# Can I make anything useful out of an obselete CD-RW? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2001, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-anything-useful-out-of-an-obselete-cd-rw/93587 "2001-11-15T19:49:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SouprChckn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f9b8f/32.png) [@SouprChckn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SouprChckn)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2001, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-anything-useful-out-of-an-obselete-cd-rw/93587/1 "2001-11-15T19:49:40Z")
My friend and I have just decided to upgrade to the latest and greatest CD burners (24x) and he has decided that when he installs, he’s just gonna dump his 2x one. I was just wondering if you could take that 2x burner and do anything useful or useless but fun with it? Like a weapon or spinner thing or space taker upper. I first suggested he auction it on EBay but based on early price estimates (by me), it probably isn’t worth the $0.30 listing fee to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2001, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-anything-useful-out-of-an-obselete-cd-rw/93587/2 "2001-11-15T20:20:12Z")
There was an article in National Geographic several years ago (mid 80’s) that showed you how to take 3-D pictures using discarded supermarket scanners. Maybe you can salvage the laser and do something cool. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2001, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-anything-useful-out-of-an-obselete-cd-rw/93587/3 "2001-11-15T20:29:03Z")
All your friends already have cd burners? No one will take it even for free? Wow, nice crowd. ---
**Author:** ![geepee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ebca7d/32.png) [@geepee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geepee)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2001, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-anything-useful-out-of-an-obselete-cd-rw/93587/4 "2001-11-15T20:30:42Z")
you could always list it on yahoo last i saw it was free to list items on there, but you could always install it in an old machine (like i do) or pull out the motor so it slides in and out by hand and put it in (a low) CDROM slot on your PC unconnected to anypower source and use it as a coffee cup holder. Lasers inside are pretty nasty and can do serious eye damage so i’d forget about things for that. ---
**Author:** ![LIONsob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/76d3ee/32.png) [@LIONsob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LIONsob)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2001, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-anything-useful-out-of-an-obselete-cd-rw/93587/5 "2001-11-15T20:31:47Z")
Hell, I will give you $10.00 + pay shipping for it,it’s worth that much just as a cd-rom drive. What I would do is keep it and use it as a cd reader when copying disks or listening to music,cuts down on wear and tear on the new drive. Peace LIONsob ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2001, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-anything-useful-out-of-an-obselete-cd-rw/93587/6 "2001-11-15T20:33:58Z")
2x CDRWs are so slow (30 - 40 minutes to burn a CD VS 3-4 minutes for a new 24x unit) that your best bet is to give it to a baby geek or some mp3 fanatic that’s filling up their hard drive and could archive the songs on a CD. I had a 4x Ricoh CDRW I gave away that started giving me constant buffer errors when I put it in a new, faster machine. I put it into a 300 mhz Compaq Presario with a pokey 5.25" Quantum “bigfoot” IDE drive, where it was perfectly happy. Odd that a slower interface would make it work better. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2001, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-anything-useful-out-of-an-obselete-cd-rw/93587/7 "2001-11-15T20:49:47Z")
I’ll second (or third or whatever) the charity thing. Ask around and I’m sure you’ll find someone who’d be ecstatic to have even a molasses-slow 2x. ---
**Author:** ![Palve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a698b9/32.png) [@Palve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palve)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2001, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-anything-useful-out-of-an-obselete-cd-rw/93587/8 "2001-11-15T21:55:01Z")
Stress relief. Nothing relieves stress like beating the shit out of electronics. Just keep the drive and a baseball bat stored away somewhere for when you get really pissed off. You’ll thank yourself later. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2001, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-anything-useful-out-of-an-obselete-cd-rw/93587/9 "2001-11-15T22:37:01Z")
1. Use it like an in-dash (but really in-CPU box) cup holder. But for God’s sake don’t spill any! 2. Give it to a local grade school or library if they’ll take it. They may have some really old computers still in use that could use it. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2001, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-anything-useful-out-of-an-obselete-cd-rw/93587/10 "2001-11-15T23:54:31Z")
You can use it as a cd reader when you copy disks…course I have a 2x but it only reads=6x. I keep it for backup. ---
**Author:** ![SouprChckn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f9b8f/32.png) [@SouprChckn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SouprChckn)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2001, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-anything-useful-out-of-an-obselete-cd-rw/93587/11 "2001-11-16T00:18:40Z")
Aren’t you negating the speed of your burner if you make it copy from a 2x reader? Assuming the reader can even do 10x reads, its still significantly slower than your 24x write thus limiting your power. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2001, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-anything-useful-out-of-an-obselete-cd-rw/93587/12 "2001-11-16T04:10:27Z")
I have 3 laser diodes from busted CD drives. I am aware they are more powerful than keychain laser pointers. I have a comparison by class somewhere. ``` Safety is a high priority when dealing with these things. As of yet, I can't find a project to actually use them in. But think of the possibilities! ``` ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2001, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-anything-useful-out-of-an-obselete-cd-rw/93587/13 "2001-11-16T15:30:31Z")
“Aren’t you negating the speed of your burner if you make it copy from a 2x reader?” Yep. Some cd’s I make have to be made at 1x to work right. I won’t say which ones they are but I need that speed sometimes. Also, Prassi Diskjuggler lets you use make more than one cd at a time, so if you have two cdwriters, you can make two cd’s right at the same time, cool, huh? You can’t write them any faster than your CPU power, so writing one at 8x & the other at 1 or 2x can fall within specs for multiple cd writing.