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Goodwill store finds

Gil

Gil

68000
They recently opened a Goodwill store about 20 minutes from my house. I was pleasantly surprised when I got there.

***UMAX Astra 1200S scanner in box*** - $4.99



***Apple LaserWriter Select 360*** - $3.99 (came with a nifty USB-Parallel cable; no toner)



They had a lot of printers there, as well as a SCSI ZIP drive which I almost bought.

 
I purchased a 1200s new in the late 90's and still use it today. SCSI scanners are nice, especially ones that are Mac/PC.

 
The LaserWriter isn't doing so well. First off, there's no toner. Second, the paper cassette is horribly jammed. I put all my weight into pulling it out (which isn't very much) and it wouldn't budge. However, I can see from the back that there is quite a stack of paper in it. When I power it on, it appears to go through a test cycle, but none of the lights stay lit. Would this happen if there is no toner in the machine?

I haven't had a chance to play with the scanner yet.

 
The machine will not work without toner. Unfortunately, toner is relatively rare for LaserWriter Select machines.

Enjoy your Goodwill while it lasts. Eventually they will build a ComputerWorks and all the neat computer stuff will be crushed. Your local store will have nothing and your ComputerWorks will have overpriced outdated PCs and ridiculously priced G4 towers.

 
Thanks! Any ideas how to fix the jammed paper cassette?

I don't think that Goodwill store will be closing anytime soon. There were a ton of people in there.

 
Very nice. I have a UMAX Astra 2100U, but it is USB only. I prefer my Epson Perfection 1640SU, because it has both USB and SCSI interfaces, and can scan negatives. I even have that accesory, as mine is the photo variant.

Though right now, my main scanner is my all in one, our new HP J4680. Works well enough, but can't scan negatives. Not that I ever used that feature anyways.

 
. . . erm . . . almost everything I wear, sit on, cook with or store almost everything in has come from my Goodwill sweeps and visits to the other wonderful Thrifts I've found since my move to NC.

. . . not to mention a few technical doodads & a veritable pile-o-Macs-n-peripherals. 8-o

jt: frugal beyond belief. :I

 
. . . erm . . . almost everything I wear, sit on, cook with or store almost everything in has come from my Goodwill sweeps and visits to the other wonderful Thrifts I've found since my move to NC.
. . . not to mention a few technical doodads & a veritable pile-o-Macs-n-peripherals. 8-o

jt: frugal beyond belief. :I
Click to expand...
Yeah, I've found goodwills here in NC are usually pretty decent, I've picked up a few nice mac monitors as well as a couple of SCSI peripherals. It's dissapointing though, the one in the town where I live (washington) completely rejects any tech stuff ever - before you can get in the door they shove you out if you're trying to donate, say, a printer.

 
Ahh, I passed up a LaserWriter Select at a thrift shop a few months ago. They wanted $20 for it, and I wasn't sure that I wanted to spend that much. I should have bought it.... :-/

 
Toner probably shipped today (I would assume) and is coming from IA, so it should only be a day or two. I opened it up today and discovered that the 8 MB RAM stick inside is of the same type as the 16 MB RAM stick from my Performa 578, so I put the max 16 MB RAM in there.

I was also able to unjam the paper tray.

 
goodwills / the one in the town where I live (washington) completely rejects any tech stuff ever - before you can get in the door they shove you out if you're trying to donate, say, a printer.
Click to expand...
Yep, Raleigh does that too.

 
Update on the LaserWriter. I bought a genuine toner (NOS, never opened) on eBay and installed it. I was able to print a test page and found that the printer only had 3050 pages printed! The printouts are pretty dirty however, with toner lines on the right side of the page.

 
Did you clean out the printer when you swapped the old toner out? Don't use a vacuum cleaner since the toner is small enough to get through filters.

 
Nope, I did find out however that the fuser probably needs to be replaced (the paper out light sometimes stays on; search shows that fuser is probably to blame).

There are quite a few issues with these LaserWriter Selects that may lead to me getting rid of it, possibly in favor of a 16/600 or similar. Brand new toner in box might be a good selling point for one of these printers.

 
Found a Yamaha SCSI CD Burner today for $2.99. Manufacture date says "SEPTEMBER 1999". It's an internal, so I'm going to pop it in my 9500 and see if it works.

 
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