Missed escrap opportunity
I went out hunting last weekend. I was hunting about an hour away (30 min freeway drive and 30 min backroads). I found a free printer on craigslist that was 5 in off the freeway at the exit I needed to take. Expensive printer but something was wrong with it. One of the big ones on it's own base and a scanner on top. I arranged for them to leave it out back so I could pick it up when I drove through. I got there and sure enough it was still there. Score. Then I tried to load it in my car. I figured the base would come off easily (most just sit on the base) and I could put the 2 sections on my back seat. That was mistake number 1. So I tried loading it in there sideways. This thing was HEAVY. Well over 100 lbs. I'm a fairly big guy - 6'2" 235 lbs. By the time I had to give up on putting it in whole, my legs and arms were shaking. So, I took off the base. Broke it off, really... I tried loading it in again. The scanner top kept catching on everything and there were two metal rods that slid out on both sides. The ones on bottom kept dropping down and I had to balance the thing on my knees while I pushed them back in. I finally ended up getting it in after breaking the window handle on the back seat. It took about 45 minutes to figure out how to get it in there... Ended up having to unhook arm connecting the door to the frame to get an extra inch of room and lots of force :) Picked up the plastic pieces that broke off and went on my way.
Got skunked hunting - saw 4 does, but no bucks. Left Sunday and had a message on my phone from my wife letting me know I needed to pick up not only my son (who was hunting with his uncle), but my daughter who was at my moms. Ah crap. Printer takes up the whole back seat and I only had the passenger seat open. So, I stopped by and picked up my son. I had to unload the printer there. They were more than happy to take it since they scrap metal. Then I picked up my daughter and headed home.
Still kicking myself for having to ditch the printer. Oh well, though. I have another printer to tear down in the garage that I picked up last week - an old HP plotter that came with a bunch of extra ink pens and accessories (pens and accessories are on ebay). And I just heard back from the local office machine store saying they'll have some printers ready for me soon.
P.S. If you're going to transport laser printers inside of a car, make sure you remove the toner. I didn't, but luckily it didn't make a mess bouncing around on the back roads.
