Mita DC-1656

[Guest]

Hello everyone.

I recently picked up a used Mita DC-1656 in an office clear out.

There were a few problems with it but, I have it working for the most part.

I have replaced the wiper, which makes the prints useable.

However, there are three more outstanding issues.

1) the output prints at an angle... a feeder misalignment I suspect.
2) there is overall blur... looks like it is out of focus. Very readable, but not sharp at all.
3) there is a page wide smudge or smear... an excess blurring I guess you could call it... about 3/4 of an inch wide, at around, 8/10 down the page.
4) Also the auto feeder accepts the page but will not eject it... but that is a minor issue right now... and trivial in the face of the rest.

I am not a copy technician precisely, but I was in the electronic service industry for many years.

I can find almost nothing online about this unit, but that is not surprising giving the age of it.

This machine it is for my personal use.

Any hints, tips suggestions, references, et al, that you are can offer would be most welcomed; I have nothing on the Mita but, the machine itself...

Thanks in advance.

V.

[10871087]

Re: Mita DC-1656

I recently picked up a used Mita DC-1656 in an office clear out.

the machine is at least 20 years old, i hope they paid you to haul it off.

I am not a copy technician precisely, but I was in the electronic service industry for many years.

then you should know what to do with a 20 year old piece of electo-mechanical anything

Any hints, tips suggestions, references, et al, that you are can offer would be most welcomed

on a more serious note,, the list of problems you gave sound like a list of problems all 20 year old copiers have and the DC-1656 had those when it was new, throw that thing out and if you really need a copier you can but a small multifunction at Walmart for about $150 bucks. I would send you a PDF manual but that machine was released about 5 years before the PDF was invented.

[Valen]

Re: Mita DC-1656

I thank you for taking the time to reply, but I am not in the market for a new copy machine.

Also, I need a machine that can make many hundreds of copies at a good price per print, a $150.00 low-end retail, two or three page, ink-jet, PoS, cannot do that.

If this Mita machine cannot be improved beyond what it now is, I'll have to look for a good, used, <b>commercial</b> copier... that is also cheap... (not likely)... but for now, I remain hopefull, for as always, money is a concern. 8)

[HP:guy]

Re: Mita DC-1656

Thank you for making my day!
Check the drum the red cylinder on the upper right for lines.
If you pull out the shaft you will be able to lift it out you can the see the cleaning blade.
check for wear and scratches.
The fuser under the orange cover make sure the rollers and bearings are in good condition.

[Valen]

Re: Mita DC-1656

Thank you for making my day!

That is my pleasure!

Check the drum the red cylinder...

I had that damn drum out when I replaced the wiper, (new one), and should have inspected it, but I was short on time.

BTW... would a well-used drum cause the blurriness? Meaning, would a new one sharpen the output?

make sure the rollers and bearings are in good condition.

I did inspect the bearings on the pull-out shaft and they were in good condition; no play or sloppiness... the rollers however, are a different matter. Needless to say, some of the plastics have dried up a bit... others are not so bad.

The fuser under the orange cover make sure the rollers and bearings are in good condition.

I am not sure what you meant by "fuser"... hmm... wait! OK.. it clicked... you mean under the drum... I'll inspect that. Thanks for the heads-up!

Check the drum the red cylinder on the upper right for lines.

... by "lines", I assume that you mean something removable.. I hope! 8) If not I'll have to consider tracking down a new drum... assuming it is worth the effort. I'll have to see if I can solve the other problems before spending any money, but I'll deal with that when the time comes.

Right now, I do know that the printer is salvageable, (a keeper), for the lesser jobs... I'm just not sure it will output print of the necessary quality, to do the big print jobs.



Let me ask you a question: Is there any way to focus that lens? A superficial look at it indicated that it was fixed.. unfocusable... though I did not remove it from the mount.

I suspect that the "angled printing" is due to a feeder misalignment or a worn or missing roller or some such... there's probably an adjustment or some intentional play in the mechanism, to allow for realignment; I will have to look closer after the feedback has stopped.

[HP:guy]

Re: Mita DC-1656

Have you cleaned the optics?

[Valen]

Re: Mita DC-1656

Have you cleaned the optics?

I cleaned off the lens itself, (one side), and five mirrors, (I might have missed one).

What I really need to do is to dismantle that unit, remove all the lenses, do a thorough cleaning, and reassemble.

I'll have another go at it tomorrow based upon your suggestions, and scrutinize the relevant parts.

[HP:guy]

Re: Mita DC-1656

don't remove the lens!
There 2 things left to sharpen the image.
1 replace the developer Powder.
2 I don't recommend this is because you really need a manual check the mirror distance or focal length.

[Valen]

Re: Mita DC-1656

don't remove the lens!
There 2 things left to sharpen the image.
1 replace the developer Powder.
2 I don't recommend this is because you really need a manual check the mirror distance or focal length.

OK.
So, unless I get a manual, I must stay away from focal adjustment... darn.


"Developer Powder"?

...obviously you are not talking about the toner.

Then, this must be a powder that lies underneath the drum and on the opposite side of the paper being printed...

Is that right?

If so, do you know of a part number and a good supplier?

[JR2ALTA]

Check if the hear roller gunked up with burnt on toner

[HP:guy]

Re: Mita DC-1656

The developer unit you slide out to remove the drum.

[Valen]

Re: Mita DC-1656

OK.

I pulled out the drum.

It has very small, barely perceptible, parallel lines, around the drum, continuous from left to right, that are not completely uniform. It looks to my eye, like normal wear and tear, over a long period of time.

There is a spot of roughness near one of the edges of the drum that I would think would manifest on the printed output, (remember I am not a copier technician so lack "experience" in determining drum damage; I could be right or wrong). However, these scratches do not line up with anything copied from my test sheets. It is about an inch or so long, and does not extend across the page like the "smear" that I wrote about previously.


Questions:

1) does a new drum have any such lines? or is it completely smooth and featureless?

2) Would such tiny lines create a "blurring" in the output?

3) Would buying a new drum improve the print quality over this drum?


Valen.

[JustManuals]

Re: Mita DC-1656

This Parts & Service Manual can now be purchased for $12.77 and downloaded immediately after payment from:


Just Manuals, The Internet's largest selection of manuals ~ Instant Downloads


Paul@justmanuals.com

[MR Bill]

Re: Mita DC-1656

Not sure where you are located but you can buy a $150 Canon laser copier at Office Depot or Staples? Not a ink jet copier. You have way to many problems in my opinion to be messing with this old machine. No parts really available. Drum if you can find one will be $50? Developer = $50. And it looks like you don't really know what you are doing? Going to make things worse? Anyway I will tell you to look at your paper tray and make sure the paper side fenses are in the proper position. If not touching side of paper you will get crooked copies. Feeder belt, the large white belt is worn out . Thats why your orignal will not exit. You might clean the glass with glass cleaner and then spray some rainex or some other slick slimmy cleaner on the glass to make the glass real slick. Will help paper slide on glass. Anti stactic glass cleaner? Have you cleaned your corona wires. That machine was prone to get the transfer wire dirty so clean it. The corona wires wear out and burn so you might replace the corona wires. That is not easy if you have never done it before. Anyway look at the bottom half of the machine , lift upper half of machine and look under where the drum would be and with a q tip and a little alcohol clean the wire. The wire is about the diamater of you hair. Very tiny. That is the simple things to do. Can't think of any more.

[Valen]

Re: Mita DC-1656

Not sure where you are located but you can buy a $150 Canon laser copier at Office Depot or Staples? Not a ink jet copier. You have way to many problems in my opinion to be messing with this old machine. No parts really available. Drum if you can find one will be $50? Developer = $50. And it looks like you don't really know what you are doing? Going to make things worse? Anyway I will tell you to look at your paper tray and make sure the paper side fenses are in the proper position. If not touching side of paper you will get crooked copies. Feeder belt, the large white belt is worn out . Thats why your orignal will not exit. You might clean the glass with glass cleaner and then spray some rainex or some other slick slimmy cleaner on the glass to make the glass real slick. Will help paper slide on glass. Anti stactic glass cleaner? Have you cleaned your corona wires. That machine was prone to get the transfer wire dirty so clean it. The corona wires wear out and burn so you might replace the corona wires. That is not easy if you have never done it before. Anyway look at the bottom half of the machine , lift upper half of machine and look under where the drum would be and with a q tip and a little alcohol clean the wire. The wire is about the diamater of you hair. Very tiny. That is the simple things to do. Can't think of any more.

Thanks for the advice; I do appreciate it!

I don't mind springing $50 for a drum; I would consider that to be a good investment... if it then produces better output.

I have five unopened boxes of toner... developer powder... that came with the machine, (free), so I won't be worried about powder any time soon.

I'll do the wire and glass cleaning. I did the glass cleaning already, and the paper now lifts off about a half sheet... where it barely moved it before, so I'll clean it again this time with something "slimy". I have RainEx here somewhere. I have anti-static fluid as well.

I don't know if replacing the corona wire is cost effective, but I will look into it. I have little worry about putting it on. I have thousands of hours of hands on experience with electro-mechanical devices, so I am not worried about doing the work... I just have zero experience, (or training), with photo copiers. It is a learning experience... but I'm learning fast! 8) And I am optimumly setup to do that.

With regard to the $150 discount copier, there is no way that one of those machines is going to handle the capacity that I need, (though there is no doubt that the output would be much clearer). Those things are junky at best and the target market is the home user who needs a few copies made per month; I need a thousand copies a week... maybe more.

If this resurrection does fail, (not there yet), then I'll have to look into buying a commercial copier. They are very expensive! So most likely I would be looking at buying a used one... then of course, I will right be back into the same situation that I am now in, but maybe a thousand dollars poorer... or more! That is just too high risk for me.

I will kick this horse until I know that it is dead! It is really, the only financial option at this point.

And like I said, I have already got it working well enough to be useful to me... just not good enough for the main copying jobs... so there is no financial loss... yet.

I will go forward... until I meet a wall; an insurmountable obstacle.

What I really need was someone knowledgeable on this machine to know if it was salvageable. You have all been nice enough to provide some of your knowledge and for that I thank-you all.

The only thing that hangs over my head at this point, is not knowing if this machine was ever capable of producing good quality output and if it was a peice of junk right from the start. In other words, was this a Ford Pinto to begin with? Or did it once run well, producing a good quality print? If it once did, then it should be able to do it again.

Am I mistaking this machine for a Work Horse when it never was? Only someone that was once familiar with them would know the answer to that question.

Feel free to comment... after all, you guys are the ones that have experience with photo copiers...