One of my business partners has given me a printer. It is a good printer, and because he is a photographer par excellence in his spare time, he makes sure that his pictures are top quality. So when a new printer is put on the market, he is generous to a fault about what to do with the one he is replacing, which is an honourable state of affairs, and one for which I am eternally grateful, because our printer packed up recently, and I'm using a pencil.
So today, all three of us in Scrobs Inc. had one of our regular get-togethers, with another old chum who seems to know where the money is, and from whom we have had some spiriting advice and assistance as well as a lot of friendly banter.
BP brought the previous printer with him to pass on to me and I was drooling at the switches, lights, etc, which these state-of-the-art machines seem to sport these days, and I was commencing to dream of being able to write pompous letters to 'The Times' and do other pursuits like scan old pics etc.
That was right up to the moment that the said printer was being tranferred from the boot of his car to the clutches of your very own Scrobs. We'd covered the printer with a plastic bin bag because it was raining, and BP was busily collecting the various items for me, while I said 'cheerio' to our guest and friend.
There was suddenly a resounding crash, and pieces of Epson were heard hitting the tarmac with quite a lot of anguish, and plenty of noise.
There was a deathly hush; I eventually regained the skin out of which I had jumped in terror, and BP was understandably very upset that the rain had made the plastic very slippery, and the printer had gone extremely south.
There was no need to remonstrate, you just don't need to do that because we are friends, and so I took the bag containing the bits of printer home and Mrs S and I examined the damage.
The lid was broken off, and several pieces of important plastic were rattling around in the bag, but, after several false starts, it all seems to be back in one piece, after a little glue here and there, and a choice version of various curse words everywhere, such that JRT has vanished clutching her ears with her front paws.
So tomorrow, when all has dried, I'll see if it works, but I'm puzzled by just one item (above) which doesn't seem to have a home, and I'd be delighted if anyone can recognise it and tell me where it goes!
I thank you!
22 comments:
Gaer lever!....which shows just how techno minded I am.
That's close enough Thudders - except you weren't to know that is only an inch long, and the handlebar bits are about half that...
I'm going to try and get the thing going without it, and see what happens!
Might be to keep the paper in the feed tray flat?
Otherwise suggest a foray to a local printer shop to ask them.
I had a pompous letter published in The Times once!
Like that idea Reevers - especially as I usually fill my own cartridges and spill ink everywhere...
They'll love me...
I'm glad to hear it Blues!
How are things with you these fine days?
('pompous letters to The Times' was pinched from NTNOCNews, from the Bamber Gascoigne sketch; nothing's sacred here...
Reevers, I've only just realised what you name means...doh...!
It looks like something has become unhinged?
Is that Calfy, Queen of Tech?
;-)
Mr S, hunkies dories thank yous. My dad used to write clevercloggs letters to the Times which never got published because the jokes were just a little bit too complicated, so he was mighty hacked off when mine was printed. I got loads of hatemail in response!
Calfy! There you are! xxxxx
Calfy! Superdoops to hear from you and greetings from the Alma Mater...
it is a bit too flimsy to be a hinge, it seems to be something which - oh you were joking weren't you...
(Baldrick why are you wearing a donkey's head - dribble...)
I did get a letter published in The Telegraph once Blues!
It was about underpants from M and S, and one pair was from Egypt, and the other from Israel, and both were in the same pack!
It's alright Mrs Elbers!
Calfy is fit an' well and residing here for a few days!
Nothing to worry about here, move along now!
And wear a hat in this cold weather...!
Actually, everybody kind enough to ask, the printer whirrs and squeaks as it should, but there is no printing actually happening at all. The paper goes through OK, but it seems the ink is not actually connecting with the paper...
I'm going to give it a right seeing to tomorrow, and the pompous letter to The Times will have to wait a few days...
It looks like a bit from the paper feed opto,it's the bit that is used as a switch,it tells you when the paper is being fed thru or not ,basically the bottom bit goes through an optoelectronices diode and transistor and switches things on or off,lets say to put it back will cost you more than the printer is worth.
Morning Henry!
Now that seems logical, only Martians could have designed something which did that! It is such a little piece of kit, and so insignificant, so presumably, it depends on whether it is in there or not, that pompous letters to 'The Times' eventually get published!
I can see why The Empire crumbled at the sight of the first ever printer, wandering through the embers towards Printing House Square, with a trailer load of these little plastic thnigs - already programmed to destruct the world following behind!
Today, I will enact that horrible scene in 'Trainspotting', and dive down beneath the surface of the murk to establish the source of the piece of plastic, and from thereonin, pledge to pay twentyseven notes in Argos to get a new one if it's not mendable...
Many thanks btw, it does seem like that doesn't it!
You didn't say what printer Scrobs, I am trying to figure out why you would send a "Letter" to the Times when I would have thought an "Email" would do, If you do take the thing apart look from the back and see if the gap between the platen the base where the paper runs has one of those thingy bobs,it has to have a lever of some sort to tell the printer it has paper, shame really an Epson you can get cheap refills for, an HP although superb quality, like the railways you need a mortgage of an arm and 3 legs to buy the cartridges.
Unless you use original cartridges then only use the printer drivers that way you won't get moaned at by the printer software complaining.
Morning again Henry,
It's an Epson DX9400F! Agree about HP with their space-age cartridges too. The Canon Mrs S uses has programmed cartridges, which apparently set fire to the village if you want to use alternatives...
We used to have one of the first Canon Bubblejets which lasted 15 years, and I refilled it by driving up to the garage and asking for half a litre of some red lead, and a bit of old oil from someone's sump.
It worked for ages, but like everything else, it really began to rattle so much you couldn't read what was printed anyway, and suddenly, the drain at the bottom exploded, sending ink all over the place...
When I've done my emails (except the one to The Times), I'm going to do the big inspection and may be some time...
Thank you for your thoughtful support, I really appreciate your concern and hope to report a result soon!
"such a little piece of kit, and so insignificant"
That reminded me of a mate who had a 3.5 Jaguar which one day developed an oil leak from somewhere near the bottom of the gearbox. The guy at the garage told him a seal had gone and a replacement was needed. When he asked how much it would cost, the garage man replied that the seal was about 40p, but he would have to drain all the oil out, drop the gearbox and unhitch all sorts of other things before he could get at the seal, replace it and then put it all back together again - so say about 500 quid all in.
As you say "such a little piece of kit, and so insignificant..."
Funnily enough Reevers, I managed to get it printing with a red script, because there was a new cartridge installed!
I think I'm going to try and poke around with them first, before worrying about the Jaguar item...
That's good news Scrobs. Talking about not being able to get anything to print maybe this will help relieve the tension.
It took me several minutes to see what you meant Reevers...
Ha ha ha!
BP is saying that the crash has caused a terminal problem to his beloved ex-printer, and is so sorry, that I dare not even mention it again!
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