Have Calcomp 565 plotter - looking for pen mechanism

[COURYHOUSE at aol.com]

I have  same  problem here
 
we have the large   size  calcomp  early plotter that  actually has an ibm 
tag on it!
 
it  came to us  with a hp 3000 series  3  with a  parallel  interface board 
 for the   3000... I used to enjoy  playing with it.
 
back in the  days when museum was in a suite next to  computer  exchange 
inc in phx  things were really openly displayed and I suspect  years ago some 
early collector  stole the pun box having little  pens  and the solenoid  
head thing.
 
I  used to have a  spare  solenoid  only but  do  not  know  where it  
ended up...
 
 
the  little  fitted  wood  box was  cool  though!
 
 
In a message dated 8/19/2016 9:51:37 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,  
pete at petelancashire.com writes:

Unless  you are willing to make you own, they are very, very rare. Two have
shown  up on Ebay in the past 3 maybe 4 years that I'm aware of. I was lucky
I got  one that due to its description I was either the only bidder or close
to  it. The one that sold recently went for a lot more, $500 or more.  My
suggestion decide what your willing to pay and keep your eyes open, If  you
in an area that would have been where the plotters would have been  used,
start asking around. Someones grandfather took one home or something  like
that and it will be in a garage sale for $1.  So put some ad on  Craigslist
with pretty much nothing other then some good photos, the owner  will not
have a clue what your talking about. Start asking around, etc etc  etc.

good luck

-pete

On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 7:13 PM,  Jack Rubin <j at ckrubin.us> wrote:

> I returned from the recent  VCF-West with one more item off my 
ever-shorter
> "must have" list - I  am the new owner of a very nice Calcomp 565 drum
> plotter. Even better,  I was able to find the perfect shipping container 
for
> it at Weird  Stuff!
>
> Photos here - http://tinyurl.com/calcomp565  .
>
> The only problem, unfortunately a major one, is that it is  completely
> lacking the pen mechanism. This is actually a multi-part  assembly that
> threads into the carriage on the front rails of the  plotter and lifts the
> pen up and down in response to z-axis commands  from the controller. It 
is a
> solenoid that uses the pen as the core  and was thus supplied in many
> configurations depending on the kind of  pen used. I'd be happy with any
> bits of any configuration if you might  have an idea where to find such
> items.
>
> BTW, I'm well  aware (and deeply envious!) of the fine work done by Tom
> Mikulic who  recreated the entire mechanism from scratch -
>  http://tomislavmikulic.com/proj-565.html .
>
> Thanks for any help  you can provide,
>  Jack
>
>
>