Most interesting copier location

[sturmtrooper]

What's your most interesting service location?

I've got machines in prisons, which are often not the kind of interesting you want.

One on an island that was delivered by ferry then carried on horse drawn cart to its install location. I have to walk to it every time for service, up a rather steep hill.

A couple in an administration building between a set of locks so I can often look out a window at a large freighter going by during service calls.

Every year we rent a copier to the local fair grounds for a week.

[KenB]

Re: Most interesting copier location

We had a Canon NP 3825 at a gentlemen's club years ago.

Funny how much service that thing tended to need.

[roho]

Re: Most interesting copier location

A local university had a machine just down the hall from where they dissected human cadavers. Other techs refused to go there as the students often left the doors open. It was common to see brains sitting on a table, students dicing up a human arm or leg. The entire hallway smells like formaldehyde, even the water from the fountain.

Armoured car service, armed guards hover over you while in the vault. Very careful while I'm there.

[allan]

Re: Most interesting copier location

Nuclear testing facility, you get tested for radio activity on your way in and out.
Kruger national park speed limit is 50km/hour the machines are 100km apart.
All kinds of mines, hate induction tests and wearing PPE.
Jip had a strip joint before, wish it was classy, removing stick pompoms from the machine is not fun.
Hate going to any kind of embassy mostly the kind were a marine needs to follow you every were.
...

[subaro]

Re: Most interesting copier location

Not a copier but a fax machine. This was in a meat processing plant. I refused to go back there, i just could not take the stench, but the guys who worked there was comfortable. Big bank vault, very interesting indeed to see.

[nmfaxman]

Re: Most interesting copier location

The most interesting place was inside a mountain that used to store nukes.

Back in analog days we had pagers and 10 steps inside the mountain, signal lost.

Had to walk about 200 yards to where machine was.

[roho]

Re: Most interesting copier location

Forgot about one in a hospital emergency room, right in the room. I'd be working on the copier as they were wheeling patients in. I was there back years ago during SARS. I had to wear the full gown and mask, while trying to repair it, following their adopted SARS protocool. Most miserable location ever. Most hospitals have the machines in offices, not right in the emergency ward.

[subaro]

Re: Most interesting copier location

Cement pit. When it's dry, dust like cloud, when it rain, you have to go to the car wash everytime you exit the area, cause the sludge if left to get hard, damages the abs wheel sensors. Fantastic view to the pit though, but not like going there.

[sturmtrooper]

Re: Most interesting copier location

Nuclear testing facility, you get tested for radio activity on your way in and out.
Hate going to any kind of embassy mostly the kind were a marine needs to follow you every were.
...

That's what prisons are like. Have a guard following you around the whole time, until you don't.

Forgot about one in a hospital emergency room, right in the room. I'd be working on the copier as they were wheeling patients in. I was there back years ago during SARS. I had to wear the full gown and mask, while trying to repair it, following their adopted SARS protocool. Most miserable location ever. Most hospitals have the machines in offices, not right in the emergency ward.

We have a machine at the nurses desk in the local ER. I've heard some unfun things.

[George J]

Re: Most interesting copier location

I remember a couple of places that stood out.

One was an aeroplane parts manufacturer. Which meant really massive hangers where huge bits of wings (or whatever they had to make there) would be. I remember even feeling a bit woozy when I walked into an empty hanger. I guess my brain could not handle the fact that I saw a massive 'outdoor sized' space indoors. And because it was for aeroplane industry every bit and bolt had a huge stack of papers next to detailing every quality test and manufacturing spec in triplicate. So they had a lot of a machines and a lot of clicks.

Another interesting one was a decommissioned underground military base that consisted of hundreds of barracks to protect soldiers from a nuclear war. Now the base was sold and converted to business units, each former barrack housed a small start up or internet firm.
The only problem was finding the right customer there. Imagine really long underground hallways, all with concrete walls and identical metal doors and hardly a sign in sight. If you were lucky the company had a business card sized logo stuck on their door otherwise you had to go by the even smaller numbers written on the doors. To keep a long story short, you could easily get lost there and it was impossible to call somebody since there was no reception in what was literally a nuclear bunker.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Most interesting copier location

The Thumb Correctional Maximum Security Prison: Two hours to clear security in. Doing your service calls with the 12 tools you carried in. Then 1 hour to leave, and hopefully you don't need a part and have to do the whole thing all over again.

Restaurants (most restaurants) where everything has a heavy coat of cooking oil and/or extra crispy breading. And doing the baby step walk, because the floor is so slippery you can barely stay on your feet. And the copier is crammed into a 4 foot by 4 foot office with two other people (and you) moving in and out of the office constantly.

Grocery Store entry with the automatic doors, in which the temperature varies from 32F to 75F minute by minute, and you can stand in 6 inches of snowy slush while servicing the copier. Could humidity be a problem? I don't know, the paper looks like a wet rag.

The Gay Church where the signs all extol that: "God doesn't care about your sexual orientation." and the pastor encourages you to take off that suit coat because it's so hot in here.

The Print Shop where the racket is so loud that you can't tell if the copier is running or not, and they call for a noise. How could you tell? The only way I can tell the copier is running to to put my ear to the front cover, and feel the vibration.

The truck service facility where the vent over the copier blows diesel fumes and black particulate over the top of the copier. Why does it need cleaning so often?

How about a photo?:
Closet.jpg
Enduser asks: "How am I supposed to get jams out?" Maybe you could remove the copier from the coat closet? I had already removed 6 UPS packages piled on top of the machine. Door was closed, light off. Copiers are not like mushrooms. They don't thrive in dark moist places.

[brewster67]

Re: Most interesting copier location

We have a gold mine that takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours drive time each way, then when you get there they have 4 color machines and 4 b/w machines. Makes for a long day.

Then there are the remote schools. Fly in only. There is only one flight a day. So you are there over night even if it is a 15 minute fix. But there are no hotels or restaurants, so you back food and a sleeping bag. You end up either sleeping in the gym or the library.

And there is nothing like working in a prison when an alarm goes off. They handcuffed the guy that was prepossessing to the wall then run out and never said a word to me about what was going on. After 30 minutes of guards running around they got the alarm of and told me it was a fire alarm malfunction in one of the cells. The funny thing was watching the guy try to fill out the form with one hand handcuffed to the wall.

[Iowatech]

Re: Most interesting copier location

Huh, well, prisons have been covered already, so I guess that won't work. I'll only add that if you have a machine at a prison that's out in the open in the prisoner intake area, make sure to do basic troubleshooting. Some of those guys that pass through that area are pretty clever.
River locks have been covered as well, so that won't work either. I guess I'll only add if you have to work on a machine on a barge when Corps of Engineers are doing lock maintenance, make sure to look for ropes and baskets that can be used to lower your stuff onto the barge. The ladders in the side of the locks are really tiny.
I suppose that just leaves the liquor warehouse that was in a building that was originally set up as an old timey theater. The machine was in one of the balconies, and the stage was completely clear, but the floor where probably a couple of hundred audience members would have sat was filled by stacks of cases of liquor.
Maybe I could mention the time that I got to see one of NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon's actual race cars at the end of a service call, but I'm not going to do that because his crew was a bunch of jerks then. A perfectly good camera got tossed out the window of my car on the way home from that.

[jonhiker]

Re: Most interesting copier location

I was in a cath lab at a hospital while they were threading a catheter from a the patient's leg to his heart. One time at a paper mill, they gave us emergency breather kits in case of a chlorine spill.

Been in several prisons. One so many times, several of the guards used to greet me like an old friend!

[theengel]

Re: Most interesting copier location

Not a copier but a fax machine. This was in a meat processing plant. I refused to go back there, i just could not take the stench, but the guys who worked there was comfortable. Big bank vault, very interesting indeed to see.

I went to one at a slaughter house where they actually kill the cows. I told them what they needed (it would be about a 1 1/2 hour job) and then returned when they had the parts. Only the day I returned I happened to be coming down with the flu. It was so terrible. Between the smell of blood and the sounds of the cattle, I don't know how I made it without puking my guts up.