So on the second, I was giving my little living space a bit of a going over, and I'm the kind of person who just won't pitch out those old Printers and other Electronic Devices so that half my room is a grave yard of what most would consider E-waste.

I was looking at 3 old printers I have stacked up under my TV, and I wondered, "How can I reuse these things so that I have not wasted my space?"

I went to everyone's best friend Google, you know the guy, and he told me, "CNC Machines."

I never thought about all the useful parts in what most people consider junk.

For those unaware, Computer Numerical Control machines take a blank, and make a 3d model out of it. In the case I have in mind, my blanks would be wood, brass, steel, and aluminum.

The best part is, with a CNC Machine, I could make a lot of the devices I need to proceed with several LVC projects.

My only remaining questions:

"Why did I not think of this before?"

"Why does no one else realize they can do this kind of thing?"

Well this morning, about 1am, I was feeling a tad bored and I decided to get to work on this machine. After about 30 minutes one of my old printers was nothing more than 2 circuit boards, a bunch of scrap plastic, a chunk of scrap aluminum, a ton of gears and springs, several metal rods, and the most important bit, 2 motors. All of this fits in a standard cigar box BTW.

Now that was 1 standard printer. I still have several former Printer/Scanners in a closet just waiting to become useful.

I expect they won't take more than an hour each to break down, and I'll be picking up a few little boxes to separate the parts out by type and size.

With that in mind, I think I can have the whole CNC rig together within a week, while still doing my sketch challenge, and normal work.

Now the problem. I can't make or program the specific board I will need to run the motors that move the gantry or any other part of the machine.

I know there are a couple linux based software packages I can get to handle the PC end of this all, and I just so happen to have already re-purposed an older laptop with a dead CFL into a Linux Mint Document machine that will handle that nicely.

I just need a bit of help in getting the circuits wired up, and chips programmed to accept the PC input.

If anyone wants to help, I should (Can't say will) have the parts to make 2 machines, and I will assemble the second for that person.

The design I have in mind is a 3 axis mill, though I am thinking of how to make it 4 axis, and possibly 5 axis. Though the latter two are unlikely to begin.

I'll get the first machine assembled and post a couple of pictures to scraps so you can all see my work.

***EDIT***

Went ahead and broke down a Dell Printer too this morning, it took only 15 minutes and doubled all my parts.