# Types of printers and scanners (what's in them)



## Grelko (Apr 8, 2018)

Add to the list if you want to. Printers, scanners, all in one.

Pictures of item name, model number, front and back of any (refining) material, and weight of (scrapyard) material.

Edit - Add the weight of plastic if you want.

*Also, please let everyone know if there's any batteries, LCD screens, etc.*

Mods, feel free to move this thread if you feel that it would be better in the Gallery section.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edit - I will be editing this periodically to add to the list.


*This list is in the same order as they are posted.*

Lexmark Z23
Compaq S200
HP Photosmart Plus B210
HP Laserjet 1200 series C7044A
Epson WP-4020 B491B
HP Deskjet 6540 - C9052A
HP Lazer Jet 4200 (4200/4300 Series)


----------



## Grelko (Apr 8, 2018)

Lexmark Z23

(Scrapyard)

1.3 lbs steel shred 

0.36 lb motor

0.03 lb wire/ribbon

(Refining)

0.14 lb material


----------



## Grelko (Apr 8, 2018)

Compaq S200

*Contains flourescent tube*

(Scrapyard)

0.53 lb steel shred

0.12 lb motor

0.04 lb wire/ribbon

(Refining)

0.21 lb material


----------



## Grelko (Apr 8, 2018)

HP Photosmart Plus B210

*Contains LCD screen*
*Contains battery*

(Scrapyard)

2.56 lb steel shred

0.65lb motor

0.10 lb wire/ribbon

(Refining)

0.36 lb material


----------



## niks neims (Apr 8, 2018)

Cool idea, I like any kinds of threads with information where to find PMs, but unless you are breaking down these printers for trash management reasons I highly doubt that this is cost effective way of getting gold  



Grelko said:


> Lexmark




Yeah, well there is a tiny little bit of refining material - 3 ICs... It is hard to make out in your picture, is there any ENIG on the smaller board and ribbon cable?

And you should definately take those ICs off the boards since they are most likely brownboard grade anyways, but I have a feeling not to be too excited about ICs from lower grade source - bonding wires could be aluminium..

Also, little information on topic - there are sometimes smaller RAM sticks in printers.


-Artūrs


----------



## Grelko (Apr 8, 2018)

niks neims said:


> Cool idea, I like any kinds of threads with information where to find PMs, but unless you are breaking down these printers for trash management reasons I highly doubt that this is cost effective way of getting gold
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I get a lot of scrap metal and electronics (free, except for the cost of gas)", but I refine PMs as a hobby. I was adding the information, so that people know what's in certain items. (If it's worth their time to take apart) I'm just making an index or catalog of parts.

If any of the ribbon cable has gold plated ends, I would cut them off and add them in with the pictures of "refining material"

Edit again - The Lexmark boards don't have any gold plating. Each dot on the ribbon is gold plated, plus on the sides and middle that are a solid color. 

If any of the circuit boards have gold plating or traces under the green solder mask, I would either have a section scratched off or a closer view on that particular piece. 

For example, the Compaq scanner had a button pad with gold plating, so I put that board at the bottom of the picture for a "closer view". I was taking the pictures from an angle.

Edit - The HP photosmart, has a long thin board with some gold plating and bonding wires. It's a bit hard to see the plating on it from the picture.

Edit - added


----------



## niks neims (Apr 8, 2018)

Well I am curious about one item :
What is that thing on the middle board of the last image of your 'compaq' post? I've come accross them before but I have no idea what is it.... Looks quite rich, tho, with those gold colored legs...

-Artūrs


----------



## Grelko (Apr 8, 2018)

niks neims said:


> Well I am curious about one item :
> What is that thing on the middle board of the last image of your 'compaq' post? I've come accross them before but I have no idea what is it.... Looks quite rich, tho, with those gold colored legs...
> 
> -Artūrs



I'm not exactly sure what those are called, but I think it's some type of Eprom? Others would have more information and I've seen different threads about them. There is gold on the inside also.

Edit - Those are CCD's or Charge Coupled Devices, used for scanning optical images. http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=22187&p=231431&hilit=scanners#p231431 Search for CCD, there's lots of info about them.

Here's more information about the thin boards with bonding wires, from the HP Photosmart http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=26684&p=283214&hilit=scanner+board#p283214


----------



## Claudie (Apr 9, 2018)

I like the idea. Lets people know what they are getting with different types of equipment.


----------



## rickbb (Apr 9, 2018)

I scrap a lot of HP deskjet printers in my day job, the only PM's are the gold plated contacts where the ink cartridge and/or print head sits. They can be scraped off without taking the time to dismantle the whole thing. The rest goes to the e-recycler as there is nothing left but a small PCB and plastic.


----------



## silversaddle1 (Apr 9, 2018)

We just throw the whole damn thing in the steel trailer. We used to have a guy who would tear them apart, he would pay steel price for them and pull eyerything out of them. He no longer does that. We have 3 recycling drives coming up in the next three weeks, I'd be willing to bet over 3000 pounds of printers alone.

Kinda of a shame to do that, but I can't save it all.


----------



## Grelko (Apr 9, 2018)

Claudie said:


> I like the idea. Lets people know what they are getting with different types of equipment.



That's why I was making this thread.  If we had enough information about things on here, someone could alphabetize it by brand. Make sections for different items and you could go to the type you have. Then decide if it's worth the time to fix, take apart, or sell.



rickbb said:


> I scrap a lot of HP deskjet printers in my day job, the only PM's are the gold plated contacts where the ink cartridge and/or print head sits. They can be scraped off without taking the time to dismantle the whole thing. The rest goes to the e-recycler as there is nothing left but a small PCB and plastic.



I'm not sure which brand it was, but I've seen printer/scanners that have boards with gold plating and traces.



silversaddle1 said:


> We just throw the whole damn thing in the steel trailer. We used to have a guy who would tear them apart, he would pay steel price for them and pull eyerything out of them. He no longer does that. We have 3 recycling drives coming up in the next three weeks, I'd be willing to bet over 3000 pounds of printers alone.
> 
> Kinda of a shame to do that, but I can't save it all.



I'd have fun tearing those apart, except for getting ink all over my hands :lol: I completely strip everything down for the steel, wire, motors, etc. There's a couple places that buy the plastic, but they want 5 - 10+ tons minimum.

Shouldn't take too long, but if you pull the ink cartridges/toner out, there's a lot of websites that pay for them. The prices are somewhere between $0.25 - $25.00+ (up to $300 for toner) depending on what type it is.



silversaddle1 said:


> We used to have a guy who would tear them apart, he would pay steel price for them and pull eyerything out of them. He no longer does that.



Edit - I know why he probably stopped.

3000 lb 

Just for example, If they were all the Compaq scanners.

If it was today's prices, he paid the price of steel $8.50/100 lb = $255

approximately 5lb/scanner = 600 scanners

1200 lbs glass "2 lb each, 600 sheets"
1260 lbs plastic

0.53 lb steel/scanner = 318 lb let's say "320" x $8.50/100 = $27.2

0.12 lb motor/scanner = 72 lb x $0.10 lb = $7.2

0.04 lb wire/scanner = 24 lb x 0.10 = $2.40

0.21 boards/scanner = 126 lb x "midgrade green" $0.20/lb = $25.2

27.2
7.2
2.4
25.2
-------
$62 Unless he was selling the glass and plastic somewhere, he's losing a lot of money.

Now, if he was selling the glass sheets at $1 each, to make a "green house" etc. add another $600, which would be nice.


----------



## silversaddle1 (Apr 9, 2018)

Grelko said:


> Claudie said:
> 
> 
> > I like the idea. Lets people know what they are getting with different types of equipment.
> ...



Well not quite. First off, the reason he quit doing it was because his building burned down killing his nightwatchman and his crackhead girlfriend. So he no longer recycles the printers. 

So we can move past that and when I say printers, I mean printers and nothing else. Every thing from little desktop inkjets to the huge laser printers. Some will come in that came out of office's and there will most likely be some big photocopiers as well. He alway had a nice pile of stainless rods and stuff he was getting out of the high end units. If you were closer I'd let you pull printers out for your post.


----------



## Grelko (Apr 9, 2018)

silversaddle1 said:


> Well not quite. First off, the reason he quit doing it was because his building burned down killing his nightwatchman and his crackhead girlfriend. So he no longer recycles the printers.
> 
> So we can move past that and when I say printers, I mean printers and nothing else. Every thing from little desktop inkjets to the huge laser printers. Some will come in that came out of office's and there will most likely be some big photocopiers as well. He alway had a nice pile of stainless rods and stuff he was getting out of the high end units. If you were closer I'd let you pull printers out for your post.




Well, that's a good reason and horrible to hear.

Those high end units out of office buildings would definately be worth taking apart.

Edit - I swear, no one from this forum lives near me... The closest I've found was about 2 hours away. So, most of the electronics I get are from driving around town on trash night "picking".


----------



## silversaddle1 (Apr 10, 2018)

HAve a city close by? Get the phone book or Google and find a printer repair business close by. I'm sure they'd give you some crappers.


----------



## Grelko (Apr 10, 2018)

silversaddle1 said:


> HAve a city close by? Get the phone book or Google and find a printer repair business close by. I'm sure they'd give you some crappers.




I'll have to check around, I'm sure there's a few nearby. There "was" 1 downtown, but a couple years back it turned into yet another vape shop.

If I had storage room and money to rent a big dumpster or 2, I'd do a community cleanup, but I think you need a buisness license for that, to prove you're going to dispose of the material properly. Maybe someday.

Then again if I had storage room, I'd have things on E-bay, since a lot of the stuff I get still works, or is easy to fix.


----------



## Grelko (Apr 12, 2018)

HP Laserjet 1200 series C7044A

(Scrapyard)

5.73 lb steel shred

0.65lb motor

0.11 lb wire/ribbon

(Refining)

1.27 lb material

Remove side panel to expose green board. Small amount of gold fingers, connector pins and a possible Ram card.
*Green board shown in Picture 5 *


----------



## Grelko (Apr 13, 2018)

Epson WP-4020 B491B

*Contains battery*

(Scrapyard)

6.52 lbs steel shred

0.80 lb motor

0.23 lb wire/ribbon

0.23 lb Aluminum sheet

(Refining)

1.16lb material

In pictures 5 and 6, there is a small board that looks like it has gold fingers. It was attached to the black plastic. There are a few pieces of steel inside the plastic, which have ribbon type material that may contain gold bonding wires. 
*Upon closer inspection, the ribbon material looks like copper*

The black plastic piece and board are located "in" with all of the ink. If you feel like being messy, the small board seems to have a lot of tiny gold colored circles.

Also, the tiny square board approximately 0.5 inch was located on the side of a light grey box on the back ""ink overflow".

Edit - spelling


----------



## Grelko (Apr 13, 2018)




----------



## nickton (Apr 15, 2018)

I'm not a fan of taking apart printers anymore. Too much plastic and ink. Too many screws too. Not really worth the effort, but I would like to know which ones are best. :G


----------



## Grelko (Apr 15, 2018)

nickton said:


> I'm not a fan of taking apart printers anymore. Too much plastic and ink. Too many screws too. Not really worth the effort, but I would like to know which ones are best. :G



Some of them can get quite messy, but you could always put down a plastic sheet and wear gloves. 

If you get a bunch of them "literally tons", there's different places that will buy the plastic. There's also a lot of websites that will buy the old ink cartridges/toner.


----------



## ION 47 (Apr 21, 2018)

Dear friends! I have a lot of garbage printers and scanners. I have to make a decision: to throw on the landfill of waste production (I have to pay $ 4 per cubic meter), or to disassemble the recovery of precious metals. Printed circuit Board can pass to the factory for $ 2 per kilogram. ABS plastic will not buy anyone, iron scrap buy 0,16 dollars per kilogram. A worker must receive 300-500 dollars for 24 working days (8 hours per day). Asking the advice of professionals, what should I do? Thank you for your answers! Eugene.


----------



## Grelko (May 1, 2018)

ION 47 said:


> Dear friends! I have a lot of garbage printers and scanners. I have to make a decision: to throw on the landfill of waste production (I have to pay $ 4 per cubic meter), or to disassemble the recovery of precious metals. Printed circuit Board can pass to the factory for $ 2 per kilogram. ABS plastic will not buy anyone, iron scrap buy 0,16 dollars per kilogram. A worker must receive 300-500 dollars for 24 working days (8 hours per day). Asking the advice of professionals, what should I do? Thank you for your answers! Eugene.



I am not a professional, but I will try to help.

I do not know what to say about the ABS plastic, except to send to the landfill. (if there is no one that will buy it and you are unable to recycle it.)
I do not know what to say about the ink cartridges. You can try to find a person that will buy them.

Along with Iron and circuit boards, many printers also contain small motors, Aluminum, Brass, Stainless steel and wire. (The wire is normally copper). You should be able to sell this also.

24 days (8 hours each day), to pay 1 worker, you must have a total between...

150.72 Kg - 207.36 Kg of circuit boards ($300 - $500)

1885.44 Kg - 2,592 Kg of iron scrap ($300 - $500)

The smallest printer I have seen, has around 0.24 Kg of scrap Iron. Larger printers can easily be 5-6 Kg+ of scrap Iron. This can add up quickly. Very large printers from office buildings can have 50 Kg+
The smallest printer I have seen, has around 0.06 Kg of circuit boards. The very large printers from office buildings, can possibly have 1-1.5 Kg of circuit boards.

Afterwards, you will need to pay the landfill for the plastic.

If you have more after this has been completed, it will be your profit.

Looking at the pictures, if you can take apart everything you have in 24 days, you should have more than is needed.

If you are able to sell the iron scrap with small pieces of plastic still attached, break the printers with a big hammer. Then make a separate pile for Iron, circuit boards and plastic. This will not take much time. 

If you must sell the iron scrap "completely clean", or if the circuit boards can not be broken, it will take a lot more time. You might not make a profit from this.


I personally think that this looks like a lot of fun. If I had this much material, I would try to make money from it. By the off chance, if you did not make a profit, you would have a large empty space that can be used for something else. Also, by paying a worker for 24 days, you would be helping them and their family.

Edit - added

Edit - I took a closer look at the pictures. It is hard to tell exactly how many printers you have. There is a lot of paper and the bottom pieces of computer chairs on the bottom left of the screen. There is a large pile of CRT TVs (Box TVs) in the back right. I am not sure what is in the 2 large containers on the back left.

The "scanners" have glass squares on them. You may be able to sell them at a market. They can be used for many things, picture frames, small windows.

* I do not condone this in any way, but if you break the CRT TVs, they have a heavy piece of iron around the glass, and also a piece of iron screen inside.*


----------



## Grelko (May 1, 2018)

HP Deskjet 6540 - C9052A

(Scrapyard)

7.83 lb steel shred

0.62 lb motor

0.09 lb ribbon/wire

0.46 lbs Aluminum sheet

(Refining)

0.24 lbs material


----------



## ION 47 (May 2, 2018)

Grelko said:


> ION 47 said:
> 
> 
> > Dear friends! I have a lot of garbage printers and scanners. I have to make a decision: to throw on the landfill of waste production (I have to pay $ 4 per cubic meter), or to disassemble the recovery of precious metals. Printed circuit Board can pass to the factory for $ 2 per kilogram. ABS plastic will not buy anyone, iron scrap buy 0,16 dollars per kilogram. A worker must receive 300-500 dollars for 24 working days (8 hours per day). Asking the advice of professionals, what should I do? Thank you for your answers! Eugene.
> ...


Grelkо, I am very grateful for Your advice! I'll follow your advice. This heap of wealth, I inherited a legacy from the former head of the firm (he left the earthly world). He was engaged in utilization of office equipment, but did not want to pay for burial of waste, and put everything that was unprofitable to sort (so he thought) , in the yard. He many printers and scanners crushed (press 20 tons), to reduce the size of the. Now I have to work hard hammer to extract a little money from this heap. Once again, thank you very much!


----------



## Grelko (May 2, 2018)

ION 47 said:


> Now I have to work hard hammer to extract a little money from this heap. Once again, thank you very much!



Best of luck to you, and I hope you make a good profit.  

If you get a chance, post a picture when you are finished.


----------



## Grelko (May 2, 2018)

HP Lazer Jet 4200 (4200/4300 Series)

*Heavy, weighs almost 50 lbs*

* Contains LCD screen*

(Scrapyard)

23.39 lb steel shred

0.59 lb motors

0.53 lb ribbon/wire

0.06 lb non-magnetic stainless

0.04 lb Red brass

0.03 lb Yellow brass

0.75 lb Aluminum bar (covered in rubber)

(Refining)

4.00 lb material

Up to 4 Ram cards, gold fingers (if Ram is included), and some gold pins.


----------



## Grelko (May 2, 2018)




----------



## TrinityTrip (Jul 8, 2020)

Hi y'all.
First time poster, long time butcher..of all things EEE. 

I'm more interested in this forum from an 'broadening my knowledge and curiosity' point of view.
I have a keen interest in tech and love to pull it apart to find useful parts for other projects. 
Lately I'm fascinated by the actual guts of IC's and am actively pursuing decapping and photographing of dies. And of course recovering gold where possible. 
But that's beside the point...

I've pulled apart many printers and found that there is a goldmine of useful parts that can be repurposed and/or recycled. Besides some PM, for which I have this forum to thank for enlightening me. 

To assist the gentleman in deciding what to do with his mountain of printers, I can suggest the following (although maybe too late for him, but applicable to all in this forum): 
1. DC motors, gears, and belts - Very useful for making other machines or selling to hobbyists or other manufacturers.
2. Stepper motors - Good for precision movement of mechanisms. Hobbyists love these. Think-3d printers.
3. Sensors galore - All manner of applications requiring opto-couplers and position wheels, thermisors, temp sensors, humidity sensors, hall effect sensors, etc. If you get a pile of good condition ones, definitely of interest to online sales. 
4. Steel carriage rods - Many applications besides scrap value. If they are not corroded these are good for 3d printers, laser marking machines, mini-cnc's, frame material for mini fume cabinet. 
5. Ribbon cable - Primarily for gold on the edges, sometimes. Remaining copper wire/traces is pure. Although the plastics are either PVC or Polyimide which are difficult and hazardous to recycle. 
6. Switches and buttons - Replacement value for other appliances. 
7. Plastic - Mostly the difficult part to recycle. Some of these plastics are of a material that cannot be recycled. Usually characterized by breaking cleanly and having a rough edge. Generally black in color but not always. If there is indeed ABS this is a great opportunity to sell as feedstock to 3d printer filament makers. Or, making your own filament extruder. Best way to test is to rub acetone on the plastic and if it melts, to smell the fumes after the acetone is evaporated. If its a sweetish polystyrene smell it may be ABS. You will learn how to identify it.
8. Metal base plates and frames - These are good for making frames for other machines, such as 3d printers, extruders, or any other device you would want to build. And in the end, scrap value, or smelting for other objects if you are so inclined or capable. 
9. Scanners are a special source of useful parts as above plus the glass beds. Good for a myriad of uses. It's usually not paper thin and quite tough. The scanner itself has a light source. I have found these very useful for making torches and lamps using old laptop batteries. Either fluorescent tubes or LEDs. And usually the ribbon cable can have gold fingers and the sensor IC is typically gold plated pins and sometimes the gold bonding wires exposed for easy dissolution into AR.
10. Power supplies - Good source for other appliances or projects, or a supply for your homemade lamp or torch as described above. 

You can likely see a trend here towards up-cycling, and a predilection towards 3d printers. I'm a fan of re-purposing instead of discarding as this usually ends up in landfill and creates toxic waste.
There are, of course, PM in most of these EEE parts, but these days gold is at a minimum due to cost and planned obsolescence. 

For the die-hard refiner, piles of PCB's offer many types of elements, but I would think the effort and toxic waste produced offsets any gains. Unless there are obvious sources of gold, I would personally not waste too much time recovering elements. Rather send these to dedicated recyclers for proper disposal.

Anyway, that's my take on printers/scanners.
Hope it helps someone. 
Thanks for the great forum!

T

p.s. If anyone has piles of ceramic IC's that do not contain valuable metals, I am interested, in the dies. I am interested to create 'electronic art' or jewelry. Even if you have smashed the ceramic and have relatively intact dies, I am interested. In volume, of course. I cringe when I see refiners smashing the chips and the lovely die flying off. Each to their own treasure I guess...


----------



## butcher (Jul 8, 2020)

TrinityTrip,
Thanks for the printer recycling Ideas tips welcome to the forum.
I have an old printer that I thought of trying to use the wifi circuit to use in a remote control project...


----------



## AndrewSuperD (Sunday at 2:54 AM)

Grelko said:


> HP Lazer Jet 4200 (4200/4300 Series)
> 
> *Heavy, weighs almost 50 lbs
> 
> ...


Pic 5 is a money shot for me. I had a chance to recycle five HP 4200 printers and those two chips in pic 5 gave me .15g gold from each card. I incinerated and hand pulled the bond wires under a microscope from the first set. Made my very first bead that way.


----------

