26 Jan
2009
26 Jan
'09
11:44 a.m.
On 26 Jan 2009 at 13:53, Dave McGuire wrote:
Indeed, those are amazing printers. My mother has
a 4MPlus that I
just decommissioned; it finally started to wear out, with about a
million prints on the page counter. I bought it used and pretty beat
up from a surplus dealer in ~1998, it saw daily duty in a small
office printing stuff for about five people for several years, then
it was stored in a very hot storage locker for about four years, and
then it spent two years printing a LOT of stuff for my mother's
business. It just never gave up!
I've got a couple of old Panasonic lasers (KX-P4450i (PCL) and KX-
P4455 (PS)); circa early 1990s. Heavy battleship construction;
separate toner (i.e. out of a bottle, no cartridges). They keep
going and going--but lately I've been using the cheap ($100 on a good
day) Brother lasers. Great print quality, miserly toner usage (and
easy to refill carts) and they don't dim the lights when the fuser
comes on. After 3 years on my "short" HL-4050 cartridge with the
toner lamp blinking, I finally refilled it with toner I bought 2
years ago.
Problem now is what to do with old Panasonics--they use Moto 68K
processors internally and have a great deal of nice mechanical
components--and AppleTalk interfaces as well as serial and parallel.
Probably recycle them, I guess. No inclination to fool with the
innards.
I'd love to find a good deal on an HP LJ 5si. That 11x17 print
format would come in handy.
Cheers,
Chuck
26 Jan
26 Jan
11:51 a.m.
I'd love to find a good deal on an HP LJ 5si.
That 11x17 print
format would come in handy.
Yeah it would!
Thanks for calling my attention to that one.
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
12:23 p.m.
On Jan 26, 2009, at 2:44 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
I've got a couple of old Panasonic lasers
(KX-P4450i (PCL) and KX-
P4455 (PS)); circa early 1990s. Heavy battleship construction;
separate toner (i.e. out of a bottle, no cartridges).
Ahh, I remember those. I worked for a small company that sold the
4450 when it came out. They were very popular in the desktop
publishing segment due to very dense blacks.
They keep
going and going--but lately I've been using the cheap ($100 on a good
day) Brother lasers. Great print quality, miserly toner usage (and
easy to refill carts) and they don't dim the lights when the fuser
comes on. After 3 years on my "short" HL-4050 cartridge with the
toner lamp blinking, I finally refilled it with toner I bought 2
years ago.
Neat!
Problem now is what to do with old Panasonics--they
use Moto 68K
processors internally and have a great deal of nice mechanical
components--and AppleTalk interfaces as well as serial and parallel.
Probably recycle them, I guess. No inclination to fool with the
innards.
If they're functional, why not re-home them? Why destroy
functional, useful hardware? A printer in the guest room, etc etc.
Or I'm sure there's a kid somewhere who'd appreciate one.
I'd love to find a good deal on an HP LJ 5si.
That 11x17 print
format would come in handy.
I've gotten two stupendously good deals on serious printers...The
first, last March was an eBay auction for an HP 8100DN (Postscript,
11x17, dual paper trays, duplexer, 100Mbps Ethernet, the rated duty
cycle is huge...150K pages PER MONTH!). It was local to me; it was
listed by one of those storefronts that list stuff on eBay for a
fee. They described it poorly and were obviously clueless about it.
I wouldn't have bid on it if it weren't local, because clueless
people tend to ship laser printers with toner cartridges
installed...which usually destroys the printer. Plus, it was listed
with a shipping fee of $200. (it's huge and very heavy) To make a
long story short, I ended up getting this printer, with original box
and packing material, with 20K (yes twenty thousand) prints on the
counter, with a 97%-full toner cartridge, for twenty bucks. The
thing is practically brand new.
The second great deal was from a surplus dealer in Illinois a few
months ago. I was up there on business with a truck, and this place
had a pair of HP 8550DN printers, one working and one for parts.
They are floor-standing large-office-grade printers...Color
Postscript (yes, color!), 11x17, dual paper trays, duplexer 100Mbps
Ethernet, huge duty cycle, integral hard drive, etc etc etc. Two
sets of 50%-full toner cartridges, all colors. The guy needed to
clear some space so I ended up getting both of them for about $100.00.
So, they take up some space, but I have high-speed monochrome and
color 11x17 printing-on-both-sides Postscript-at-100Mbps 32-page-per-
minute output capability in my office. It is glorious!
Incidentally, the "D" in the model suffix means it's got a
duplexer. If you find an 8100N or 8550N, it can be turned into a DN
with the addition of a duplexer module. Both of these printers take
the same duplexer module; it can be had for ~$20 on eBay, and it
installs with no tools in about two minutes flat.
I recommend both of these models (HP 8100DN, HP 8550DN)
wholeheartedly. In fact, I love these printers so much that I
drooled all over my shirt as I typed this. :)
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
6:28 p.m.
On Monday 26 January 2009, Dave McGuire wrote:
I've gotten two stupendously good deals on
serious printers...The
first, last March was an eBay auction for an HP 8100DN (Postscript,
11x17, dual paper trays, duplexer, 100Mbps Ethernet, the rated duty
cycle is huge...150K pages PER MONTH!).
From my experience, spending more than $50 or so on an
8100 is too much
to spend... The 5si, 8000, 8100, and 8150 are from the same basic
line
of printers, and I've been very happy with all of them, with higher
models adding speed and resolution.
The best thing is that it's usually cheaper to get a new printer than
buy a new toner cartridge for the thing, and a cart with 10% left will
typically last me many years of printing.
Pat
--
Purdue University Research Computing --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
12:29 p.m.
Problem now is what to do with old Panasonics--they
use Moto 68K
processors internally and have a great deal of nice mechanical
components--and AppleTalk interfaces as well as serial and parallel.
Maybe the same I do here: Turn it into new toys using its parts. I use
old fuser units to make PCB laminators for friends
(http://www.tabajara-labs.com.br - look for PCB manufacturing) and all of
its mechanical and electronic parts are stored :o)
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