Laserwriter / Laserwriter Plus refurbishment

[danda]

I'm glad there's more of us!

ArmorAlley - you'll know this from reading the thread, but you should open the hinged door at the side of the printer with the manual feed input, and see what condition your rollers are in. My LaserWriter upgraded to Plus had them go all sticky, and my Plus had them go all hard, so I'd be interested to see what condition yours are in.

I haven't done much with my two in a while (aside from having many saved searches on ebay looking for a reasonably priced toner cartridge), but I did manage to (after a lot of tries) stick some cut up rubber band bits onto the rollers, and to my surprise, it works! I'll obviously want to do a proper repair in the future, but that shows that the rest of the LaserWriter works fine.

 

[pcamen]

but I did manage to (after a lot of tries) stick some cut up rubber band bits onto the rollers, and to my surprise, it works!

Got any pictures of that?

I've got a ton of repair manuals, videos, etc. for the Laserwriter series.  I put all the PDF materials up on VintageApple.org:

https://www.vintageapple.org/laserwriter/

The videos I haven't uploaded to YouTube yet.  But I can put them on Dropbox or available via FTP if anyone wants them sooner than I get to it. 

And I'm willing to spread the wealth with my repair parts collection.  I think I am going to take inventory of what I've got and put it on a spreadsheet. 

 

[ArmorAlley]

@danda: I'll bear this in mind and thanks for the info. I may send you a PM or three once I get around to it. I'm trying to find out why my 512K isn't booting. I fear that the analog board needs recapping.

@pcamen:Thanks for your wonderful site! I have downloaded all of the PDFs that looked as if they may have something to do with the LaserWriter Plus.

 

[danda]

Got any pictures of that?

Not really - the rollers are inside the rear flap of the LaserWriter, so it's not exactly a very photo friendly place! The printer's also in storage at the moment, but from memory, I used thick-ish foam double sided sticky tape, and stuck the rubber band to one side of it, before carefully sticking the other side to the rollers. Very much a (working!) bodge job!

 

[pcamen]

I used thick-ish foam double sided sticky tape, and stuck the rubber band to one side of it, before carefully sticking the other side to the rollers.

Brilliant.

I'm pretty sure my replacement parts includes at least one set of rollers.  But I suspect the rubber on those is goo or crumbly too given the age. 

 

[ScutBoy]

I've got a ton of repair manuals, videos, etc. for the Laserwriter series.  I put all the PDF materials up on VintageApple.org:

https://www.vintageapple.org/laserwriter/

Thank you very much for this! I have an original Laserwriter on the shelf and have been needing an excuse to drag it out and evaluate it's condition. I'm sure it will need some work and this will be very helpful. If I need parts, I'll check with you first

This will also probably lead me to work on my NeXT laser printer as well...

 

[NJRoadfan]

The LaserWriter and its original LaserJet cousin were both Canon CX engine printers. I had an original LaserJet for a short period of time. It was heavy and dimmed lights and pretty useless due to the limited RAM. Finding parts is going to be difficult as everything was EOLed a long time ago and these printers weren't nearly as common as the Canon SX based LaserWriter/LaserJet II.