Scrap Recovery - Card Embosser

Scrap Recovery - DataCard Embosser

a dead plastic card embosser turned CNC Parts

Above are a few images of a DataCard plastic card embosser, these units are close to 10 Grand when new, and weigh about 50 pounds when their scrap.

As the resident Dumpster Diver for the hospitals that I work at... I keep a keen eye on any thing that looks like it may be destined for the land-fill. In this case the printer was zapped by some sort of power surge, and was deemed beyond repair by the support company. Once the new unit as installed and this one sat for a few weeks too cool-down, it started to make it's way to the area that all scrap does down near the shipping & receiving area.

The trick is to intercept the gear just at the point that everyone is sick of tripping over it and it is beginning to become a nuisance. A casual offer to get it out of the way generally is accepted with relief and a significant amount of effort typically required to retrieve anything from a dumpster is avoided.

And the stripping begins, over the years I've developed a systematic approach to gutting equipment. Pull covers, remove circuit boards, and start looking for the logical sequence that the unit was assembled and follow in reverse.

At as young as 9 or 10 years old my dad had my brother and I working in his TV & Radio shop tearing down TV tuners and assorted components and re-assembling them in working order.

Those likely were the most formative years of my life in retrospect.

In under 2 hours I've got the scrap neatly piled...

I've come to the conclusion that there is no point trying to hang onto the numerous angle brackets, and neat widgety-doos that really were only ever designed to perform one specific purpose.

This type of bulk makes the shop a nightmare to work in and generally never gets used, as it takes such a feat of engineering to find a use for it that it would be simpler to make your own widgety-doo for the purpose you need as opposed to re-fitting an existing unit.

This is a nice haul for a minimal effort...

Qty 4 100oz/inch 1.8 Degree Steppers, some polished metal rods, 24VDC Motor, 120 VAC motor, interface cables and close to 5 lbs of aluminum for melting.

As the snow's just gone here (Apr 2004) we're in the midst of the typical farm clean-up that punctuates the season with fire-wood always on the list... Once the Black-flies come out I'll be house bound again and will begin a significant expansion on theworkshop.ca...

The goal is to gain another 250 sq feet of shop space, and assemble a small army of CNC mills to do my bidding.

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