2 Mar
2013
2 Mar
'13
12:16 p.m.
Came home with a dumpster-find Laserjet 4 (with jetdirect board) yesterday.
Self-tests OK but prints with some minor repetitive ghosting on the pages
(it has almost a million pages on the clock).
There's some baked-on toner on the fuser roller which might[1] (most
probably!?) be the culprit, but gentle cleaning doesn't seem to get rid of
it; question is, how aggressive can I be with it? I don't know if the
blue-gray color is just a thin coating of something magical, or if it's a
hunk of solid metal which can be scrubbed.
[1] it was pretty filthy inside, but I stripped everything down around the
fuser and toner areas and cleaned everything there. I've not flipped the
thing over to check underneath yet, but I'd expect dirty rollers to cause
feed problems if anything, not image problems.
As it stands it's perfectly fine for home use doing stuff such as printing
out things from bitsavers, so I don't want to make it worse - but OTOH it'd
be useful as a general-purpose printer if the image problems were fixable
without pouring a bunch of cash into it.
cheers
Jules
2 Mar
2 Mar
12:22 p.m.
On Sat, Mar 02, 2013 at 02:16:19PM -0600, Jules Richardson wrote:
Came home with a dumpster-find Laserjet 4 (with jetdirect board) yesterday.
Self-tests OK but prints with some minor repetitive ghosting on the pages
(it has almost a million pages on the clock).
There's some baked-on toner on the fuser roller which might[1] (most
probably!?) be the culprit, but gentle cleaning doesn't seem to get rid of
it; question is, how aggressive can I be with it? I don't know if the
blue-gray color is just a thin coating of something magical, or if it's a
hunk of solid metal which can be scrubbed.
I have a HP1300 I am contemplating replacing the fuser mylar on as
the mylar is torn. You can separately replace the wrapper on the roller
http://www.brokenprinter.com
I can't yet endorse this company as I am still contemplating it ;)
It would be fun to take the printer apart and make it work. (FCVO)
This might be an option.
cheers
Jules
- Diane
--
- db at FreeBSD.org db at db.net http://www.db.net/~db
2:10 p.m.
On 03/02/2013 02:22 PM, Diane Bruce wrote:
On Sat, Mar 02, 2013 at 02:16:19PM -0600, Jules
Richardson wrote:
Hmm, not available for my LJ4 it seems - but $38 for a whole new fuser
assembly is pretty good (and about a third of what I'd seen them for
elsewhere). Looking at that site, it would seem that there's a teflon
coating on the upper roller and it's worn on mine, making the toner stick;
cleaning ain't gonna bring it back. The lower roller's in pretty bad shape too.
Maybe I'll run off a few "home consumption" docs just to make sure that
there aren't any other problems with it, then treat it to a new fuser assembly.
I'm not sure how to estimate how much life there is left in the toner
cartridge; I don't think the LJ4 maintains a count of how many pages have
been printed since last install (or more likely, last time the user
indicated that a new cartridge had been fitted).
cheers
Jules
Came home with a dumpster-find Laserjet 4 (with jetdirect board) yesterday.
Self-tests OK but prints with some minor repetitive ghosting on the pages
(it has almost a million pages on the clock).
There's some baked-on toner on the fuser roller which might[1] (most
probably!?) be the culprit, but gentle cleaning doesn't seem to get rid of
it; question is, how aggressive can I be with it? I don't know if the
blue-gray color is just a thin coating of something magical, or if it's a
hunk of solid metal which can be scrubbed.
I have a HP1300 I am contemplating replacing the fuser mylar on as
the mylar is torn. You can separately replace the wrapper on the roller
http://www.brokenprinter.com 
1:27 p.m.
There's some baked-on toner on the fuser roller
which might[1] (most
probably!?) be the culprit, but gentle cleaning doesn't seem to get rid of
it; question is, how aggressive can I be with it? I don't know if the
blue-gray color is just a thin coating of something magical, or if it's a
hunk of solid metal which can be scrubbed.
This is a teflon coating that should not be harmed. If you can't clean
it with scotchbrite, you can buy a new fuser roller. It will be some $10 and
your printer will work like new.
Try printerworks (google it), they have detailed catalogs and cheap
prices.
1:36 p.m.
On 03/02/2013 12:16 PM, Jules Richardson wrote:
As it stands it's perfectly fine for home use
doing stuff such as
printing out things from bitsavers, so I don't want to make it worse -
but OTOH it'd be useful as a general-purpose printer if the image
problems were fixable without pouring a bunch of cash into it.
Could the rollers simply be getting hard with age? If so, a treatment
with a xylene-methyl salicylate mixture may recondition the rubber
enough. Sold by the name "Rubber Re-nu", it's been known to typewriter
techs and the like for decades. But you can make your own easily
enough. It might help.
--Chuck
1:52 p.m.
--- On Sat, 3/2/13, Jules Richardson <jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> wrote:
Came home with a dumpster-find Laserjet 4 (with
jetdirect
board) yesterday. Self-tests OK but prints with some minor
repetitive ghosting on the pages (it has almost a million
pages on the clock).
There's some baked-on toner on the fuser roller which
might[1] (most probably!?) be the culprit,
When the teflon coating on the fuser roller starts to deteriorate, some of the toner
sticks to it - then it gets re-deposited further on down the page, causing a
"repeat".
It's also possible for a faulty toner cartridge to cause a similar repeat.
Measure the distance between the initial image, and the repeat. If it's right around 2
1/2", then it's being caused by the fuser. (3 1/8" on a LJ 4+). Repeats that
are 3 3/4" or 2" apart are caused by the toner cartridge.
Since you see baked-on toner on the roller, it *probably* stuck there because the coating
has been damaged in that spot. Then again, it's possible that some toner was spilled
and made it's way into the fuser and got stuck - hard to say. Try chipping it off with
your fingernail. Avoid scrubbing too hard with anything that would damage the coating -
treat it like you would a non-stick pan.
The heating roller in the LJ4 is a solid roller, unlike later printers that use film
rollers. They usually have a very long life, but, sooner or later, they deteriorate and
must be replaced. You can replace just the roller, available from some places online, or
the whole fuser.
Fortunately, parts for the LaserJet 4 are still readily available. It's one of my
favorite small printers, and is very reliable.
Speaking of old LaserJets - does anyone aside from me collect them? I've got a decent
collection older models, although somehow I don't have a LaserJet II or original
LaserJet. I do have the oddball 4V though.
-Ian
9:32 p.m.
On 03/02/2013 04:52 PM, Mr Ian Primus wrote:
Speaking of old LaserJets - does anyone aside from me
collect them?
I've got a decent collection older models, although somehow I don't
have a LaserJet II or original LaserJet. I do have the oddball 4V
though.
I have a LaserJet II that you can have, at least I'm pretty sure I
still have it.
I don't have an original LaserJet either; I'd like to find one too.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
3 Mar
3 Mar
4:56 a.m.
l?r 2013-03-02 klockan 13:52 -0800 skrev Mr Ian Primus:
--- On Sat, 3/2/13, Jules Richardson
<jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> wrote:
I have a LJ4 (with the extra below the unit paper mag) but the printer
has a trouble with pulling out the paper from the heating roller.
The paper ends up with a lot of wrinkles....
I was gonna try to replace the small rolers who pulls out the print.
Came home with a dumpster-find Laserjet 4 (with
jetdirect
board) yesterday. Self-tests OK but prints with some minor
repetitive ghosting on the pages (it has almost a million
pages on the clock).
There's some baked-on toner on the fuser roller which
might[1] (most probably!?) be the culprit,
When the teflon coating on the fuser roller starts to deteriorate, some of the toner
sticks to it - then it gets re-deposited further on down the page, causing a
"repeat".
It's also possible for a faulty toner cartridge to cause a similar repeat.
Measure the distance between the initial image, and the repeat. If it's right around
2 1/2", then it's being caused by the fuser. (3 1/8" on a LJ 4+). Repeats
that are 3 3/4" or 2" apart are caused by the toner cartridge.
2 Mar
2 Mar
2:19 p.m.
On 03/02/2013 02:16 PM, Jules Richardson wrote:
Came home with a dumpster-find Laserjet 4 (with
jetdirect board) yesterday.
On the back of that, has anyone here got one of these set up with Linux?
I'm not sure if doing so with it on the network via jetdirect makes the
process significantly different vs. attaching it direct to a machine via
parallel or RS232 (I last set up a printer via Linux in 1995 or so, I
think, and there seems to be quite the range of big bits of software around
to handle Linux printing these days).
The plain ol' 4 isn't on the hplip supported list (but then nor is it on
the unsupported list, either) Maybe it just magically works...
cheers
Jules
3 Mar
3 Mar
4:51 a.m.
l?r 2013-03-02 klockan 16:19 -0600 skrev Jules Richardson:
On 03/02/2013 02:16 PM, Jules Richardson wrote:
Over the net the printer looks and behaves lika a SunOS 5 machine with
one connected printer so CUPS can treat it as another lp-daemon but CUPS
also has a special alternative for JetDirect devices.
It is easy.
Came home with a dumpster-find Laserjet 4 (with
jetdirect board) yesterday.
On the back of that, has anyone here got one of these set up with Linux?
I'm not sure if doing so with it on the network via jetdirect makes the
process significantly different vs. attaching it direct to a machine via
parallel or RS232 (I last set up a printer via Linux in 1995 or so, I
think, and there seems to be quite the range of big bits of software arou 
2 Mar
2 Mar
2:54 p.m.
Came home with a dumpster-find Laserjet 4 (with jetdirect board) yesterday.
Self-tests OK but prints with some minor repetitive ghosting on the pages
(it has almost a million pages on the clock).
There's some baked-on toner on the fuser roller which might[1] (most
probably!?) be the culprit, but gentle cleaning doesn't seem to get rid of
it; question is, how aggressive can I be with it? I don't know if the
blue-gray color is just a thin coating of something magical, or if it's a
hunk of solid metal which can be scrubbed.
Certainly on the CX and SX engines it _is_ a thin coating, I've always
assemed to be PTFE. It can tear very easily, when you get black streaks
down the printout.
How much doe a eeplacement roller cost? Do the PrinterWorks have it?
I wonder if heating it (w.g. with a hot air paintstripper) would soften
the toner and make it easier to chift?
-tony
4312
days inactive
4313
days old
10 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
cclist＠sydex.com -
db＠db.net -
ian_primus＠yahoo.com -
jules.richardson99＠gmail.com -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
pu1bzz.listas＠gmail.com -
stefan.skoglund＠agj.net