Have some fun...Been in this biz so long....

[kingarthur]

Re: Have some fun...Been in this biz so long....

Here's another one I thought of, I remember changing the "light bulb" (yes a regular household style bulb) is a 3M secretary "dual spectrum process", it took about 5 mins for 1 copy! I believe this was the process, you would take a special coated pink sheet and with the original place on glass, turn timer for exposure, then take the pink sheet and place on top a blank special coated sheet, then feed both of them into machine for heat transfer.

I also remember most of what has been posted. I remember the "SharpFax" (they used fax in their model #'s "SFxxx" name for many years) 726 with the bunny brush, and pack of 10 masters, changed every 600 copies, maint kit was btl of dev, toner, and pack of 10 masters = 6,000 pages. Same principle with the SF-741, 10 masters, etc but was a disaster with master clamp jams! maximum copies at one time was 20, knob would ratchet down mechanically as "moving" exp glass touched it each time it scanned, and yes it scanned every time, don't forget this was before digital so no way to retain the scanned image.

Can't say I missed those days. And to think I was worried when they made the transition from analog to digital.

ha-ha keep adding to this post. Another thing came to mind, anyone remember the Sharp that talked? Had like 10 voice commands in a weird robotic voice. Every customer turned it off. Scared the hell out of a lot of secretaries in offices by themselves!

People never believe me when I tell them about 3m box, think there was an orange one, and possibly a blue one, people were always putting the pink sheet the wrong way round, if I remember the talking sharp could've been the 781, remember the sharps had a separation tape under the drum, which were always splitting, think they came with a new master,

some of the sharp faxes were a nightmare, when they misfed, you had to remove the roll of paper, then switch it on with the roll removed, otherwise it didn't clear the misfeed, had a colleague who kept diagnosing a board fault, as the misfeed wouldn't clear, he just couldn't get it....

[copiertec]

Re: Have some fun...Been in this biz so long....

finishers with 20 or more trays moving up and down, or worse still the dreaded Tandem finisher with 40 or 50 trays

Clients would put the trash can under them and the finishers would start snapping the exit tray guides off then finally error out. Back then they were called "sorters".

[Coptech]

Re: Have some fun...Been in this biz so long....

From what I remember there was a greater threat from the polishing compound than there was from the selenium.

Selenium, Telurium, and Arsenic. Said the Arsenic was an accumulative poison that built up in your body until one day you lost weight and the concentration level was too high in proportion to your body weight. ...still, gloves were for wussies.

[copiertec]

Re: Have some fun...Been in this biz so long....

Selenium, Telurium, and Arsenic. Said the Arsenic was an accumulative poison that built up in your body until one day you lost weight and the concentration level was too high in proportion to your body weight. ...still, gloves were for wussies.

I remember when I started in the biz and one of the senior techs told me not to breath in this powder because it contained arsenic, I thought he was kidding at first.

[Coptech]

Re: Have some fun...Been in this biz so long....

I remember when I started in the biz and one of the senior techs told me not to breath in this powder because it contained arsenic, I thought he was kidding at first.

Seems like as good a reason as any to stay fat.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Have some fun...Been in this biz so long....

...
Remember the 350, and the power supply caps (I think there were 6) that blew from heat, and there was a kit that included higher temp ones?

I did a bunch of those 350 power supply kits. I might still have one around here someplace (the kit). =^..^=

[slimslob]

Re: Have some fun...Been in this biz so long....

finishers with 20 or more trays moving up and down, or worse still the dreaded Tandem finisher with 40 or 50 trays

Clients would put the trash can under them and the finishers would start snapping the exit tray guides off then finally error out. Back then they were called "sorters".

Gradco used to make ones that could be attached to lust about anything.

[copyman]

Re: Have some fun...Been in this biz so long....

Gradco used to make ones that could be attached to lust about anything.

Oh yea the gradco "sorters" with metal trays. Ouch! Light fuse, getaway

[allan]

Re: Have some fun...Been in this biz so long....

Polishing selenium drums, cleaning ozone from optics, duplex jams, restringing corona wires, lots of toner vacuuming, cleaning magnetic and spring clutches.

Drum shoe adjustments after prior tech turned up the charge corona voltage to darken the copies (so he could leave).

WD-40 mess all over the machine from some tech lubing the drive chain.

Melted fusing units from techs using solder in place of (or bypassing) thermal fuses.

K clank k clank k clank k clank....
The sound a selenium drum makes when it rolls of the table an hits the floor.

[guitar9199]

Re: Have some fun...Been in this biz so long....

I remember having to wear a suit and tie running service calls.

..... using dispersant to try and clean up the liquid toner stains off my necktie.

..... having to use a VOM to adjust bias voltage on a developer during a PM.

..... Moving platens!!

..... Polishing a Selenium/Arsenic drum.

[allan]

Re: Have some fun...Been in this biz so long....

I remember working on Gestetner 2130, don't remember the Mita number....Anyway, unplugging and plugging the unit, you had a 50/50 chance of blowing the Power Supply. Sadly, took a little while to this figure this out. P.S became standard car stock.

Use to service the Gestetner hand crank duplicators but that was as recent as 2002.. only in Africa.

Thinking some of you are so old you could have met Mr Chester Carlson...

[allan]

Re: Have some fun...Been in this biz so long....

..... Moving platens!!

O yes a bugger to set up on a table. Again Africa got them late.

[BaconSteve]

[HenryT2]

Re: Have some fun...Been in this biz so long....

I remember having to wear a suit and tie running service calls.

..... using dispersant to try and clean up the liquid toner stains off my necktie.

..... having to use a VOM to adjust bias voltage on a developer during a PM.

..... Moving platens!!

..... Polishing a Selenium/Arsenic drum.

We were lucky and did not have to wear suits. Button down collar shirts and nice trousers . We were glad when the owner of the company allowed us to wear those ' clip-on ties ' .
Still , out of habit , one of the first things we took out of the tool case to put within easy reach , were the 12 inch super-duty extremely sharp scissors : just in case your tie came out of your shirt.
AHH the good old days .

[slimslob]

Re: Have some fun...Been in this biz so long....

We were lucky and did not have to wear suits. Button down collar shirts and nice trousers . We were glad when the owner of the company allowed us to wear those ' clip-on ties ' .
Still , out of habit , one of the first things we took out of the tool case to put within easy reach , were the 12 inch super-duty extremely sharp scissors : just in case your tie came out of your shirt.
AHH the good old days .

When I first started the company I worked for was a full line office equipment dealer. We had one tech who worked primarily on mechanical adding machines, Olivetti mechanical calculators and Olivetti and Sundstrand mechanical posting machines. He also kept a pair of shears very close at hand. If your tie got caught in the moving mechanism you got pulled down the machine in about 2 seconds.