part salvage

printers (steppers, gears, belts) cameras (optics, sonars) RC cars (gears, motors, RC circuits) radios (switches, rc circuits) cordless phones

anything that has gears, electronics

Anything electically powered for the most part.

If you are on a budget, components like IC's capacitors, sometimes transistors, even resistors in a pinch.

Sensors like Hall effect devices, optical reflective or breakbeam sensors can be found in VCRs.

Printers have sterrper motors, and associated drive electronics.

Casette and CD players have nice motors, but you still really need gears with those.

Computer CD players have interesting eject mechanisms.

All CD players have lenses.

My printer cost $49, and a new ink cartridge costs $29. So when I run out of ink, instead of buying a new cartridge, I spend an extra $20 to get a whole new printer. Then I disassemble the old printer and list the parts on eBay as "robot components". I have gone through fourteen printers so far, and every time someone has always bid more than the $20 break even amount, and sometimes more than the full $50 purchase price of the new printer.

These printers are sold cheap as loss-leaders, so it gives me a warm feeling everytime I buy a printer, because I know that I am screwing the printer manufacturer, who is trying to screw me with their stinkin' proprietary cartridge.

What's your eBay ID ?

"Bob" wrote in news:1136820138.584854.157810 @g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

I used to drive around in nice neighborhoods on garbage day and get printers, computers, tape recorders, fax machines etc, for free. I could never get the steppers to work, so I don't bother with them anymore. I collect the gears, belts, switches, springs, sensors, bearings, encoder wheels, plugs + connectors with mates, ground straps, and mechanical do- dads.

I like to sit down on a rainy day and reverse engineer small PCB modules that contain buttons, leds and buzzers.

One time I found a printer a LOT better than the one I used and tried to fix it. I had to buy a laser ink cartridge and downloaded the driver. Well, I couldn't get it to work and realized the problem could be ANYTHING from a broken gear to a corrupted eprom. So, I don't do that anymore!