Laserwriter IIf

[jmacz]

My turn at trying to get one of these Laserwriter II printers up and running.

I received a relatively good looking Laserwriter IIf earlier this year (@techstep picked it up for me from an e-cycler). I ended up going back to that e-cycler the following week and picking up a banged up Laserwriter IInt as well figuring I could maybe use the parts from the two to get one working on.

Neither powered up.

I decided to work on the IIf since it appeared to be in better condition. Recapped everything, logic board, PSU, high voltage unit, fan motor assembly, all the sub boards underneath the printer. Everything.

Post the recap, the IIf powered up! BUT after a few minutes, two red lights popped up.

Having read the threads I figured it was something with the fuser. Tested resistance/continuity per the service manual and found the fuser was dead. Took it out and replaced it with the fuser from the IInt.

This time I didn't see the two red lights and after warming up, the printer attempted to print its initial test page. BUT failure.

One sheet was picked up (as expected) but the main roller only sucked it in about 1 to 2 inches, not enough to reach the next set of rollers and then it stops there complaining about a paper jam. I found a NOS roller assembly on eBay as well as a transfer pad. Replaced both on the IIf since both the rollers on the IIf and the IInt felt super hard (didn't realize at the time I could try using isopropyl alcohol to recondition it). Once I got the new unit, it felt more grippy than the two I had.

Installed the roller and the new transfer pad. Same problem. Ugh.

Tried manual feeding one sheet in. Same problem.

Eventually tried taking all the paper out and only leaving two sheets in the paper cartridge. This time it worked!

Paper got fed in properly, and I got a really blobby printout. I then put all the sheets back in (to the normal max capacity). Doesn't work. Pull out all but two sheets. Works. Put half the sheets back in. Works. Put in a little more than half the sheets. Doesn't work. Hmm... There are two springs on the paper cartridge but they seem ok? Something's obviously mechanically not right so will have to look at this more later.

Tried to print a few more test prints and on the third, two red lights again. Ugh!

Tested continuity / resistance in various areas as the service manual suggests. All good. Put it back in, still two red lights. What the hell?

Pulled it out, put it back in. It works. Huh?

Figured it must be something with the connection? I used deoxit on the connector. Plugged it back in and it's working. Haven't seen the two red lights again so I'm hoping it holds up.

Test prints all have smearing all over the place.



Having seen the other threads, I figured the wiper blade is toast. I pulled the toner cartridge out and took a look at the drum. Toner all over it. ChatGPT told me I could try cleaning it with a soft cloth and some isopropyl alcohol. Sounded bad but decided to try. Gently cleaned all the toner off the drum. Some places it was really caked on. But the IPA loosened it and finally got a clean drum. Tried printing some more and it was a bit better but the blade must be bad as each time, there was a ton of toner left on the drum.

I then swapped in the IInt's toner cartridge. A bit better. I tried printing 5 more times. Each time the image got better.



Ended up here with the stock wiper blade on the toner cartridge from the IInt. There's still some horizontal lines... a sharper/darker one in the middle of the page (seen above) and some shaded dark band at the top of the page. The one at the top of the page is always there in the same spot. The one in the middle of the page moves around between prints. So the middle of the page one is probably the drum wiper blade. The top of the page one must be from something pulling the page in. It's not the main roller as that would only leave a mark in the top center. But this shaded area is across almost the entire top so it's something else.

Maybe it's clean enough where I declare victory and move on?

I did try buying a NOS toner cartridge from eBay. It was sealed, unopened. Still had the instructions as well as the replacement pad for the fuser inside. But printing with it resulted in the same result as the first image. Blade's probably toast.

 

[volvo242gt]

Seems we both are in the same boat. In my case, going to be swapping parts from the IIf to the IINT I picked up earlier today.

 

[jmacz]

Cool! Let me know how it goes.

It's tough because it looks like all the sources for blades is now exhausted. I've tried the various vendors mentioned in the threads here and they are all discontinued/out-of-stock. Also searched via Google and ChatGPT, all discontinued. Similar issue with finding fusers. I think those are the two parts that are going to present the biggest problems in keeping these printers running for the long term?

I have not yet opened up the toner cartridge to extract the wiper blade. The horrible NOS toner cartridge I got from eBay, I'll probably experiment with that one. I'm wondering if the following two options would be something I can DIY at home:

a.) Make a replacement for the wiper blade in TPU via 3D printing. People have done squeegees before in TPU and I think it's a similar concept. ChatGPT is telling me that that some toner blades are indeed made from TPU but the trick is going to be getting a uniform and straight edge.

b.) Make a mold and then make the blades out of silicone.

 

[Durosity]

Oooh now this is useful info. I currently have 2 faulty LWIIs (both single red light after powering up which I seem to recall is a resistor issue) but I imagine after I get it working I’m going to have other issues like this.

 

[jmacz]

Hope it helps you!

Two more observations...

My feed issue isn't a weight/capacity issue. Was trying to figure out why the feed fails with more paper and after a lot more testing, the amount of paper was just coincidental. Something is not quite right with how the paper cassette is going into the printer. Once I get it inserted where it works, it always works. If I pull it out and insert it again, it stops working and never works. Some mechanical is not right so will need to look at it. I have a legal size cassette also. I guess I will try that to rule out the letter cassette.

Printer is NOT seen by my Mac. I am using two Farallon phonenet connectors and a phone line. I test with my AppleTalk enabled ImageWriter II and my IIci (running System 7.1.1) sees it and I can print. If I then move the phonenet connector from the ImageWriter to the LaserWriter IIf, Chooser doesn't see it. This is using the LaserWriter extension that came with System 7.1.1. I tried a newer 7.x version and that did not help. Might try 8.x series extension but I would have thought 7.x would work. I have tried restarting both the LaserWriter and the IIci in different combinations and doesn't help. Something might be wrong on the board unless I'm doing something terribly stupid.

 

[jmacz]

Printer is NOT seen by my Mac. I am using two Farallon phonenet connectors and a phone line. I test with my AppleTalk enabled ImageWriter II and my IIci (running System 7.1.1) sees it and I can print. If I then move the phonenet connector from the ImageWriter to the LaserWriter IIf, Chooser doesn't see it. This is using the LaserWriter extension that came with System 7.1.1. I tried a newer 7.x version and that did not help. Might try 8.x series extension but I would have thought 7.x would work. I have tried restarting both the LaserWriter and the IIci in different combinations and doesn't help. Something might be wrong on the board unless I'm doing something terribly stupid.

... RTFM moment for me ... I thought the numerical switch on the rear was a SCSI ID, it's actually more like a profile indicator with 0-4 being prebuilt settings for localtalk. It was set to 6. Changed it to 0 and it works great now.

 

[volvo242gt]

... RTFM moment for me ... I thought the numerical switch on the rear was a SCSI ID, it's actually more like a profile indicator with 0-4 being prebuilt settings for localtalk. It was set to 6. Changed it to 0 and it works great now.

lol, that'd do it.

Some good news on my front. Recap job on the power supply got the former IINT (now IIg) up and running. I do have to get it to feed paper, though. Unlike in your case, the roller feels squishy and sticky, so...

 

[jmacz]

Some good news on my front. Recap job on the power supply got the former IINT (now IIg) up and running. I do have to get it to feed paper, though. Unlike in your case, the roller feels squishy and sticky, so...

There are two solenoids attached to a PCB mounted to the power supply. There is a pad on each of them that is there to prevent noise but over time these pads get gummy and bind to the metal contact (attached to the spring). Mine didn't have this issue but I read about it. The solenoids control the feed rollers, I think one of them is a latch and the other drives the main pickup roller. Might want to check if see these engaging and whether it's gummed up or not.

 

[volvo242gt]

There are two solenoids attached to a PCB mounted to the power supply. There is a pad on each of them that is there to prevent noise but over time these pads get gummy and bind to the metal contact (attached to the spring). Mine didn't have this issue but I read about it. The solenoids control the feed rollers, I think one of them is a latch and the other drives the main pickup roller. Might want to check if see these engaging and whether it's gummed up or not.

I'll check them out either tonight or during the day tomorrow. It seems like it tries to pick up the paper, but gives up and illuminates the paper jam LED. When I retired my original LWII, it'd feed the paper in an inch, then stop. I could sometimes get it to continue printing by opening the clamshell, then shutting it. At that time, a friend's father gave me his old LW Pro 630, which I was able to get functional fairly easily.

 

[jmacz]

Ok, let me know.

Sounds very similar to what I've been dealing with where it feeds an inch or two and then gives up and lights the paper jam LED.

In my case, it happens sometimes when I insert the paper cartridge. When it stops working, it will always stop working until I remove the cartridge and try again. Once I get it working, it continues working. Because of that, I've been trying not to remove the paper cartridge once I get it working. But this has been with the cover set off. I just put the cover set back on and after three cartridge inserts, all three worked.

My understanding is if the paper doesn't come out of the paper cartridge, that's most likely either the rubber roller not having grip, or the mechanism that raises the stack of paper against the rubber roller when inserting the paper cartridge is not working right, or the solenoid not working and unable to rotate the rubber roller.

If the paper does feed in but doesn't make it to the second set of rollers, then that's the issue I've been hitting and I still haven't fully figured it out outside of removing/insert the paper cartridge a few times until it works.

 

[volvo242gt]

Yeah, it looks like it's related to the rubber roller. The metal roller works fine (shorted out the microswitch with the clamshell open and was able to watch it work), as does the rest of the drivetrain. I was able to manually feed a piece of paper past the roller, and then closed the printer up. Hit the button on the rear side of the printer to test the print engine, and it did print the test lines. Seems that the person who owned these printers turned off the startup page, so neither the IIf board, nor the IIg board will print it. At this time, I don't have it connected to a Mac - got rid of my last RS422 printer cable, so can't turn it back on.

 

[jmacz]

Yeah, it looks like it's related to the rubber roller. The metal roller works fine (shorted out the microswitch with the clamshell open and was able to watch it work), as does the rest of the drivetrain. I was able to manually feed a piece of paper past the roller, and then closed the printer up. Hit the button on the rear side of the printer to test the print engine, and it did print the test lines. Seems that the person who owned these printers turned off the startup page, so neither the IIf board, nor the IIg board will print it. At this time, I don't have it connected to a Mac - got rid of my last RS422 printer cable, so can't turn it back on.

Glad you figured it out!

 

[jmacz]

Well, opened up the NOS toner cartridge to take some measurements on the silicone wiper blade. But there's nothing left of the blade...



All the orange particles above are what remains of the wiper blade. It had basically disintegrated... not sure why it's orange in color. This was a completely sealed never used toner cartridge from Apple. I didn't expect the wiper blade to be intact but just curious why it's this orange color.

This cartridge is toast as bits of that stuff made it into the toner reservoir as well and given the actual cartridge is still readily available (95A toner cartridge of HP laserjets as well as the Apple branded ones), no point dealing with the hassle of trying to recover this cartridge and the toner powder.

I did pull out of the metal part of the blade.



The silicone wiper blade goes onto the top part of the bracket above and was secured using some type of high temp glue. But without the silicone piece, I can't take measurements of it. I know it's roughly around 9-10mm in width, around 240mm in length, don't know the thickness. Another forum member had taken rough measurements but they were down to mm, not sub-mm. It might be trial and error.

 

[jmacz]

3D printed a TPU blade.



Held on using aluminum tape on one side. I installed it and manually rotated the drum to see what would happen. First the positives: it's not marring or scratching the drum in any way, the TPU is soft, flexible, and rubbery in feel. Very much like silicone. And given the nozzle temperature needed to print it, it's going to be fine from a heat perspective. Needs more work in terms of the shape/size but it is pressing against the drum and "wiping" toner. But the negative: the edge is not consistent enough. My 3D printer uses a textured build plate and thus there are small ridges that leave toner on the drum. I tried inverting it so that the top print is against the drum, still the same. Due to slight imperfections, it doesn't clean all the toner off.

There's a smooth build plate available for my printer. Not cheap. But at some point I guess I can try picking that up and seeing if I can do better.

 

[MindWalker]

That's wild that the blade had totally disintergrated like that!

I went thru replacing the blade on another 95A cart on my NeXT laser printer: https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?topic=5676.msg33915#msg33915

I still have the worn blade that I removed, if you want have some pics/measurements? It was good enough to print (just a couple faint horizontal stripes on the top of the page).

The TPU-printing would be a very nice way forward, if you can perfect the model and get it printed just right! I bought two NOS carts and neither of them worked due to the blade. I was able to buy one replacement blade (the part numbers are on the thread, sadly no longer available from that supplier).

Do you have something like kapton-tape at hand, I've heard it could be used as a surface to print on? Perhaps you could use it just under the extruding part of the blade that needs to be smooth?

 

[jmacz]

If you do have a picture of the wiper with the silicone piece, both from top down angle as well as side profile angle, that would be helpful. And if have access to some calipers, if I can get a size measurement on length, width, and thickness, down to 0.5mm accuracy that would be great.

Oh hmm.. nice idea on kapton tape. I do have some. I will try. I also have a smooth PEI plate coming to try with that as well.

 

[MindWalker]

I know it's roughly around 9-10mm in width, around 240mm in length, don't know the thickness.

I'll have a closer look on another day (with caliper), but here goes:

In mine it's pretty much spot-on 240mm in length, which happens to be the whole width of the metal edge. I'd say it extends about 7mm from the edge of the metal. The outer edge appears square and it looks suspiciously close to 1mm in thickness. Can't tell about the angle, and how close it is to the original shape.

 

[jmacz]

Thanks!! Does the metal holder insert into the silicone part? Is that how the two pieces are coupled, or is it glued on top, or on bottom, or both sides (ie. the silicone sandwiches around the metal part)?

 

[MindWalker]

Yes the silicone blade sandwiches the metal on both sides, actually also a bit on the ends.

I might try to revive this blade so I don't want to take it apart, but here are some sketches and a side profile which might help. Some of the measurements are a best-guesses as the rubber flexes.

 

[jmacz]

Definitely don't take it apart. This is tremendously helpful, thanks!!