"Printers and plotters have always been one of the best sources for the harvesting of electronic components for anyone interested in the practices of DIY. From DC motors to steppers, gears and belt mechanisms, dot matrix LCD displays, power supplies, optical encoders and switches, and a huge amount of “spare” parts, such as metal rods ands mounting brackets.

Home and office printers are really cheap and disposable, it’s very common to find abandoned units on the streets lying next to dumpsters, and just by searching a little bit deeper it’s easy to find companies getting rid of old units by the means of tens or hundredths of units.

Interesting enough, is the amount of companies that are doing the same with printer’s big brother: The Plotter. Usually units older than 10 years not in working conditions anymore, nor satisfying requirements for current printing jobs are being replaced with new ones. With the bulk factor being the most important in avoiding storage of it and throwing it away in a promptly manner.

Plotters provide and excellent resource for component scavenging, usually using huge and powerful motors and much higher quality components and almost 3 times the amount of each that could be found in a simple printer. All this together with the fact that they provide a much bigger form factor, allows for ideas on creating systems based on this beasts to be much more ambitious."

http://community.studiolabproject.eu/group/repurposing-abandoned-printing-devices

project leader \ Gonzalo Ramírez Restucci (Chile/Spain)

collaborators \ Pije – Dragan Pijetlovic (CH), James Stevens (UK), Patric Kaufman (CH), Urs Gaudenz (CH), Igor Križanovskij (SI)

special thanks \ Bogoslav Kalaš – painter, Snaga d. o. o. for allowing us to scavenge the assembly center.