Scrapped My First Today - A Printer

Hello all - Rookie scrapper here. I scrapped an all-in-one desktop printer today. Found some 'shiny' stuff but not sure what some of them are. The sides and bottom of the printer are some kind of metal...tin...steel? No idea. There are some metal rods also...appear to be steel...are magnetic and shiny. What type of steel would these qualify as? And something real shiny and flimsy...looks like maybe tin. any ideas? Also found some copper in a little motor...what would be the best way to get it out? Wish I could post the pictures, thanks.

The BFH method..I love it. An not the only one who uses it. lol.

Just be sure to remove the ink cartridge first. An if you don't..please show pics after. lol.

Sirscrapalot - He's got a INK MASK! How is he still going! - Improving on wrestling announcing.

yes indeed remove the ink first lol have fun and glad your excited to be doing the dismatling and remember to save the gears pullys and belts there worth about 10cents each on ebay

Ah yes, but the questions go unanswered. I also took apart a printer recently and have a couple of questions. I am still new enough to electronics that I enjoy the taking apart and discovering. Anyway, I found an assortment of steel, several small motors and boards, but there are a couple of items I need help identifying. There is some sheet material that is definitely not steel. It is shiny like aluminum but does not really look or feel like aluminum. I was wondering if it might be stainless or something else? Also, there are some really flat white ribbon cables with bright silver colored ends that are totally flat (no pins). Do they go in with the regular ribbon cable from the computer or are they something else? Any thoughts? Thanks.

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

Depends on your yard how they classify it, we can't tell you what category it'll be. Most of the printers have 2 or 3 motors. those go in your motor bucket.
I clip off the "silver" ends and have been saving them but the silver coating is very thin and probably a very low recovery rate, gonna take a lot of ends to make a little.

Ok, I will keep them separate until I get it figured out. What about the sheet metal question? Any thoughts as to what it may be or how I can find out? My knowledge bas is primarily in construction material; copper, brass, aluminum.

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

Harsas, These questions have been answered many times in the past threads, you just have to go back and do some reading.

Yes I know and I have been doing a lot of reading. I was referring specifically to the original questions in this thread. Thanks for your help.

Ah..Mech, ever so helpful.

An no links? Stop slacking Mech!

Sirscrapalot - running for the hills from Mech.

I just pull the boards and the ink and what motors I can and shred pile it goes

I keep seeing the word "tin" in this post. There is no tin in printers(I've done hundreds of them) Tin will bring about 45.00 Per lbs. Some printers will have a peice of ss that runs across the top after you take the plastic off, the rest is steel (shred) If you have a peice of metal and can't tell if it's steel or aluminum then put a magnet to it if it sticks it's steel if it dosn't them put it to a grinder if it sparks it's ss. The curcuit boards are low-med grade, if brown they are low, if green on both sides then mid. The ribbon cable I just throw away( not worth saving to me). The motors are not worth braeking down just throw them in a tub and sell whole.