13 Jun
2006
13 Jun
'06
8:50 a.m.
I used to do some DP on a PDP-8 that originally had an LA-36.
Although I cannot remember for sure if it was driven by the PDP-8, we
later switched to a Centronics (IIRC) 600 LPM band printer (at some
point the computer was replaced, although I cannot recall what it was
replaced with). This was, of course, a dramatic improvement over the
LA-36.
However, cleaning the band was a great way to risk losing fingers.
Every so many hours we had to remove the band and clean the paper dust
out. We found that rubber dishwashing gloves worked well. The band
wasn't sharp enough to cut them, they kept the fluid off your fingers,
and gave you good traction for handling the band.
--jc
Chuck Guzis wrote:
Forgot to mention that chain/train printers
weren't the only type that
worked like this. Teletype had a printer that used an embossed steel band
instead of a chain (Model 40?) that worked the same way, although at a
lower speed. One used to be able to pick those up pretty cheaply on the
surplus market; if you had a lot of tractor-feed wide-carriage printing to
do from a PeeCee or other micro, it was an attractive alternative to
daisywheel and early dot-matrix printers.
I don't know if any still are in use--without a sound hood they could be
very noisy. I do have circuit diagrams and maintenance documentation on
one if anyone needs it.
Cheers,
Chuck