A few months ago, my friend Orit and I took apart our first printer. We were surprised of how many parts it had in it - it was packed with electronic parts of all sorts and a ton of mechanical parts. In this instructable I'll show you what parts you should expect to find in each type of printer, so if you're looking for free parts for your next project - you'll know where to find them. We took apart many small home/office printers and one big office printer. They all had pretty much the same type of stuff in them, with minor differences which I'll try to list.

Salvaging parts from old printers is not only very pleasing for DIY enthusiasts like us, but it's also good for the environment. These parts are better of being reused than thrown out in a landfill while you buy new ones!

I hope you find this instructable useful, and if you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear them!

By the way, I made a video about this instructable, so if you're the type that likes narrated video, here you go:

Supplies

Printers

You'll need to find old or used printers. After looking around we realized that old printers are really easy to find. Sometimes it's your printer that broke, or someone you know is throwing one out. If this isn't the case at this moment in time but you want some free parts, don't worry! Finding broken printers for free is very easy. There are many websites where people share broken or used parts for free. This depend on where you live, so I didn't think providing information about certain website would help.

p.s., if a printer is broken it means that it's no longer able to print, but most of its individual components are most likely still in good shape, which is good enough for us.

Tools

You'll need a couple of pliers, screwdrivers, cutters and disposable gloves.

Step 1: Take It Apart

First things first - make sure the printer is disconnected (duh!) and put disposable gloves on. Printers often have ink or powder all over. While powder washes off pretty easily, ink will stain your hand for days. I'm pretty sure that's not good for your skin either :)

Start by unscrewing as much as you can.
Remember that you're here for the parts, not their plastic cover, so you don't really have to be gentle with it. Break stuff if you think it'll save time. Usually, unscrewing is easier than breaking stuff, but sometimes some force can be helpful.
Try not to cut the wires of each component. They usually have long wires with useful connectors for future use. Try to follow the wire path and keep everything intact.

A working printer is better than its individual parts. I believe you shouldn't take apart working printers, so make sure it's broken before you disassemble it.

Step 2: Brushed DC Motors

Printers have a ton of brushed DC motors of all sorts. We found 3V motors but also 5, 12 and 24V motors in there. You can also find DC motors of various RPM ratings. As a rule of thumb, bigger printers have bigger motors. Small home / office printers have small motors, while industrial-type printers have much more powerful motors. You don't always want the biggest motor - actually, you usually want the smallest one that is sufficient for your project.

Step 3: Stepper Motors

We were super happy to find stepper motors. Stepper motors are used in almost any project that requires an accurate motor and they're usually more expensive than DC motors.

All of the printers we took apart had at least 2 stepper motors, and some had many more. Small home/office printers contain small stepper motors which can be used for small Arduino projects and such. If your project requires more torque, you'll need to look for a bigger printer to take apart. We found a few higher torque stepper motors in the big printers we took part, including Nema 17 and 23, which are very common in many DIY 3D printer and CNC projects.

Step 4: Fans

We found a few 24V brushless DC fans in the big printer we took apart. These are not as common in printers as the other parts are, and if you need fans for your project, a better place to look is inside old PC. These are also pretty easy to find.

Step 5: Sensors, Switches & Other Small Electronics

Sensors and switches are some of the more common parts we found. The most common sensors we found were:

optical gates (they sense when something passes through them).
Temperature sensors (more common in laser printers).
Limit switches of different kinds.

Other than these, you can also find lots of heat-sinks, solenoids, capacitors and transistors. These are easy to salvage. There are plenty of board with tons of electronics, but some parts are hard to salvage, so we didn't keep them.

Step 6: Power Supplies

Printers have built-in power supplies. They transform the input AC to the working voltage of the printer (these are often AC to DC converters).

Power supplies can be dangerous. Don't mess with them, and don't plug them in unless you know what you're doing!

Step 7: Solenoid Actuators

Solenoid actuators are really fun and useful. They're usually made of two part, one of them being a solenoid. When you apply a voltage to the solenoid it creates a magnetic field, which moves the other part (see GIF). You can use these to move things around, open and close valves or switches, and some are even designed to work as a clutch. These were super common, mostly in the large printers since they had more moving parts.

Step 8: Mechanical Parts

You would not believe how many awesome mechanical parts. I'd disassemble a printer just for those if I didn't like electronics too. We found metal rods and cylinders, tons of springs of different sizes (no more ruining working pens to get their springs!), gears, belts and glass sheets. The quality of the mechanical parts was surprisingly good.

Step 9: Projects With Parts Salvaged From Printers

I made made a bunch of projects with parts salvaged from old printers. I already posted instructables on my motorized stroller swinger (image #3) and for an ultra-low-budget tinfoil studio light (image #4). Both of them were made with parts salvaged from old printers.

I also made a double pendulum desk toy with parts salvaged from an old printer (images 1 & 2).

To make your own double pendulum desk toy

You'll need a 6mm metal rod (very common in printers) & ball bearings (affiliate link to the ones I used)
3D print the plastic parts (see Tinkercad & STL's attached).
Connect the metal rod to the bottom mount (the circular part with a hole in it).
Make something to hold the bottom mount (with the rod attached) in place. I submerged it in concrete, and I like the way it ended up.
Press the bearings into the top and bottom pendulums. Apply some super-glue if necessary.
Connect the upper pendulum (the one with a pin sticking out) to the bearing on the lower pendulum. Use some superglue to hold it in place.
Connect & glue the double pendulum to the top mount.
Connect & glue the top mount (which is already connected to the double pendulum) to the metal rod.
The pendulums have sockets in the back side. These are used to add weights if needed. I added weight to the upper pendulum by gluing some coins in there. Making the upper pendulum heavier than the bottom makes sure pendulum more chaotic and unpredictable.

That's it :) you're done! If you need help with making your own double pendulum, let me know, I have extra images and details but I didn't know if people would be interested.

Step 10: Conclusion

Thanks for reading my instructable! I hope it inspired you to look around you for parts in your next project! Its green, free & fun! I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments if you have any :)