Thank you Keith for sharing these helpful printer (and laundry) tips! Have a great Thanksgiving holiday.
Mike On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 10:43 AM Keith Lofstrom <[email protected]> wrote: > Older printers aren't exactly Linux, except my printers > haven't connected to any other OS since I owned them ... > > I have two 20yo HP4050 black-and-white laser printers, and a > slightly newer B&W HP4100 laser printer, recently purchased > surplus for $8 (!!). The 4050s made noises while they > printed. > > The 4100 paper-jammed, presumably why it was $8. Swapping > trays did not fix the problem; the tray it came with worked > in the noisy 4050s. I assumed (wrongly) the problem was in > the guts of the printer. > > So I read much of the 4100 service manual, tore it down and > inspected and cleaned it. It still paperjammed. At the end > of my patience, I searched the net for service information > ... and found a Youtube video about taking apart and > cleaning the INSIDE of a magnetic clutch in the PAPER TRAY. > > The clutch drives a counter-rotating wheel on the tray, > which pushes occasional multifeed pages back into the tray. > Or, if the clutch is jams, prevents paper from feeding. > > All three paper trays had quite a load of abrasive black > dust clinging to the magnet inside the clutch, so the > clutch did not turn very easily. > > The Youtube video guy thought the black dust was wear from > the steel band of the clutch, and he went through a somewhat > laborious but successful process to clean the dust off. > > I realized that the black dust is TONER (which is slightly > magnetic). The best way to keep it from clinging to the > magnet is to "short out" the magnet with a keeper (I used > the nose of steel pliers). The dust still clings to the > hurky magnet in addition to the pliers, but a LOT less. > I wiped off the dust with wet Kleenex. > > Like a toner spill, dust can get all over everything, so do > this over a wet paper towel. Or a regular cloth towel, so > you can ruin the towel and the clothes you wash it with. :-) > > Anyway, It took 15 minutes to fix the clutches in three > trays. Now, the 4100 works great, and the 4050s print much > more quietly. I will spend longer putting the HP 4100 back > together, then cannibalize something else for 3 more double > start screws to replace the ones missing when I got it. > > I write about my older HP printers and trays, but I'd guess > that other printers also use magnetic clutches in their > feed paths, so the above might help the rest of you. > > Keith > > -- > Keith Lofstrom [email protected] > _______________________________________________ > PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org > PLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > _______________________________________________ PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
