Project: PC: Load Letter

[FuzzyPlushroom]

First, the backstory.

Last year, I found a tossed-out HP Business Inkjet 1100 while taking out the trash at my grandfather's office. It was externally in good shape, but when I looked inside, I realized it was full of ink - apparently, it had sprung a leak somewhere. (I never did find out where, even after opening it up.) I decided it was most likely dead, sprayed it out with a garden hose, and left it on the shelf in my "workshop".

Until last night. I was bored and having trouble thinking of a theme for the big old Gateway tower I've been working on, when I noticed the HP again. I dragged it out, sized it up, and realized I could fit a computer, with a micro-ATX motherboard, inside.

So I stripped it down.

It's now completely disassembled, an empty shell just waiting to be violated further with a power drill, and then stuffed with rock-hard components.

Ahem. Before I get myself into trouble here, pictures.

The "I never took a before shot" picture:

http://shopping.ezilon.com/images/hp1100d.jpg

The extent of the ink before I sprayed it out:

http://i13.tinypic.com/52xz60l.jpg

The closest thing I have to a "before" picture, with about half of the exterior plastic removed:

http://i15.tinypic.com/53603sg.jpg

The plastic cover off. This took fwo T20 Torx screws. The rest of the printer is a mixture of T8 or so (which were a bitch to deal with, since the closest thing I have is a worn T10 bit, and I don't have a correctly sized flathead) and a smaller size, T5 or so, that I was able to undo with a tiny Allen wrench:

http://i17.tinypic.com/61kgc2u.jpg

The little Allen wrench in action!:

http://i11.tinypic.com/4pbts9z.jpg

The cartridge area and print heads removed (I didn't find a leak, the ink inside was probably a bad cartridge. Go figure):

http://i15.tinypic.com/6akqu5s.jpg

Down to just the steel frame and the crossbar that the print assembly slides on. I had to hammer that bar down and remove it and its fasteners with brute force, since I couldn't get those damn T8 screws out. I even tried drilling them, but they were just as hard as the bit. Before:

http://i9.tinypic.com/660eb5y.jpg

And after the bar was removed and the remainder of the frame removed rather forcefully with a clawhammer:

http://i12.tinypic.com/5xo22zc.jpg

A mockup of the most likely layout. It'll be a bit of a tight fit for the motherboard, but everything else should fit fine. From the side:

http://i16.tinypic.com/4ov21hu.jpg

And from the top:

http://i19.tinypic.com/4ly0d1t.jpg

That's where I am right now. Questions? Comments (aside from "What do you mean, "PC Load Letter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_Load_Letter)?! That's not a LaserJet!")? Suggestions?

[jdbnsn]

Reminds me of the movie "Office Space", when Michael Bolton can't the printer to work..."PC load letter? What the F@$# does that mean?" This may be the first Printer mod I've seen.

[D1337]

mmmm grape juice in a cup

[NocturnaL]

Nice man, i started a mod similar to this, except it was in an ancient scanner lol. Like where this is going, Ill keep a look out for this

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Hahah, I've never spent much time around LaserJets, so I actually learned about the phrase from Office Space.

And it was root beer, I think. Though we do have grape juice, and now I want some. Mmmm....

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Update, albeit a small one.

Got the board's location set in stone now. It's gonna be slightly deeper than the main part of the printer, so it'll be sticking slightly into the paper tray. This is fine, aside from that it might mess up my plans regarding the CD drive. (The front of the paper tray is a hinged door, which swings down to allow Vast Quantities (OK, OK, a few hundred sheets) of paper to be easily added. I had been hoping to swing that down and expose the CD drive, but I probably won't have any room for it. Oh well, on with the pictures!

Trimming the edge of the rear frame of the paper tray assembly down. I used the edge of this old (300 MHz?) Celeron, since I've got a surplus of Slot 1 stuff around anyway, and I couldn't find anything more suitable. I then scored the edge with a box cutter and broke off the excess with my small vise-grips. Easy stuff to work with, it is:

http://i16.tinypic.com/4mtxk77.jpg

I knew of this problem ahead of time, fortunately - the board was too deep, and I had to cut away part of the paper tray to fit it in properly:

http://i10.tinypic.com/63bldsh.jpg

Fuzzy closeup of the trimming. My camera's not that great, especially close up:

http://i16.tinypic.com/5373fcw.jpg

All better! The board I'll be using won't be quite this deep, but this way I'll have a bit of extra room once I figure out what I'll be using for a backplate (frame for the AGP and PCI cards). I might just screw the board down to standoffs embedded in the plastic... Not sure yet. It's either that or cannibalizing an old case with probably rather rough results.

http://i12.tinypic.com/4kxssy0.jpg

So yeah, I didn't get much done tonight. We'll see about tomorrow... Hopefully I'll get somewhere!

[SgtM]

How could you NOT love this one. +rep.

"Damn it feels good to be a gangsta"

[Remy]

"Damn it feels good to be a gangsta"

LMAO!!!

+ REP & :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: just for naming it PC Load Letter. You should incorporate a red Swingline stapler in your mod. Love this mod. Can't wait to see the finished product.

[Luke122]

I think you've been slacking off on your TPS reports... yyeeeeaaahhh.....

..or should that be TBCS reports? ;)

Good looking mod, we are all lookin forward to an update on this one. :D

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Sorry this hasn't gotten far in the last week and a half. Been busy with other crap and now a friend of the family's come to visit from Missouri, which limits my hours a bit. I'm trying to hunt down a slim optical drive from a laptop and an adapter for it, so I can use the hinged door on the front of the paper tray - even a short LiteOn/Sony drive would overlap the board, which can't happen, seeing as the board I'll be using has its CMOS reset jumper there and there's no way I'm going to take out the optical drive every time. I could set up a remote solution to that, but a standard drive's also too high to fit in the tray properly. Two strikes is enough for me.

To do still: Decide on an optical drive, work in a back plate for the PCI slots, mount the motherboard, wedge in a 3.5" three-drive (or so) internal enclosure, and work out the pinouts for the current power switch and LED so I can wire 'em up differently and use them as-is for the project.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

A'ight, I've been really friggin' busy over the last six months, but the project's slowly coming back together. No major progress to report yet - picked up two laptop combo drives for free, so I'm a $10 adapter shy of having a permanent optical drive in the paper tray (gonna make a bracket with that purpose tonight) and the motherboard tray's nearly complete. Now I have to relocate all the pieces of the body shell, since I managed to scatter them around the house rather effectively... aargh.

Freeing the backplate for the motherboard/expansion cards:

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/9764/1001706pe8.jpg

Old eMachines are good for something! I'm using that plate with a removable mobo tray I got from a friend of mine a few weeks ago with some other assorted junk. Gonna put 'em together with one screw and let the PCI cards do the rest; when I add more photos later they'll explain better, but in short, there's only one possible mounting point for the backplate on the tray.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Egad! That tray didn't fit! If I'm going to cut things up anyway, I might as well do it with something worthwhile.

Pics coming soon of the HP case I've torn apart. Here it is before being ravaged by a hammer and screwdriver:

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/8273/1001709ob4.jpg

I'm moving a desk in right now, so I'm busy, but once that's done, work resumes!

[masbuskado]

luv what I see so far... but why you remove the rivet with the screwdriver is more easier to drill it...!!!

[nevermind1534]

I have an HP removable tray that I could send you. It takes micro ATX motherboards. Or I could just send you the whole case.

[SXRguyinMA]

more progress, love the idea and Office Space ref :up:

[FuzzyPlushroom]

This got buried under a couple other things I'm working on, but haven't made threads for, because I'd feel guilty for not updating those. It's a vicious cycle.

I've gotten a Dremel now, which gives me a lot more freedom to work. No more rivet removal with an awl, for instance (I didn't have a drill before, that's why... or at least, not one that was worth anything).

nevermind, thanks a lot for the offer - don't think I'll have to take you up on it, but if I end up needing a tray I'll turn to you first. Not sure if I'm using the cute little HP case I have for anything, so I might just borrow the tray from that. Could just cut one out of another case, too, that might be the easiest way to go about it. Sharp edges? Who cares! This is a manly printer! (I do have a micro-ATX motherboard tray by itself, but it's just the tray, without the bracket to hold expansion cards in place, and that's ending up inside a typewriter, I think.)

(Jeez, that needs a thread, too. Hey, I've got a few days off still...)