25 Jan
2009
25 Jan
'09
8:07 a.m.
After years of looking at an HP LJ4L I got at the Uni surplus that
someone had removed the fuser from, I found a nearly-unused 4L at the
nearby thrift store yesterday. It printed the test page without a
burp, but was on the shelf without a price. I found someone to get it
priced and walked out a happy customer $6 later.
The only thing it's missing is a right-angle IEC power cord to fit
behind the access door, but it works well enough with a straight-in
cable.
-ethan
25 Jan
25 Jan
8:15 a.m.
On Sun, 25 Jan 2009, Ethan Dicks wrote:
After years of looking at an HP LJ4L I got at the Uni
surplus that
someone had removed the fuser from, I found a nearly-unused 4L at the
nearby thrift store yesterday. It printed the test page without a
burp, but was on the shelf without a price. I found someone to get it
priced and walked out a happy customer $6 later.
I had pretty much given up on finding interesting vintage electronics
at Goodwill, but I also made a good score last summer: a Data General
LDM-800 line matrix printer for $4.95 (half-price day). There's not a
thing wrong with it, after a couple of alignment procedures. They
actually had two of them, but I only had room for one. :-)
Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us
Old Technology http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/
9:45 a.m.
On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 11:15 AM, Mike Loewen
<mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us> wrote:
On Sun, 25 Jan 2009, Ethan Dicks wrote:
Mostly, I find calculators or 1970s clocks, but not much in the area
of on-topic electronics at thrifts in Columbus, but I had some really
good luck with older stuff at St Vincent DePaul's in Madison over the
past 5 years (I just dug out that all-LED clock that I need to refurb
- 100-ish submini LEDs and a double-fistful of CMOS 4000-series
parts).
The closest thing I've seen lately is a Bondi-blue original iMac for
way too much, but then they seem to get $150 for an eMachine, which
boggles me.
... I found a nearly-unused 4L at the nearby
thrift store yesterday.
I had pretty much given up on finding interesting vintage electronics at
Goodwill... ...but I also made a good score last summer: a Data
General LDM-800
line matrix printer for $4.95 (half-price day). There's not a thing wrong
with it, after a couple of alignment procedures. They actually had two of
them, but I only had room for one. :-)
Interesting. We never get stuff like that at our thrifts. I presume
industrial stuff gets recycled in other ways.
-ethan
9:43 a.m.
You are lucky; the thrift stores I inhabit here in San Diego won't sell if there
isn't a price tag. They hold it to the next day and price it overnight...which is a
BIG bore if I really want it and have to come back the next day - which won't be
seniors 50% off day, of course :)
The coup I recall is the TI microLaser Win/4 I picked up at a thrift store closing for a
dollar. It had been at $7, and $15 before that; I figured I could take a chance at a cuppa
coffee price. It was incompatible with Linux, and Windoze except for 95 AND XP! Funny that
long list of releases no one ever wrote a driver for, and then to do it for XP. Anyway, it
had a good toner and innards and has served perfectly well for about three years.
Vern Wright
--- On Sun, 1/25/09, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
Subject: Thrift store score: HP LJ4L
To: classiccmp at classiccmp.org
Date: Sunday, January 25, 2009, 8:07 AM
After years of looking at an HP LJ4L I got at the Uni
surplus that
someone had removed the fuser from, I found a nearly-unused
4L at the
nearby thrift store yesterday. It printed the test page
without a
burp, but was on the shelf without a price. I found
someone to get it
priced and walked out a happy customer $6 later.
The only thing it's missing is a right-angle IEC power
cord to fit
behind the access door, but it works well enough with a
straight-in
cable.
-ethan
9:48 a.m.
On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 12:43 PM, Vernon Wright <vern4wright at yahoo.com> wrote:
You are lucky; the thrift stores I inhabit here in San
Diego won't sell if there isn't a price tag. They hold it to the next day and
price it overnight...which is a BIG bore if I really want it and have to come back the
next day - which won't be seniors 50% off day, of course :)
Normally that's my experience, too, but this place has a large back
room, so they aren't supposed to set things out unpriced and price
them later. I do consider myself lucky that they priced it while I
waited. Perhaps it was because it was on the shelf with two dozen
printers and scanners and they didn't have any spare room on the shelf
to let it wait.
-ethan
12:32 p.m.
At 11:07 AM 1/25/2009 -0500, you wrote:
After years of looking at an HP LJ4L I got at the Uni
surplus that
someone had removed the fuser from, I found a nearly-unused 4L at the
This is valuable? My HP 4L is still in active use!
-----
435. [Humor] I stayed in a really old hotel last night. They sent me a wake-up
letter. --Steven Wright
--... ...-- -.. . -. ----. --.- --.- -...
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WAN/LAN/Telcom Analyst, Tech Writer, MCP, CCNA, Registered Linux User 385531
1:04 p.m.
On Sunday 25 January 2009 03:32:44 pm Tom Peters wrote:
At 11:07 AM 1/25/2009 -0500, you wrote:
As is my 5MP, which I just scored a new toner cartridge for...
Dunno why I'd want to move to something newer, particularly.
--
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
After years of looking at an HP LJ4L I got at the
Uni surplus that
someone had removed the fuser from, I found a nearly-unused 4L at the
This is valuable? My HP 4L is still in active use!
1:45 p.m.
On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 3:32 PM, Tom Peters <tpeters at mixcom.com> wrote:
At 11:07 AM 1/25/2009 -0500, you wrote:
If it's still usable, I would say it has value, but is not perhaps
"valuable" as in worth a lot of money.
I was just bummed about that Uni 4L because I _thought_ was getting
an inexpensive laser printer, but instead, I got 90% of a laser
printer and was figuring I'd have to spend twice as much as the
printer cost to get the one part I needed to get it working again.
I consider $10 laser printers lacking an ethernet port a reasonable value.
-ethan
After years of looking at an HP LJ4L I got at the Uni surplus that
someone had removed the fuser from, I found a nearly-unused 4L at the
This is valuable? My HP 4L is still in active use! 
27 Jan
27 Jan
9:03 a.m.
On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 12:32 PM, Tom Peters <tpeters at mixcom.com> wrote:
At 11:07 AM 1/25/2009 -0500, you wrote:
Not valuable, I think. Just useful. I'm still happy with mine, apart
After years of looking at an HP LJ4L I got at the Uni surplus that
someone had removed the fuser from, I found a nearly-unused 4L at the
This is valuable? My HP 4L is still in active use! from the small capacity of the paper tray and the
tendency for jams
when it is filled to capacity.
11:19 a.m.
On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 12:03 PM, Eric J Korpela
<korpela at ssl.berkeley.edu> wrote:
On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 12:32 PM, Tom Peters
<tpeters at mixcom.com> wrote:
Agreed - I found out long ago that the 4ML didn't like to be packed
tight with paper, and it does have a tiny tray.
Since I don't print 500 pages at a shot, I never found it to be a
painful limitation, but in a larger office environment, ream-sized
paper trays are nice to have.
-ethan
At 11:07 AM 1/25/2009 -0500, you wrote:
Not valuable, I think. Just useful. I'm still happy with mine, apart
from the small capacity of the paper tray and the tendency for jams
when it is filled to capacity.
After years of looking at an HP LJ4L I got at the Uni surplus that
someone had removed the fuser from, I found a nearly-unused 4L at the
This is valuable? My HP 4L is still in active use! 
1:49 p.m.
Yeah, but having ream sized (or larger) trays still has that problem. I often find people
at work trying to completely fill the trays, and when they do the printer often objects
with a paper jam.
Not so bad on old printers, but modern printers have the paper go all over the place. I
often have to remove 2 or 3 sheets of paper for a paper jam, often tearing atleast one
sheet and then am forced to waste time dismantling the printer (ink cartridge, rollers,
etc.) just to get the paper out.
That's why I just bought myself a Canon BJC-250 for ?21 (?6 + P&P) off ePay.
It's the smallest A4 printer I know of and has very few parts where paper can get
jammed :)
Regards,
Andrew B
aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk
--- On Tue, 27/1/09, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Thrift store score: HP LJ4L
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
Date: Tuesday, 27 January, 2009, 7:19 PM
On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 12:03 PM, Eric J Korpela
<korpela at ssl.berkeley.edu> wrote:
Agreed - I found out long ago that the 4ML didn't like to be packed
tight with paper, and it does have a tiny tray.
Since I don't print 500 pages at a shot, I never found it to be a
painful limitation, but in a larger office environment, ream-sized
paper trays are nice to have.
-ethan
On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 12:32 PM, Tom Peters
<tpeters at mixcom.com>
wrote:
> At 11:07 AM 1/25/2009 -0500, you wrote:
>>
>> After years of looking at an HP LJ4L I got at the Uni surplus that
>> someone had removed the fuser from, I found a nearly-unused 4L at
the
This is valuable? My HP 4L is still in active use!
Not valuable, I think. Just useful. I'm still happy with mine, apart
from the small capacity of the paper tray and the tendency for jams
when it is filled to capacity.
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aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
korpela＠ssl.berkeley.edu -
mloewen＠cpumagic.scol.pa.us -
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tpeters＠mixcom.com -
vern4wright＠yahoo.com