Do not try to clean up the basement - you will find things that should be used ;-)
I found two working 2mW HeNe Laser. And there were a some motors from disassembling hard disks with my son.
If you put a mirror on the axle of a motor - not perfectly aligned - and point a laser on it, you'll get a circle projected. If you repeat this you'll get interfered circles (a from of Lissajous figures).
For the motors I bought brush less motor drivers from my favorite online store (<5€ per driver).
A first test:
I replaced the Potentiometer with precision Potis an created and printed a housing for all.