As a laser cutter, it has a pretty weak laser, you'd have to upgrade that, I'm not sure if the motors will be suitable to handle a larger laser, and the larger useable laser might be more of a cost adder than adding a proper XY stage.
As a CNC machine, not a good idea. Those motors are meant for high speed low torque applications, opposite of something holding a cutting tool where you need high torque and accuracy.
I know the push for reusing things and ultra cheap things, but stepper motors are pretty cheap online, and the driver's aren't too expensive. For the amount of time it would take you to get something up and running with scrap parts and the probably lower quality you'd end up with, it's probably worth investing in some steppers and drivers.
When talking about laser cutter, motors could move lightweight mirrors instead of a heavy laser and by using mirrors with a laser beam it would become possible to project the light on a fairly large area with a relatively small construction.
You would likely need a stronger laser, either from a Blu-Ray drive or even larger. If you were looking to use the motors in the drive, I would side towards moving mirrors around as Stefan suggested, while keeping the laser stationary.
