printers and laser printers have lots of motors and steel as well. Home printers have very little except keypads and contacts for printer head contacts. Their is rumored to be rhodium in the heater lamps inside the heater roller on laser printers. Look with care and decide if it is worth the effort. We usually break them down only when we have nothing else in the shop, or if we have a lot of printers, just to keep them manageable we do one printer for every 2 or 3 towers we do. Larger printers can take quite a while to figure out and render.


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## adam_mizer (Jan 21, 2011)

rbramsey said:


> adam_mizer said:
> 
> 
> > maltfoudy said:
> ...



Hi Richard,
I'm not doing much at all of teardown anymore.
At one time I did. Can't remember who but some laser cartriges were $10 and more at one time at small outlet suppliers.
Some of these suppliers have to build up stock so it might be a good thing to get the yellow pages and make some calls for pricing here and there.
Also depends what city your in,I used to live in Orange County next to LA County and we had tons of toner suppliers.
I have no other leads to toss your way.


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## AuMINIMayhem (Jan 26, 2011)

Lots of Inkjet cratridges (HP in particular) have gold circuitry in their printheads... been looking into getting my hands on old cartridges for that very reason. 8) 

This is a good read..

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag//artjan99/inkjet.html


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## maltfoudy (Jan 28, 2011)

this is all commercial stuff. some very large forklift needed to lift out of his pick up type stuff.


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## DarkspARCS (Mar 13, 2011)

I discovered the oddest thing in a xerox ink cartridge yesterday that I thought I'd share...

Outside of the beautiful gold circuitboard I found on it, I unscrewed one side of the cartridge to investigate the rollers, one of which is a hollow green aluminum tube roller (which you can see) that, once I'd extracted it from the cartridge and popped off the black plastic guide tracks on both sides of it found this little curiousity inside of it:




Now riddle me this: why would the main roller in an ink cartridge need a highly conductive gold plated part like this INSIDE of it??

Odd... yes, very odd indeed! :twisted:


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## rasanders22 (Mar 15, 2011)

DarkspARCS said:


> I discovered the oddest thing in a xerox ink cartridge yesterday that I thought I'd share...
> 
> Outside of the beautiful gold circuitboard I found on it, I unscrewed one side of the cartridge to investigate the rollers, one of which is a hollow green aluminum tube roller (which you can see) that, once I'd extracted it from the cartridge and popped off the black plastic guide tracks on both sides of it found this little curiousity inside of it:
> 
> ...




Could it just be brass? Have you tested it?


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## aurifero (Apr 14, 2011)

AuMINIMayhem said:


> Lots of Inkjet cratridges (HP in particular) have gold circuitry in their printheads... been looking into getting my hands on old cartridges for that very reason. 8)
> 
> This is a good read..
> 
> http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag//artjan99/inkjet.html



Hello, other parts of the printers may have gold?

thanks

EE


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