What was your biggest oopsy on a call??

[djbass]

Maybe scratching TWO Di450 drums in a row

Not sure what a Di450 drum is worth, but I can't describe the feeling of scratching a brand new iR5000 drum (approx $2500 dealer price) because a screw was stuck to the dev roller.

I also recall demonstrating to a customer how to install a toner and removing the plastic strip before installing in the machine covering both of us head to toe in toner.

My most memorable though was my first day as a trainee copier tech. I had moved a machine while I was working on it so that the sorter was sitting under a low laying bench top. Forgetting to move it back to its original position I switched the machine on to test it and watched in horror as all 20 bins smashed themselves into the bench top one after the other.

[Steve Perks]

I remember one from my early days at Xerox.

Can't remember the model now, but it was a low volume machine.
I was new to the industry and inexperienced.
It was a clamshell model and I was checking around the fuser area with the power still on, not realising that even though the clamshell was open, the end of the fuser lamp was still live.

I got a shock from the lamp and the reflex action caused me to jerk my hand back, busting my nose in the process.

I left a bloody trail on the customers carpet all the way to the toilet.

I've kicked and broken 2 platen glasses in my 20 years in the industry and dropped a massive waste toner bottle from an old Xerox 1075, creating a toner pyramid around my shoes and on the customers carpet.

Maybe I should stop there...I've had no 'incidents' for aprox 15 years and wouldn't like to temp fate.

[iMind]

After installing an aficio 2045 it was time to teach some operators how the machine worked, everybody around me hearing what I had to say, imagine what I sneezed and the hole touchscreen was full of snot, yeah snot all over no cloth nearby, fuck what a feeling, that was some years ago, but still when I get a call for that customer I feel sick...

[laserman06]

First got into this business working on a Xerox 1090 and cross the legs of a relay and sent 110 thru the 24v circuit. Not a pretty sight. Ever see a chip explode off of a circuit board.

Xerox 9790-Was doing a fuser trim and didn't get the wiper holder installed properly. Thermostat located on wiper holder. Leave the account and get a call ten minutes later. Copier is on fire. Told operator to turn off and unplug copier. By the time I got back, the fuser had got so hot that it had started melting the wiper. Was not burning, just smoking enough to set off the halon system.

13 years later and still in the business.

[pspahr]

About 10 years ago I was at an account which, luckily, was a hospital. I was working on a Ricoh FT8680. Those machines had a thing about jamming fairly regularly if nothing had been done to them in a while. Of course they'd get a delay jam, the customer would open the drawer, and they'd shred a sheet of paper in the feed unit inlet guide. Occassionally another sheet of paper would get behind the drawer (still happens even on new equipment) and get crammed into the drawer connector.....

Well on this day that had occurred. The machine was a big thing (ran 11x17 LEF) and they had it in a virtual closet. Literally just wide and deep enough to fit in the room. Opening the front doors would touch the opposing wall. Well, I shut off the copier, pulled out the tray, got down on my back and with hemostats in hand, went to pull out the paper from the connector.....forgetting that the tray heaters come on when the main power was shut off. 100Vac across the two pins in the connector and my hemostats completed that connection.

I already had a bum shoulder from a previous accident (running network cabling) and this posistion my body was in and my reaction to the shock easily dislocated my shoulder again. Picture now if you will a man, on his back, one shoulder touching a wall, the other deep inside a machine, screaming, in a hospital. Had I been watching I'd have laughed my azz off, certainly. Luckily, the nurses who got there first were much more professional (in other words they waited to laugh when I couldn't see). Anyway, to get out of the copier they had to roll me ONTO the dislocated shoulder in order to allow my arm to come out of the machine due to the confined space.

Anyway, no matter the pain it caused, physically and mentally, I still loved those old FT8680/90/8780/90 machines. I must be in a world of my own.

[ebm]

Was working on a noise call on the old Sharp chain/sprocket drive machines. I was taught to trace which gear or sprocket might be causing the noise by pushing on it and see if the pitch of the noise changes. Funny how the noise changes when your finger runs through the chain drive! Had to tell the customer another tech would be coming by to finish the call as I needed to go to the hospital to get my finger stitched up. When the tech arrived the customer told him to look for the parts of my finger I left behind. Never lived that incident down.

[PaulLoveless]

I am in my first year of being in the industry and so mine is not nearly as exciting.

I was troubleshooting a squealing noise in a mp4500. It was coming from around the fuser drive section. So I'm digging around there and I think I see what the issue is: A noisy bushing.
So I ever so carefully try to put a dash of Tri-Flow on both sides of the bushing.
Well, to get the back, I had to like sort of look up at it and lean funny to hit it. So I'm awkwardly squatting with one hand on the triflow and one hand holding on the copier top.
As I'm doing that the customer shouts "Hey Look Out!", she hollers it like she is serious so I simply react and just kind of back out of the copier. I look around and she is messing around with another co worker who she threw like a foot ball at or something...any ways,
I look at the thing of tri flo still in my hand and its cut, like hanging in half.
It's dripping off my hand, but whats worse is, it spilled all over the main motor area and fuser drive section.
So I'm like Gosh Damnit and dap what I can up with some blue rags and wash up then put the covers on.

Lol, well next day, I get a call saying there are spots all over the copier and everything inside the copier has some sort of "gel" on it....

I had to take that thing damn near down to the frame to clean it all out.

[Mr Spock]

I remember one from my early days at Xerox.

Can't remember the model now, but it was a low volume machine.
I was new to the industry and inexperienced.
It was a clamshell model and I was checking around the fuser area with the power still on, not realising that even though the clamshell was open, the end of the fuser lamp was still live.

I worked on that machine and did the same thing....
The only thing worse was I had a machine I could not find an issue with but could duplicate the problem. The local specialist came in and was showing me how to adjust the optics alignment to get rid of this issue. His screw driver hit the lamp (still live with the power off) and had a large blue arc, a loud pop and the screwdriver stuck in the ceiling panel. He had some choice words to say as well.
The worst thing I can remember was a Xerox 5028 with bad shocks (found out the hard way) and here is how....

I opened the clamshell put my head in to find that hidden screw and with one hand on the screwdriver.......Bang the top falls down and nearly traps me in the machine.... Luckily the customer had just come over to check on me when it happened and lifted it off of me. Guess what the first part I looked up was......

[Steve Perks]

Guess what the first part I looked up was......

Gas springs?

Oh, those heady days of 5028's

[blackcat4866]

Was working on a noise call on the old Sharp chain/sprocket drive machines. I was taught to trace which gear or sprocket might be causing the noise by pushing on it and see if the pitch of the noise changes. Funny how the noise changes when your finger runs through the chain drive! Had to tell the customer another tech would be coming by to finish the call as I needed to go to the hospital to get my finger stitched up. When the tech arrived the customer told him to look for the parts of my finger I left behind. Never lived that incident down.

I thought I was the only one who had done this.

I was trying to get the squeal out of Mita DC3285, and I had my right forefinger on the registration clutch. It was definitely the registration clutch.

Right about that time somebody tapped me on the shoulder, and when I turned to look the cast iron clutch hub grabbed hold of my finger and pulled most of the flesh off the fingertip. Fortunately for me the main drive motor stalled and pulled a main drive error.

This wasn't the worst part though. My finger was still between the two gears. It took 3 tries to yank my finger free.

I must have let out quite a yelp, because when I came up from behind the copier 15 people were looking at me. Blood was squirting out of my finger and they're just looking at me. I had to wrap it up myself, and button up the back of the copier.

I came back a week later to try again on that registration clutch. It looked as though someone had been murdered in the back of this copier, flesh and blood all over the place. All mine.