Canon MP700 Copier Printer Fax Scanner Tear-down

Some time back I wrote about the Canon MP700 that my neighbor had given me, and my attempts to get it running.  It WOULD have made a really nice printer, but Canon's apparent policy these days is "you must take the device to a certified service center".  I guess they weren't getting enough of some sort of kickback, or too many botched DIY repair guys like me calling them for help.  In any event, I wasn't putting any more money into it after sinking $53 into a new set of ink cartridges.  (which I still have,  opened and installed but never printed from, obviously, if anyone would like to help me not eat the full cost of them - I could ship them sealed in baggies).  So, I decided to tear it down and scrap every last good part I could from it.  In the process, I scored some really nice parts and made some cool finds.  I also learned a bit about how to build cable restraints into a device and how to daisy chain smaller ground plates throughout a system so that everything, no matter how remotely tucked away, has easy access to ground.

MP700 with scanner and upper paper handler removed

My favorite find was all the stepper motors.  So far I pulled three disk style motors out and there is one large cylinder motor which is the print carriage motivator.  There's also a smaller paper handler motor yet to be pulled.  I like stepper motors due to their potential for enabling automation in small projects - something I love to ponder but haven't had the time or resources to pursue.  Now I have at least some resources!

Naughty motor on the Prt Scr button launched
a hundred Save Screen Shot applets in Linux Mint.
I plopped on the Esc key to clear them.  Took about 10 min.

Perhaps the most interesting find was an actual TUBE on the analog circuit for the phone cable pass-thru.  A tube of all things, tiny as it is.  I thought that was pretty neat.  I tried to get a picture of it but it was just to small for my cell phone to see.  It was clear, shaped like a short Christmas tree light and had two unconnected anodes inside.

One obvious bit of goodness was all the momentary contact switches provided by the control board - around 40.  These are the same kinds used in your computer mouse.  So, not only do I have a good stock of them to work into my own projects, if my favorite mouse wears out, I have a chance of being able to restore it to good working order on my own, or I might even build my own mouse or controller.

The most numerous find was all the screws.  Machine screws, screws with lock washers, and ubiquitous self-tapping screws.  I good heap of them.  My wife said, "I'm sorry, I just don't get excited about the screws."   I just left that one alone.

Results from an afternoon spent un-screwing around.

A cool item was the flat bed scanner imaging bar.  It both emits and detects light.  At first I thought it might be cool to turn it into a hand held task light, but I might see if I can turn it into a motion activated area light for under the counter.  That would be pretty neat, I think.

Last but not least, I also harvested a number of nylon or plastic gears, rollers springs and shafts.  All good parts for building things.  My goal at some point is to build my own 3D printer using many of these parts.  I have just about enough just from this tear down, and I have another HP Ink Jet printer and a very old flat-bead scanner to tear down yet.

There's something therapeutic about tearing apart a device one screw at a time. I learned some things, had an actual excuse to listen to my 80's Pandora station somewhere besides work, and just enjoyed unwrapping the present my friend gave me one piece at a time!