Disassembling an HP Color laserjet 4550 - Page 2

Originally Posted by Bamcis

By the way, CGsEnterprises, I noticed that you're in Columbia. I grew up in that neck of the woods. Are you affiliated with one of the local scrap businesses?

My family owned USA Recycling out in West Columbia, but we closed it after my dad passed- worked for a few years as the NFE Manager @ Carolina's Recycling Group (Now part of Omnisource). Couldn't stand it anymore working in the industry where my dad raised me and we worked side by side everyday...didn't figure on coming back to open a recycling company again 5 years later, but here I am.

And Happy- I guess it all boils down to what kind of time you have and what you are willing to settle for /hour. I enjoy breaking things down, but usually yank as much wire and the mobo grade board(s) and chunk the rest. Luckily, my yard could care less what goes in the shred pile... :-)

Just picked up an HP 8000, about to do the same with it. Dont forget all the motors. I gather a bunch up and sell them on ebay.

Originally Posted by CGsEnterprises

My family owned USA Recycling out in West Columbia, but we closed it after my dad passed- worked for a few years as the NFE Manager @ Carolina's Recycling Group (Now part of Omnisource). Couldn't stand it anymore working in the industry where my dad raised me and we worked side by side everyday...didn't figure on coming back to open a recycling company again 5 years later, but here I am.

And Happy- I guess it all boils down to what kind of time you have and what you are willing to settle for /hour. I enjoy breaking things down, but usually yank as much wire and the mobo grade board(s) and chunk the rest. Luckily, my yard could care less what goes in the shred pile... :-)

Ah, I see. To be honest, I'm not familiar with many of the scrap businesses in the Columbia area. The only one I do remember is the one in Cayce near the train yard. My daddy used to take scrap out there from time to time.

Yeah, there were actually two yards out that way...one is still there- CMC. The other started as K&W Recycling then moved through different names (Carolinas Recycling Group, Omnisource, etc...) now they just use the yard as a truck depot for their actual scrap yard in Columbia.

Originally Posted by CGsEnterprises

Yeah, there were actually two yards out that way...one is still there- CMC. The other started as K&W Recycling then moved through different names (Carolinas Recycling Group, Omnisource, etc...) now they just use the yard as a truck depot for their actual scrap yard in Columbia.

Yeah, CMC is the one that I'm talking about. I think the last time we went there was in the mid 90s. I was 13-14 years old and we were scrapping two old broke down Hondas that my daddy had bought off of a friend for fifty bucks or so. Anyway, I'm off of work for the day and I'm going to get back to taking apart this printer. Hopefully, I'll pull out some more goodies today.

Ok, I've made a whole butt ton of progress on breaking this thing down, and have decided to take a well deserved break. Below are the photos.

Progress:
001_zpsc5e983f1.jpg picture by Eadiot - Photobucket

Bucket o' motors, plastic gears, wire, and other worthwhile scrap:
002_zps59cfb10d.jpg picture by Eadiot - Photobucket

Items to still be broken down:
003_zps0111e4a2.jpg picture by Eadiot - Photobucket
006_zps6b13047a.jpg picture by Eadiot - Photobucket

Pile of sheet metal from the frame:
004_zpsf962db31.jpg picture by Eadiot - Photobucket

Plastic:
005_zps7c62220c.jpg picture by Eadiot - Photobucket


I must say that removing the plastic gears from the supporting bars and frame has been the most tedious part of all of this... I found that an old butter knife was the best tool for the job of removing the metal clips holding them on, but it still took a half an hour or so to get them all off.

Regarding the sheet metal from the frame, what would that be classified as, general ferrous scrap??? Or could some of it possibly be stainless?

Originally Posted by KZBell

Check with a magnate and if it doesnt stick(probably will), it's either aluminum or stainless. At that point I grab the grinder and if it sparks it stainless. Many times you can tell by the weight but a grinder removes any doubt. Like I said before, it's good your learning but what you will learn next is you spent an hour and only put a few extra bucks in your pocket. Soon you will develop a balance of when to say when and spend your time chasing more material rather then making $5 hour.

True, but the main reason I'm disassembling this completely is that I just enjoy taking things apart. The sheet metal is all magnetic. Generally, the way I separate scrap metal is by magnetic and non-magnetic. As far as separating the non-magnetic into aluminum and stainless steel, I don't, because I don't own a grinder and frankly, I don't know how, with the exception being cast aluminum and extruded aluminum on things like heat sinks. However, I do understand that some varieties of stainless are magnetic. Is it worthwhile to separate that if it can be identified?

Originally Posted by KZBell

Some yards will pay more for slightly magnetic stainless but many just consider it steel or shred. Thinner sheet aluminum can be confused with thin stainless and that is when the grinder comes in handy. Grinder should be a tool you start saving for...with a cut off wheel they are very handy for cutting and spark test.

Well I'll have to ask about that when I finally get around to going back to the scrap yard. I'd like to buy a grinder, steel table, and some other tools and set up a station in the garage/outbuilding at my house. However, before doing that, I'd need to bug my landlord about installing a door on the thing so that I could secure the place. I also need to buy a truck... You should see the looks I get when I show up at the yard and unload scrap out the back of a Chevy Cavalier.

Look for a small green chip with gold plated contacts on the toner cartridge. Those chips processed properly will bring 80 cents each.

Originally Posted by jghilino

Look for a small green chip with gold plated contacts on the toner cartridge. Those chips processed properly will bring 80 cents each.

If I take that chip off, can I still recycle the cartridge at Staples for the two dollar credit?

Originally Posted by Bamcis

If I take that chip off, can I still recycle the cartridge at Staples for the two dollar credit?

I wouldn't think so. Usually those places put new ink in the cartridges themselves.

Originally Posted by Bamcis

No, I didn't. To be honest, I didn't want to spend two hours searching the internet for software to install on my laptop to make the thing work.... Well, that, and I was just itching to take it apart.

So far, I've managed to remove about a hundred or so screws, and several large components, but I've barely made a dent in this thing....

Progress:
006_zps8b0ab17e.jpg picture by Eadiot - Photobucket

Laser still in housing, two small boards, and a nifty little brush that was attached to the frame:
004_zps65f0d62f.jpg picture by Eadiot - Photobucket

Copper leads, wire, and some intact small plastic components:
005_zps39220355.jpg picture by Eadiot - Photobucket

that's ashame tha tyou didn't try it out.... windows xp and above have the drivers built in, all you had to do was plug it into your network or locally into your laptop / desktop and if it was working it would have printed without any issues at all as far as drivers go.... those printers are also *tons* cheaper than inkjets to print....

why are you removing the plastic from the bars? are you going to put them in something other than shred? i have a handful of those rods that i saved/have been using a punch tools. i have been wondering if the ones thicker than 1/4 inch could be put in another class. for the few i have a put them on concrete and hit w/ hammer to pop off the plastic. after a few of them i just left them on the frame and put the whole thing in shred.

Originally Posted by Bamcis

I must say that removing the plastic gears from the supporting bars and frame has been the most tedious part of all of this... I found that an old butter knife was the best tool for the job of removing the metal clips holding them on, but it still took a half an hour or so to get them all off.

I may be telling Grandma how to suck eggs here, but, if you have a good scource of printers/copiers etc., it is worth saving the cartridges and shipping them to specific re-cyclers. Prices vary a lot but they do pay for shipping :-)
Planet Green and
Your Empty Cartridge List
are two places I have dealt with.

Cheers from sunny a warmish NorCal :-)