Laserwriter / Laserwriter Plus refurbishment

[pcamen]

For some strange reason, I got interested in refurbishing the original Laserwriter and LW Plus.  I've collected, and lugged through about 8 moves, 6 of those beasts along with about 7 2.5 square foot storage totes of repair / replacement parts; I bought out Retrotechnology Herb's stock about 10 or more years ago.

I'm wondering if anyone that is in the near vicinity of me (Santa Barbara, CA) is interested in partnering up with me in the refurbishment of these guys?  At the end of the day, I wouldn't mind having a working Laserwriter or two to use with my vintage Macs, but I need to seriously pare down my holdings, and I don't see continuing to hold all this stuff until the day I actually have time of my own to pursue this. 

Is this making a light bulb go off for anyone on the west coast? 

The reason I say someone near me, is that it is highly unlikely that shipping these things is an option.  Each one weighs 77 pounds, and they are big.  Driving them somewhere, with the 7 totes of parts, is the only real option. 

 

[ScutBoy]

I feel your pain - I have one original Laserwriter, and just moving that one is no fun

I'd be interested in pointers you have as far as "must do" tasks for refurbishment on these guys. It's been ages since I've had it fired up, but I don't remember any issues at the time. I have had to fiddle with NeXT laser printers and their various feed problems, and I would imagine that similar issues might crop up.

I'll also keep you in mind if I find I need any parts!

 

[BadGoldEagle]

I’m also interested. I don’t have a Laserwriter yet but I’d like to have one some day. There are a lot of guides on how to refurbish floppy drives, cases, logicbords etc but surprisingly none are for printers. I have an original ImageWriter that has some serious issues (foam degradation, rust, lack of lubrication in general). I have managed to find the service manual (which wasn’t easy back when i originally searched for it!) but there’s no real how to guide for any printer...

 

[danda]

I have a LaserWriter Plus that is in "semi-working" condition, so I thought I'd list the faults mine has.

The rubber on the paper pickup rollers has deteriorated into sticky gloop which means it usually doesn't pickup paper from the tray any more - so you might want to have a look at yours to see what condition they are in.

The corona wire to attract the toner off the toner cartridge drum has snapped - this annoyingly happened in the last couple of years or so as I was moving it, but it seems corona wire can be bought online so I should be able to repair that.

The separation belt (the small plastic belt with a spring on it that guides the paper through the printer) has snapped - not unexpected as it was listed as a "common fault" in the manual, but a bit annoying as I've been trying to find a replacement belt for a couple of years now but to no avail!

If you're looking for the service manual, a kind member on here (can't remember who off the top of my head) gave me the service source HyperCard stack for the LaserWriter/Plus which has detailed interactive takeapart instructions, pm me if you want it.

And lastly, if you are thinking about getting rid of one/some of yours, I'd be interested in a couple of parts (mostly the pickup rollers and separation belt if they're in acceptable condition, but also the input/output trays as I'm missing them).

 

[olePigeon]

@pcamen  Darn.  I'm super interested as I've been wanting a working LaserWriter for ages, but I'm in NorCal.

I even have a Xante Accel-a-Writer LaserWriter upgrade that I've held onto all these years hoping to use it.  It's replacement PCB that's supposed to give you more control over the printer's motors, toner, etc. to effectively increasing the DPI.  Xante made Accel-a-Writer upgrades for various printer models.  Pretty cool upgrade.

 

[pcamen]

I grew up in the Bay Area on the Peninsula.  I will be up there several times this summer.

 

[Gorgonops]

If your passion is original Laserwriters would you have any interest in my NRFB Laserwriter-to-Laserwriter Plus upgrade? Still has the shrink wrap on it and everything:



I've thus far been able to resist the urge to crack the plastic and see what's in it, IE, if it's the whole kit or just box one of two. (It's pretty heavy, but is it heavy *enough*?)

Obviously you'd never want to actually use it because you'd RUIN THE COLLECTOR'S VALUE!

 

[pcamen]

The rubber on the paper pickup rollers has deteriorated into sticky gloop which means it usually doesn't pickup paper from the tray any more - so you might want to have a look at yours to see what condition they are in.

I have one or two sets of replacement rollers, but they probably suffer from the same issue.  Finding a suitable replacement for those will likely be the challenge.  Probably try to find some for a newer laser printer that works. 

The corona wire to attract the toner off the toner cartridge drum has snapped - this annoyingly happened in the last couple of years or so as I was moving it, but it seems corona wire can be bought online so I should be able to repair that.

I've been collecting toner cartridges.  I think I have 20 or so. 

The separation belt (the small plastic belt with a spring on it that guides the paper through the printer) has snapped - not unexpected as it was listed as a "common fault" in the manual, but a bit annoying as I've been trying to find a replacement belt for a couple of years now but to no avail!

I may have one or more of these in my collection of replacement parts.  I need to catalog those.

If you're looking for the service manual, a kind member on here (can't remember who off the top of my head) gave me the service source HyperCard stack for the LaserWriter/Plus which has detailed interactive takeapart instructions, pm me if you want it.

I've got an enormous amount of service info, including all the service manuals and videos.  I recently added the manuals for these adn other models to VintageApple.org/laserwriter/.

And lastly, if you are thinking about getting rid of one/some of yours, I'd be interested in a couple of parts (mostly the pickup rollers and separation belt if they're in acceptable condition, but also the input/output trays as I'm missing them). 

Yea, like I said, even my spare pickup rollers are probably toast.  I have a bunch of trays as I've been buying them over the years since most of my units came with none or damaged ones.  But not enough for all the units I have. 

I do have a bunch of trays as most of my units came without them.  I've been trolling eBay and buying them when I see them. 

 

[pcamen]

I’m also interested. I don’t have a Laserwriter yet but I’d like to have one some day. There are a lot of guides on how to refurbish floppy drives, cases, logicbords etc but surprisingly none are for printers. I have an original ImageWriter that has some serious issues (foam degradation, rust, lack of lubrication in general). I have managed to find the service manual (which wasn’t easy back when i originally searched for it!) but there’s no real how to guide for any printer... 

My recollection of the service guides I've scanned and put here is that they are pretty explicit.  If not those, then the videos I'll upload to YouTube soon should have some good hands-on service tech level stuff. 

 

[pcamen]

@pcamen  Darn.  I'm super interested as I've been wanting a working LaserWriter for ages, but I'm in NorCal.

I even have a Xante Accel-a-Writer LaserWriter upgrade that I've held onto all these years hoping to use it.  It's replacement PCB that's supposed to give you more control over the printer's motors, toner, etc. to effectively increasing the DPI.  Xante made Accel-a-Writer upgrades for various printer models.  Pretty cool upgrade.

I grew up on the Peninsula in the Bay Area, and go up there every couple of months.  So collaborating with someone in NorCal isn't out of the question. 

 

[pcamen]

If your passion is original Laserwriters would you have any interest in my NRFB Laserwriter-to-Laserwriter Plus upgrade? Still has the shrink wrap on it and everything:



I've thus far been able to resist the urge to crack the plastic and see what's in it, IE, if it's the whole kit or just box one of two. (It's pretty heavy, but is it heavy *enough*?)

Obviously you'd never want to actually use it because you'd RUIN THE COLLECTOR'S VALUE!

I have the feeling most of mine were upgraded.  Kinda like the Lisa 1 vs Lisa 2; I think there was little impetus to not upgrade.  Here is what is in the M0191 AFAIK:

• Sixteen 512K ROM chips containing 11 built-in type families;
  
• A Printer Installation Disk with print drives for the LaserWriter, Macintosh 128K with the LaserWriter, ImageWriter, and the AppleTalk ImageWriter option soon to be available. All LaserWriter drivers on the system must be updated with the Printer Installation Disk;
  
• A Fonts Disk that includes a copy of the Font/DA Mover and the screen fonts for all printer fonts shipped in the LaserWriter Plus Kit;
  
• A revised LaserWriter Manual, describing all the new software features;
  
• A LaserWriter Plus label you can affix to the outside of the LaserWriter after the ROMs have been installed.
  

Of those, really only the ROM's matter and as far as I can tell the only difference between the orginal and the Plus was that addition of fonts in ROM, which undoubtedly sped things up as it wouldn't have to transfer those in ROM to be printed and handle those in memory. 

I think we can almost certainly duplicate those ROMs.

 

[danda]

I also think mine was upgraded, or more likely was bought as the Plus model, as the manual I have for it is the "LaserWriter and LaserWriter Plus" one. (I've actually never seen a manual just for the original LW.)

I have one or two sets of replacement rollers, but they probably suffer from the same issue.  Finding a suitable replacement for those will likely be the challenge.  Probably try to find some for a newer laser printer that works. 

Taping rubber bands on did actually work for a bit, at least until the tape failed and they fell off! What I'll probably end up doing is taking the rollers out and properly gluing some new rubber onto them.

I've been collecting toner cartridges.  I think I have 20 or so.

The corona wire that's snapped on mine is actually the one on the printer, not the one in the cartridge. But as I mentioned, replacing it *should* be easy once I have the LW disassembled.

 

[olePigeon]

@pcamen @danda Have either of you tried Rubber Rejuvenator on the rollers?

 

[pcamen]

No, I haven't. That is for rubber that has hardened, no? 

When the roller pads go bad, they turn into goo and stick to everything.  I don't think any type of rejuvenator would help with that. 

 

[olePigeon]

@pcamen Oh, ok.  Yeah, rejuvenator is usually for pickup rollers that have dried up and started cracking.  They no longer "stick" to the paper.  Looks like you have the exact opposite problem.

I assume you've already looked at rollers and pads from other printers and thought about just replacing them?

 

[pcamen]

No, I haven't looked.  These things have been in storage for about 10 years, through 8 moves, and I haven't had any time to try and get them working.  But I assume _something_ can be found that will work. 

 

[olePigeon]

According to Wikipedia, the LaserWriter used the same paper trays and toner as the original LaserJet.  So there's some hope there that they might use the same rollers.  Definitely worth checking out.

Also, the list of compatible printers with said toner (they all use the Canon XC engine) is quite extensive.  One of those might also use the same rollers and/or pickup pads.

Lots of avenues to explore.

 

[pcamen]

Yea, that should be very helpful, thanks. 

 

[ArmorAlley]

I’m also interested. I don’t have a Laserwriter yet but I’d like to have one some day. There are a lot of guides on how to refurbish floppy drives, cases, logicbords etc but surprisingly none are for printers. I have an original ImageWriter that has some serious issues (foam degradation, rust, lack of lubrication in general). I have managed to find the service manual (which wasn’t easy back when i originally searched for it!) but there’s no real how to guide for any printer...

I have just into possession of a LaserWriter Plus. I haven't turned it on yet, but I don't expect it to work. If you are on for a challenge, I could do with some help. I have a lot of reading to do.