22 Jan
1998
22 Jan
'98
9:57 a.m.
What's the best way to clean out toner fluid from
laser printers(or in my
case a photcopier)? There's toner all over the inside, and it needs a lot
of cleaning, but I don't want to destroy it trying to clean everything.
You must be very careful! The easiest way to do this is with a soft brush
and a vacuum cleaner, but because some varieties of toner are explosive, you
have to use a vacuum cleaner with a sparkless motor. Special ones are made
and sold for this purpose but they ain't cheap -- I don't know if you could
rent one.
Years ago at my last office job, a reload toner cart came apart and left
toner all over the inside of a Laserjet IID. We wanted to call HP service
but the skinflint boss insisted we clean it up ourselves. The receptionist
went at it with a garden-variety hand vac which shot a six-inch flame out
the exhaust, ruined the vac motor and scorched the wall. I didn't see the
flame but I sure saw the burn on the wall.
/kc