(Fwd) Re: Thrift store score: HP LJ4L

[Chuck Guzis]

On 26 Jan 2009 at 13:53, Dave McGuire wrote:

>    Indeed, those are amazing printers.  My mother has a 4MPlus that I  
> just decommissioned; it finally started to wear out, with about a  
> million prints on the page counter.  I bought it used and pretty beat  
> up from a surplus dealer in ~1998, it saw daily duty in a small  
> office printing stuff for about five people for several years, then  
> it was stored in a very hot storage locker for about four years, and  
> then it spent two years printing a LOT of stuff for my mother's  
> business.  It just never gave up!

I've got a couple of old Panasonic lasers (KX-P4450i (PCL) and KX-
P4455 (PS)); circa early 1990s.  Heavy battleship construction; 
separate toner (i.e. out of a bottle, no cartridges).  They keep 
going and going--but lately I've been using the cheap ($100 on a good 

day) Brother lasers.  Great print quality, miserly toner usage (and 
easy to refill carts) and they don't dim the lights when the fuser 
comes on.  After 3 years on my "short" HL-4050 cartridge with the 
toner lamp blinking, I finally refilled it with toner I bought 2 
years ago.  

Problem now is what to do with old Panasonics--they use Moto 68K 
processors internally and have a great deal of nice mechanical 
components--and AppleTalk interfaces as well as serial and parallel.

Probably recycle them, I guess.  No inclination to fool with the 
innards.

I'd love to find a good deal on an HP LJ 5si.  That 11x17 print 
format would come in handy.

Cheers,
Chuck