# copier/fax worth the trouble?



## dherik (May 11, 2011)

Anyone ever processed or scrapped an office sized copier/printer? I might have my hands on a questionably still working copier, just don't know if I want to deal with it if there isn't much inside to scrap.


----------



## chefjosh77 (May 11, 2011)

generally No.

There is tons of plastic to deal with and very little PM.


----------



## stihl88 (May 11, 2011)

I'll say no also.

If you had a regular buyer of the plastic and metals and a regular supply of them then you may make some money on these parts of the copier and the wiring but as far as PM's go Ive not seen much in the way of PM's inside copiers apart from the optical receiver module (Thingy).


----------



## glorycloud (May 11, 2011)

2 cents a pound for printers and copiers is what is paid in my area.
If they are free and you are able to haul them off, the weights seem
to add up pretty quickly and your "customers" will appreciate that you
will take everything for recycling and not just the good stuff.

Doing that has earned me many repeat customers. It can be worth
the hassle if you deal in volumes of gear.


----------



## dtectr (May 11, 2011)

I'll second glorycloud. 
If you recycle everything, namely the other metals in quantity, then when you do tear down, as space sometimes demands, separate the electric motors, as they fetch a little more money, cables/cords, then steel. The toner/ink cartridges, if namebrands, can recycled for credit at Office Max, if you are a business. I think $3/ea., max of 20 per month.


----------



## dherik (May 11, 2011)

I think I'll pass on that one thanks for the advice. I don't have the space to tear it down, store all the stuff to make it worth driving down to the yard.


----------



## element47 (May 11, 2011)

The CASTERS (if they are nice chunky industrial ones) are probably worth more than the copier!


----------



## resabed01 (Nov 12, 2011)

Yes they are worth the trouble. Older the better. My favorite for hunting for PMs is in old fax machines. Early models had a scan head that looks to be loaded with gold. When I find one it makes me smile.
This one in particular had a gold plated PCB with 40 scan chips silver soldered to it. 8.5" long so it can scan a standard page. Each scan chip has 80 gold bond wires. I'll be setting these aside to process separately and I'm accumulating a nice pile.
Some have ceramic substrates which I suspect would have PGMs etched as the traces.

Newer fax machines and computer scanners used optics and a small scan chip which of course has less PMs but there are there non the less.

Don't forget to look at the thermal print head of the fax machine as well, lots to recover there too.


----------



## solar_plasma (Dec 10, 2013)

I just stumbled upon such a scan device and a print head's metallic foil with goldplated conductors. My question is, what may be the yield of those,so I know, how many I have to accumulate, before it makes sense to process them?


----------

