Salvaging Useful Parts from Copy Machines: Stepper Motors, BLDCs, SMPS, Laser Diodes etc
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 มิ.ย. 2024
- In this episode I discuss which parts can be salvaged from copy machines.
Correction: I said something wrong in the video. What I called a "Flyback Converter" is actually the circuit that powers the tube. The high voltage generator is for the drum. Sorry I didn't have time to take a closer look before making the video.
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One day, while driving, I saw a quite big copy machine on the road side. I stopped the car and loaded the machine in the trunk, with some effort but I managed to do it. Then came the time to unload the copier... and I found it was impossible for me to lift it out of the trunk ! XD I had to take it apart in the confined space on the trunk, it was a real pain. I guess a peak of adrenaline at the time of the discovery did help me to load the heavy copier in the trunk.
msylvain59 Hehe :D I just had to laugh out loud. That is something that totally could have happened to me as well :D
msylvain59 BTW: That copy cat channel you pointed me to the other day has since been taken down by YT. I filed a complaint directly after you had told me. So: Thanks again!
BTW: How did you become aware of that channel?
+msylvain59 your primal instincts were definitely at play here.
+msylvain59 Some wood plank or steel levers could have helped to lift it out. I'd love to find one of those copiers!
i had a very similar experience. it was worth it though, a true treasure of electronics and mechanical parts.
I would not normally pick up one of these units until late I watched this video when it came out... About a week ago I came across one for 5 bucks.... yes $5 dollars!!! It was big and VERY heavy but I managed to get it home to my garage and start the Dismantling process which took way longer than I imagined but left me with a ton of very nice parts for future projects. Getting rid of the carcass was a whole nother story, I had to dismantle it to the bare pieces and was thankfully able to recycle the metal and plastic parts locally. the toner I took to a local office supply store to be dealt with properly .
Your presentations make my imagination go wild. This, no doubt is your goal. My highest compliment.
Good effort! I can't throw anything away without first opening it up and scrounging components, and watching someone else do it was more entertaining than I care to admit. Thanks for sharing. {Now to find some stepper motor driver vids}
you have a very clear voice and are well spoken!
Great Salvage ! I have made custom machine tools from salvage like this, it's very rewarding.
Thank you for sharing I have so many circuit boards and never knew true value. High five to you Sir.
The amount of ideas you've just given me is... substantial.
I may soon have my own workshop / shack / man cave. Stepper motors I will need for use with a large dish, for a radio telescope project based on Raspberry Pi. This excellent channel encourages me into scrapyards for materials. 👍
After watching this video , I went to Craigslist and sure enough found one in my city ... can't wait to go pick it up. Thank you.
I really enjoy the videos on repurposing use components and tool repair.
Nice find, sir! I usually only find smaller copiers and the like in my area, I would drool at the opportunity to get such amazing ethical and mechanical devices at my disposal! Can't wait to see what you come up with for these parts!
The stepper motors can be used to drive ball screws and build 3d printers, and even cnc routers etc
Great find. My wife hates my collection. Love your videos. Parents taught .e to repurpose everything.
Love it
Awesome Find, I want to build a CNC router and most of the parts seem to be right there. I will definitely keep my eye out for one of these.
Thank You for posting this video.
Excellent presentation...your work, process and organization of materials is appreciated. thank you.
After watchig this, I immediately went on craigslist, found one 10 minutes away, and am picking it up tomorrow. Thanks for the great idea on a source of free parts.
I've gotta say, PAI, these are some of the best videos I've found
Congratulations on finding that gold mine!
I will be watching for them now too :)
oh my gosh I Love ripping into copy machines, like a candy store, I always felt rushed though, didint wanna get caught >.>
just watching this is almost as fun though, Thank you !!
Surprised you haven't used any of this to make CNC of some sort. I also love your accent, partly because I was stationed in Germany while in the US Army, so it's nice to hear English with a German accent again. Keep up the great work, I learn a lot from you!
Great channel mate , sending peace and happiness your way from England !!!
Try removing rubber rollers by dipping in very hot water, then they will usually slide off. Be aware that everything is hot after dipping. A tall stainless wine bottle cooler is idea for holding and insulating the hot water. Nice video, as usual and very informative too, thank you kindly for showing us.
Danke sehr, dass Du uns sehr gut erklären hast. Es war toll.
WOW! What a lot of useful parts. I could keep busy for a long time playing with them. Stepper motors are useful if you can keep track of how many pulses you have sent to them. They can be half-stepped for finer movement.
I fucking love this guys accent 😂 It fits perfectly with the 'mad scientist' vibe in the videos.
+o0julek0o evil German mad scientist of course. classic accent :)
Ze Rred Skull! (Before he went bad..)
For a German his accent is really light imo. Excellent pronunciation too.
Ha ha. Funny you mention that. I always think of "Dr. Strangelove" (Remember that 1963 flick staring Peter Sellers?) when hearing him speak. They kind of sound alike.
Yeah German or Austrian definitely he speaks classic school accent as it's spoken in schools in these countries but not bad...
ahhh... my father has owned his own business selling copy machines for over 30 years... we throw them away constantly, tons of cool parts indeed for someone who can use them such as yourself! ive been moving them around since I was a kid. they are indeed quite heavy and they one you got wasn't even very big!
Would love too see more of the autocar semi
Where is your country
?
@@JosephStalin-hv8en I am in the USA
@@DieselCreek wait man thats my old account
I've been a big fan of your channel cuz i love the videos you post about fixing machines
Great video...thank you for sharing...I subscribed base on your great explanation of parts and objectives...keep them coming! ...from USA
Thanks to your suggestions, I was able to pick up not 1, not 2, but FIVE free color laser printers / copiers of craigslist from just 2 times I searched. One was medium size laser printer and did not contain any valuable steppers I was hopping to find, but I did recover other useful parts. The next one I was able to recover about 15 stepper motors, 6 of them were Nema frame size containing various gears, timing belts, etc. I gave one larger HP printer to my uncle. It was at least 5 feet tall with cabinets underneath. BTW in USA, the stepper motors are much cheaper on eBay. I picked up Nema 23 japan servo brand for $6.50 shipped! This was before I got all free printers. But typically they run here in 15-30 dollar range for medium size. I also end up with several power supplies including 700 Watt one which has 24v @ 15+ amps. I still have a smaller Sharp color copy machine that I need to be taken apart, waiting for recycle bin to be picked up, it's full of plastic and metal lol.
In high school I salvaged a stepper motor from an old printer and used it to drive a chemE car for a competition. It allowed me to control the reaction time and speed better and won me 1st place.
I got to disassemble a couple of those huge HP 9000 series laser printers, similar looks. Got tons of useful stuff similar to what you showed here but my electronics knowledge was too low to salvage anything from the pcb back then.
Very Good Job and thank you for sharing the experience
This was really cool! Thank you.
What an excellent pronunciation. A very clear and pleasant voice! Вetter than the islanders) Greetings from Russia ;)
man this video has me searching craiglist for a free copy machine every day lol.
+Brady Rose Update, I got one! my experience has been very similar!
:( im envious!
Same here
I found some but they're an hour away :(
Check you local copier dealer. You might find one that just picked up a machine that the manufacture no longer supports and be able to get it cheap to nothing. Most of the motors are 24 volt, especially the larger ones. The fans are 12 volt and so are the smaller motors.
cool stuff.
im going to upload video of same electronics salvging for 5 years.
keep it up
Cool video. Interesting perspective on reclaiming used parts. Liked and sub'd!
Last year we disassembled about 50 copiers like that to use the chunks as decoration for a movie set.
Now I have tons of stepper motors and drivers and such I've managed to save for myself. I don't think I will ever need to buy any roller/spring/stepper motor/driver ICs anymore. A copier like that is a goldmine!
Good vid. I'll say that that was damn good find., that "El Dorado" chock full of damn good useful parts and comments.
Those "Corporate" size printer copiers can be so damn heavy, to move to one's place to git all 'em goodies out. I've seen one a while back displayed in corner store window saying "free copier, take it." The store was closing down to relocate and wanted it off it's hands. It had operating issues and had no further use for it (looked a bit "dated"). I said to myself "let me get my two wheel dolly and...", but never got around to rolling it to my close-,by home. Watching this vid revived that regret of not "striking while the iron was hot".
Tsk tsk tsk me.
amazing visit mate cheers
i could have picked one of those up but as I am female and 71, couldnt do it myself....but the next time i see one, i sure will find someone to help me....you did a great job in the video.
Brilliant. Junk that really is a gold mine for those that understand what the potential is.
useful stuff, thank for publishing.
Well, now i am waiting for a tutorial about stepper motors and their circuits!
It's a long time since he made this video.
Second, that.
I watched this video for the first time two days ago. I immediately went onto Craigslist to see what I could find. Lo and behold, on the first page of the free section I found a working photocopier that had been posted only 15 hours earlier. I texted the guy and yesterday went to pick it up! The only unlucky bit was it weighed 250 pounds and had to come down ten stairs before we were at street level.
Having looked it up online, it seems these are going for between $1700-4500 US used. So I may not take it apart just yet ;)
good find and excellant way to reuse.
Awesome find!
The other day a school throw away 12 Konica Minolta copymachines. I arrive a little bit late. but i get 10 Sanyo Stepper motors and a few cooler fans.
I like your channel, keep making videos man!!
Such a great “find” MFP printers are a excellent source of parts,
So much potential for projects. All those motors would make a nice starting point for a 3D printer or laser cutter. Good to see a beer at 6.59 too haha, you probably needed it after all that work
You have found alot of parts for projects I wish I knew more about electronics.
I do have a small wind turbine that uses a stepper motor .
The big one you showed would make a good one to charge small batteries or run LED's
The stepper motors are a great find and look to be of very useful size. The nima23 size would work good for a small home made cnc machine or pcb mill and the nima17 size could be used for making a 3d printer.
El Dorado and invisible laser beams! Another superb video.
Nice work.
Wise guy ! easily got a lot of interesting toys with minimum cost ! excellent !
What a find!!! I know many of these copiers have a document called an IPB or Illustrated Parts Breakdown. at least when I serviced machines for IBM that's what they were called with how they went together and part numbers searching for the service manual for the machine that service people use to replace and repair machines & parts
Good job I like what you do
You could build a copy machine out of those parts! :) That machine could not have gone to a better home!
I love your titles / theme music.
Very good . Congratulations !
I made a telescope using the lens from a large photocopier and old view finder. Cool as. Love this stuff.
I loved the video, could you please do one in which you explain how to connect the brushless dc motors, and what options brings the driver circuits.
There is no good video in youtube explaining that topic (or I can not find one).
6:47 a full bridge rectifier? Holy crap! I used to work at a copier sales place 10 years ago and we dealt with Minoltas. I know this copier well. During my years there we took in those old trade ins, even newer than this one and stripped off the serial numbers and sent them to the landfill. Sometimes when we needed a part we sent the old machine to the techs and they would pull out a board from an old machine and junk the rest. I do remember those machines having dozens and dozens of motors and interesting looking boards. While I had free time I did what you did and got many sweet sturdy roller dollies from the bottom of copy machines. We still have some here that we use at times.
I think those mirrors are "first surface mirrors", rather than normal "second surface mirrors". First surface means that light does not go through a medium before hitting the reflective surface, the reflective surface is the "first" surface, hence the name. They're good for lasers and other wavelengths that are blocked by glass.
I’d like to know more about what you can (or will) use these parts for (other than building a copy machine). Perhaps you will show that in future videos?
I normally HATE intros on youtube videos. But, you actually have a good intro compared to any other channel
Those big steppers are gold.
These stepper motors looks very high quality and getting them for free, wow
An other awesome vid ! Great score ;-)
I used to work for KonicaMinolta. You would be amazed in how much of that stuff they throw in the trash and send to landfills over here in the states. Truly a total shame.
Let me know where to get them!
cool teardown tpai
Great stuff!
i smell a cnc router coming
Or a 3D printer
But it has gone away ;)
That smell is actually just Germany.
I guess no RDM machine :P
@@burntorangeak Bratwurst.
I also selevged about 50 stepper motors from about 4 Xerox machines, they are really awesome even I sold some of them😜got more then I paid and still have about 25 motors. Also didn't disassemble the machine by myself I just bought all the steppers.
I have some nema 23s(maybe 6) about 700grams each runs at 3amps without problems.
Great jod.
I've salvaged similar brushless dc motors from hp printers, but I've got no idea if I can get them to work in another project. I've also found those electromagnetic accuators (i think that's what they are) but I can't them to do anything either! :/ Thanks for the video! That must have been so much fun!!
Love finding copy machines
I took apart an old VCR and found an I phone, DVD player and a small security gremlin inside.
Same
Man the stories I could tell about my parts harvests! There was this one time I found a huge pile of xerox machines several years ago! GOLD MINE OF PARTS!! I still have all the parts, but my pop scrapped some of my metal one day... ARGH....
Oh man you rely hit the jackpot with this I got a machine like this but it was one of those small ones not even close to the amount of parts here.
Yeah, I would love to see a cnc router built from the stepper motors.
One mans trash is definitely another mans treasure. Awesome video.
I've pulled some good parts out of regular household printers and scanners, but I have yet to disassemble a large copier like this. jealous!
great video!!
My son and I have broken down many scanners and copiers (none nearly that huge😀) so we have quite a collection ourselves. Did you find a good way to control and/or way to use those stepper motors? I would be very interested in projects involving them. I browsed through your other videos but didn’t see any. I will take a more in depth look when I get a chance.
Nice video. I opened two large wide carriage poster printers but did not find Nema type stepper motors.
I remember stripping down some giant copier printers from the early 1990s that had helium neon lasers an aom, a super fast polygon scanner and thousands of other neat goodies inside.
i see a cnc or 3d printer in your future based on the stuff you got there good salvage bro..
Did you figure out the characteristics of the BLDCs? I'm curious if they could be used to build a quadcopter of sorts (or a one/two motor glider) on the cheap. Down here in Brazil, importing electronics is expensive due to protectionist policies, but I know where to find some old copy machines with BLDCs like those in the video. Do you think they can run up the in the tens of thousands of RPMs and have reasonable torque to spin a propeller?
Oh just a side note about IR radiation sources, even something silly like staring into an un shielded remote control IR diode, dont do it! the most dangerous thing is probably that since you dont see it, the iris in your eye ball machine will not close to block light such as when looking at a visible source, yet ir can and will do similar damage as looking into a bright light source (if im wrong some one can and will correct me...ughh) but this is what I remember from some sticker on some sweet machine i was disassembling some time ago :)
I just bought 2 of the smaller Xerox copy machines for ten bucks from a church undergoing renovation. The huge tube in the middle of the machines that has the two decent bearings on either side and the half cylinder of whatever in the middle... Did you figure out a use for it? I'm thinking of integrating it into a robotic arm but was wondering if you had a better idea... I've got two of them now
I was looking through craigslist in my hometown when I found some free copy machines. 72 to be exact. Some scanners some laser copiers some old copiers. Jack pot. I spent about 3 hours taking apart one! Damn
The Post Apocalyptic Inventor Try powering the laser head up, but only after you replace the diode with a low-powered visible one.
Most mirror motors have four wires, and are very easy to drive.
Find the nearest power filtering cap, and swap the remaining wires around from positive to negative to see which one is the low-speed(operational) one, and which one is the high speed(spinup) one.
All of them(nearly all) run on 24 or 18V, so start with 18.
They can be used to make a raster laser display, for example :)
Oh, thats a LOT of hardware!, I have to get one of these
TheRetroGamer let me tell you it’s a lot of stuff to store and even harder if you don’t have space :D
its amazing how the parts in that old piece of junk are worth so much
@The Post Apocalyptic Inventor
I have seen some one using Stepper Motors, and making them turn, by simply connecting the minus to the ground though a cable and a digged rod metal , and the plus to half spherical coper plate hanged in a tree or something similar.
Do you need them? I need one
Those steppers are indeed gold worth
thank you for this video
Should I be concerned that I get pretty excited when I see stepper motors?
I have a Lanier copier with a blown fuse lamp right next to me. It's only half the size of the one in the video, but I think I'll take it apart now. :D
Just found you, I'm subscribed for sure.
new here ! really like your videos !!
Roca89 That's great! You're welcome here!
What motor would you recommend for a mini disc sander? I don't know the power of a Dremel 3000 but half of its power would be fine for my applications.
Nice :) Thumbs up :D
Alex