What to do with your unused flatbed scanner

You got yourself a brand new all-in-one scanner, printer, fax, copier machine, so what are you going to do with your old flatbed scanner. Well I will show you a couple of things you might just be brave enough to try, all with no or little cost, depending what you have lying around the house.

First we'll strip that scanner of the usefull things.

Taking the light out of the scanner and using it in your computer.

I'll start off by sayng that when I undertook this project I did not find anything online, but as I aquired another scanner to take step-by-step pictures for this how-to, I came across THIS link, which is simmilar to my project. I did take it one step futher. I also used the mirrors that were in there too. It quadrupled the light output.














I used silicone caulking to glue the mirrors together. To mount the light tube, I took the rubber mounting "shock absorbers" out of a old CD player. I wrapped the DC-AC tranformer with a piece of ide 40-pin cable and hot glue.




I added a rocker switch from a burned out power strip, and mounted inside my computer with some cable ties.





















The Finished Product.















note: I have not noticed any temperature
increase with this light in my computer.







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Here's a link that shows what to do with the scanner after it has been stripped clean of useful parts: Scanner computer case mod

I have not done this, but you could always just use the glass out of the scanner to mod your current case and put a nice window in it.

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And finally the original idea for the use of the scanner light was for a ghetto flashlight, made entirely of materials I had around the house.

The Ghetto Flashlight















Items needed:

• 1 scanner light (optional mirror attachment)
• external modem case (or other project box)
• 9 v battery
• switch
• wires
• 1 old paint roller
• hot glue

All you need to do is mount the electronics inside the modem case, hot glue the scanner light to a paint roller that has been cut in half lenghtwise. Then hot glue the roller to the modem case.

The reason to use hot glue is that it does not conduct electricity, and it can come off cleanly. Mainly because I knew that this wasnt going to be permanent.




As you can see using the mirrors makes it look like you have 4 bulbs instead of just one. The picture below shows the flashlight on.















Please feel free to post your ideas for unused computer components. Even if they are just ideas, and have not yet been completed.