ImageWriter II lives again

[bigmessowires]

It's nothing too exciting, but I'm happy to report that my ImageWriter II printer is back up and running. This particular unit was purchased at the Silicon Valley Electronics Flea Market sometime around 2010, but I never actually got it to print and it quickly disappeared into the back of a closet. This week I hauled it out again. I was happily surprised to find that it's still possible to buy ImageWriter II ink ribbons, as well as continuous feed paper and Mini DIN 8 printer cables. After some fumbling around on the software side, I finally got everything working again. The zot-zot-zot sound of a dot matrix printer in action will be seared into my brain forever. I made a short video for grins:

 

[Phipli]

It's nothing too exciting, but I'm happy to report that my ImageWriter II printer is back up and running. This particular unit was purchased at the Silicon Valley Electronics Flea Market sometime around 2010, but I never actually got it to print and it quickly disappeared into the back of a closet. This week I hauled it out again. I was happily surprised to find that it's still possible to buy ImageWriter II ink ribbons, as well as continuous feed paper and Mini DIN 8 printer cables. After some fumbling around on the software side, I finally got everything working again. The zot-zot-zot sound of a dot matrix printer in action will be seared into my brain forever. I made a short video for grins:

They're fun things.

Need to find yourself a HP Pen Plotter now! I had one on my SE as a teenager.

 

[ClassicGuyPhilly]

Congrats! I just just got my IW II up and running recently and agree the "zot-zot-zot" brings back memories and will never be forgotten

 

[croissantking]

brings back memories

I never even had one of these things back in the day and it brings back memories anyway

 

[ClassicGuyPhilly]

I never even had one of these things back in the day and it brings back memories anyway

I know I never had one either but they were everywhere at school, college, and friends' homes. My favorite memory was printing out dozens of color flyers from Print Shop on a IIgs for a neigborhood driveway snow shoveling "business" my friend and I ran to earn a few extra bucks.

 

[Phipli]

I know I never had one either but they were everywhere at school, college, and friends' homes. My favorite memory was printing out dozens of color flyers from Print Shop on a IIgs for a neigborhood driveway snow shoveling "business" my friend and I ran to earn a few extra bucks.

I never even had one of these things back in the day and it brings back memories anyway

Never seen one IRL. It was all those boxy HP printers (DeskWriters?) and a few StyleWriter IIs where I grew up.

 

[ClassicGuyPhilly]

Never seen one IRL. It was all those boxy HP printers (DeskWriters?) and a few StyleWriter IIs where I grew up.

I think someone should bring one to your UK meet-up...it's not right you've never seen one, and I bet others too. The ImageWriter II is a hands-down legendary piece of machinery, and Apple's longest-produced product (1985-1996)

 

[Phipli]

ImageWriter II

I was talking inkjets, seems I got my threads muddled. Thought this was the StyleWriter thread.
ImageWriter IIs just manifest in corners of houses of their own volition.

 

[ClassicGuyPhilly]

Haha OK there's one less injustice in the world then

 

[jmacz]

Oh you guys are just evil…

Just purchased one for $8. Hope it still works but at $8, was worth a shot. Haven’t had one in years… but it’s worth the price of a matinee movie just to hear the printing again.

 

[thellmer]

Before you even power it up, take some silicone weatherstrip lube in the spray can and a microfiber cloth and drench and clean the slider bar that the head unit moves back and forth on - you can slide the head by hand out of the way to thoroughly clean all the old sticky grease off the bar - all the way around especially the bottom of the bar where the old grease will have drifted and hardened. Afterwards just a light shot of the same silicone lube spray distributed with a clean paper towel over the bar will ensure the first powerup it wont jam and potentially strip the gears or break the belt. Otherwise that's usually all these old Imagewriters (both I and II) need to put right back into service! I have two that work like new.

 

[jmacz]

Before you even power it up, take some silicone weatherstrip lube in the spray can and a microfiber cloth and drench and clean the slider bar that the head unit moves back and forth on

Thanks for the tip. Will certainly do that before powering it up.

 

[pfuentes69]

I've tried twice to buy a color ribbon but the inner rubber "gears" were disintegrated.

Is there any source of new color ribbons?

 

[Phipli]

I've tried twice to buy a color ribbon but the inner rubber "gears" were disintegrated.

Is there any source of new color ribbons?

Yeah, all the original colour ribbons are unusable, even new in box.

A run of new colour ribbons were made by someone in the community a few years back, but I'm not aware that they are currently in production.

 

[Snial]

Congrats! I just just got my IW II up and running recently and agree the "zot-zot-zot" brings back memories and will never be forgotten

View attachment 62405

I do actually have one, but I didn't know it was possible to get new ribbons (even in the UK?). Do I need to clean the print head too?

 

[Phipli]

I do actually have one, but I didn't know it was possible to get new ribbons (even in the UK?). Do I need to clean the print head too?

Black and white ribbons are about. I haven't looked in decades though.

 

[Snial]

Black and white ribbons are about. I haven't looked in decades though.

I hadn't thought of using the ImageWriter II, because it's bulky and much lower resolution than a StyleWriter. However, I guess it may be more maintainable, given that it's possible to get new ribbons and it's tricky to get new StyleWriter-era print cartridges (though I do have a sealed, unused one, which I'm not terribly confident will work), nor ink refills.

We had a couple of ImageWriter IIs in the UEA Mac Lab in the mid to late 1980s. They were hooked up to the 9 to 11 Mac 512s over LocalTalk, so I used them quite a bit for MacPascal listings and MacPaint printouts. I hardly used the Macs for writing essays, because they were very much in demand; I was always last-minute and I had a 128K Sinclair QL with a 9-pin NLQ Printer in my room. I actually managed to do my dissertation ("An Implementation of Neural Nets on a Transputer Rack") on the QL using QUILL and those dinky microdrive cartridges!

 

[bigmessowires]

How do you prevent the paper that was just printed from getting sucked back into the printer? I'm experiencing this problem multiple times - the exiting paper gets dragged and bent 180 degrees by the entering paper underneath it, and is pulled back inside jamming the printer. I don't remember ever having this problem back in the good old days. Did everyone have some kind of paper stand or guide to prevent this? Maybe I'm just unlucky and it doesn't happen to anyone else?

 

[pfuentes69]

How do you prevent the paper that was just printed from getting sucked back into the printer? I'm experiencing this problem multiple times - the exiting paper gets dragged and bent 180 degrees by the entering paper underneath it, and is pulled back inside jamming the printer. I don't remember ever having this problem back in the good old days. Did everyone have some kind of paper stand or guide to prevent this? Maybe I'm just unlucky and it doesn't happen to anyone else?

It does happen to me too… I must always be alert to force it to go straight

 

[bigmessowires]

I'm going to try a sheet of cardboard between the paper layers. I sort of vaguely remember 1980s-era printer paper stands, maybe they helped with this.