zero fidelity CNC

This broken HP C7670A scanner should come in handy in this project! I'm sure I'll find the one stepper I've been looking for, and maybe I'll use this one as a base for the whole laser CNC thingy. The broken HP C7670A. So I opened it and removed the PCBs. They're going back to the electronic waste disposal... I like the way they tighten the belt in this scanner! This spring keeps the belt tight while travelling around with it. Remove the poisonous light bulb carefully... It's VERY fragile, like an uncooked spaghetti, and contains poisonous mercury. Mercury causes all kinds of nasty stuff and it can even make you homosexual! You heard right! Well at least if you're a bird, according to BBC . Be VERY careful with this lamp... I took the optics away from the scanner tray. Pretty. Dunno what to do with them yet. Some mirrors, a lens and the image sensor. Tray's now empty. I wonder how I will do the second axis... This might be a C...

Immediately after I started drooling at the DIY CNC videos on the 'net, I found two printers in the garbage. What luck! There's the free stepper motors I was hoping for! Or so I thought. The models were HP Deskjet 5150 and Deskjet 656C. HP Deskjet 656C straight outta garbage. After all the trouble of carrying them home, I noticed they both had plastic optical guides next to the printhead pulley system. At first I was thinking "why do they need optics to guide steppers?" Then I understood the grave situation. There were no steppers. It seems that HP has found a cheaper way to get their precise printhead movement. They use DC motors with optical linear encoders to give feedback on the printhead's position. HP's optical guide for the printhead. I decided anyway I would gut the both printers for parts. I would probably be needing them for the mechanical construction. You need a torx screwdriver set to open these things. Every screw on these seems ...