Cheapest TECH ever ?

[NeoMatrix]

Re: Cheapest TECH ever ?

One of our techs just used his soldering iron to weld the broken plastic parts back together and leave it that way rather then go back with the new part. Like plus 10 for getting the customers machine back up and running ASAP but minus several hundred for leaving it that way. In the end I had to confiscate his soldering iron.

I've plastic weld a few parts back togther to get a customers machine going.
I or another Tech usually go back with the proper parts though.

Unless the customers Head Office policy incorporates the
TightasAfishes with machine maintenance policy.

[NeoMatrix]

Re: Cheapest TECH ever ?

Goin for the gusto here. That underwear deal is pretty screwed up. XD

Re: Youthful exuberance.
I was going to add a comment about the latter underwear topic and holding them in his teeth while working.
But, it may have been something in discussion about recycled family apparel....

The youthful years, if only we could have known back then what we know now.....

All in fun ...

[fixthecopier]

Re: Cheapest TECH ever ?

I don't use wd-40. As far as recycling used parts, there is nothing wrong with it as long as you are sure the parts are good. My warehouse is full of machines that will be sold for scrap if they are not moved in a couple of years. If a bizhub fuser usually last me between 300,000 and 400,000, I have no problem pulling one from a machine that has 50 or 60,000 on it and reusing it. To not do this is costing my company money. Throwing out good parts that could have been used is wasteful. We have sent machines to the scrap yard with less than 30,000 on it. Part of my job is to keep cost down. I also work for a small company. If I put a bad used part on, it will be my ass doing the repeat call to fix it so I am careful as to what I select. It is not an easy task to keep cost down while watching numbers like repeat calls. With paying customers, they often need to save money on used parts as I sell them for a lot less. I am honest and tell them what they are getting and the odds of it going bad. I have seen us sell a new machine to someone a month or so after getting new $300 drums. You bet your ass I am going to reuse those. The measure of my success aside from the end of year numbers are customers that are happy, or at least not complaining. It is a balancing act.

[Copier Addict]

Re: Cheapest TECH ever ?

Disagree there--some machines are just overscrewed. Especially when a single screw hides under a layer of 3 covers... just to make things take 3 times as long.

Sounds like you are describing every Konica Minolta ever made. I never understood why they make it so difficult to just remove covers. You go to remove the cover you need off and realise it has a tab that slides under the adjacent cover and so does that cover, and so on, until you have had to remover every cover.
I'm not lazy, but that is just unnecessary.

[Phil B.]

Re: Cheapest TECH ever ?

One of our techs just used his soldering iron to weld the broken plastic parts back together and then leave it that way rather then go back with the new part. Like plus 10 for getting the customers machine back up and running ASAP but minus several hundred for leaving it that way. In the end I had to confiscate his soldering iron.

when I do something like the "soldering gun" fix.. I always inform the customer what I did to get them back up and running.. but also inform them I will have to get a new part and replace it.

[Phil B.]

Re: Cheapest TECH ever ?

I don't use wd-40. As far as recycling used parts, there is nothing wrong with it as long as you are sure the parts are good. My warehouse is full of machines that will be sold for scrap if they are not moved in a couple of years. If a bizhub fuser usually last me between 300,000 and 400,000, I have no problem pulling one from a machine that has 50 or 60,000 on it and reusing it. To not do this is costing my company money. Throwing out good parts that could have been used is wasteful. We have sent machines to the scrap yard with less than 30,000 on it. Part of my job is to keep cost down. I also work for a small company. If I put a bad used part on, it will be my ass doing the repeat call to fix it so I am careful as to what I select. It is not an easy task to keep cost down while watching numbers like repeat calls. With paying customers, they often need to save money on used parts as I sell them for a lot less. I am honest and tell them what they are getting and the odds of it going bad. I have seen us sell a new machine to someone a month or so after getting new $300 drums. You bet your ass I am going to reuse those. The measure of my success aside from the end of year numbers are customers that are happy, or at least not complaining. It is a balancing act.

agree with using SOME parts like that.. If I do I inform the customer.. paying customers never have a problem with it. Contracts wellllllllllllllllllll.
When I was service manager for a larger company.. when we pulled a machine from the field ... we always ran the consumables page and config... noted on there any problems and those sheets were affixed to the machine so my guys knew what was good or bad.. after I left, the next mgr said " takes too much time to do that" so the machines were sent to the bone pile... I was informed later by one of my best techs, he started going back and tagging those machines simply because the boys were robbing parts that weren't working. The new mgr was informed by CEO to re-instate the 'tagging' of bone yards machines... he quit the co.

[ZOOTECH]

Re: Cheapest TECH ever ?

Sounds like you are describing every Konica Minolta ever made. I never understood why they make it so difficult to just remove covers. You go to remove the cover you need off and realise it has a tab that slides under the adjacent cover and so does that cover, and so on, until you have had to remover every cover.
I'm not lazy, but that is just unnecessary.

What you are describing sounds like the Lexmark series.

[theengel]

Re: Cheapest TECH ever ?

HP went through this strange evolution where they started with too many screws (think of the CLJ 5000 formatter cover) and instead of decreasing the screws, they just did away with them. Now, everything is held together by plastic tabs. Sickening.

[Lagonda]

Re: Cheapest TECH ever ?

The cheapest person around here is the CEO. I got carpeted for buying a 1000 plastic A5 sleeves at a $1 each to tape to back of the copiers to keep the log books in. He just looked at the bill for a grand but didn't grasp the fact that it was only a dollar per copier that I was spending. However if I need to buy in a $1500 controller board for fault finding that isn't a problem. Go figure that one out!

[Lance15]

Re: Cheapest TECH ever ?

HP went through this strange evolution where they started with too many screws

Thinking of the Color LaserJet 4600/4650 formatter and DC controller pans...............excessive screws

[blackcat4866]

Re: Cheapest TECH ever ?

Thinking of the Color LaserJet 4600/4650 formatter and DC controller pans...............excessive screws

The Okidata's were the worst for that. I'll bet I had 100 screws to get the controller box open. Every 40mm all the way around the box. =^..^=

[Geo]

Re: Cheapest TECH ever ?

They were oh so much fun....and don't forget the ribbon connectors...

[rapidocument]

Re: Cheapest TECH ever ?

I was told by another tech back in the day -when Xerox used those selenium drums- that there was a guy who didn't use the drum liquid pumice stuff (with gloves and sponges and all), but instead he used to SPIT on the drum and rub the surface with a sheet of paper...I wish I had seen that.

[theengel]

Re: Cheapest TECH ever ?

Back when I polished drums, (before the days of cartridges), I took a used drum, and polished different parts of it using different chemicals to see which ones worked best. This was on a mita. Seems to me turtle wax didn't do too bad.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Cheapest TECH ever ?

I was told by another tech back in the day -when Xerox used those selenium drums- that there was a guy who didn't use the drum liquid pumice stuff (with gloves and sponges and all), but instead he used to SPIT on the drum and rub the surface with a sheet of paper...I wish I had seen that.

I never spent much time polishing selenium drums. Once the plated coating is scratched, no amount of polishing can put that plating back. It's a complete waste of time.

But I can just imagine somebody spitting on the drum and polishing it with paper ... then replacing that drum once it's completely ruined. I know a couple of techs that did exactly that sort of thing. =^..^=