POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?

[WobblyHand]

Hardly a project of a "full day", but pretty pleased with saving a laser printer from the dumpster. Foolish printer would jam on every page - religiously. The printer had effectively become inop, jamming all the time. I was about to smash the thing with a sledge hammer.

Digging deep into the bowels of the internet I found this was a common problem for Brother laser printers, especially the HL2040 series. The issue is a piece of rubber that exudes over time and becomes sticky. This piece of rubber is only 6mm long and maybe 20mm long and is buried inside the printer. You can't easily remove it without a lot of disassembly. The original rubber was a stop for a solenoid associated with paper feeding. When the arm sticks, it feels a lot of paper - jamming the printer.

I found a link (which pointed to a youtube video). Have to say, the video was one of the first ones that I have ever gotten motion sickness from. It was terrible. Both the link and the video actually don't show exactly where that little pad is, nor what to do! Eventually this blind gopher got the nut. Here's the link. https://nobblynoel.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/brother-hl-2040-laser-printer-repair-solutions/

But here's the location of what you have to fix.

If you zoom in on the flat surface on the solenoid in the bottom right hand corner - there's a black rubber pad that acts as a stop for the white lever. The lever was sticking on the pad. Here's the fix, get ready for this, a slip of paper, about the size of the pad. Since the pad is sticky, the paper sticks to it!

Now the lever doesn't stick! And the paper feeds without jamming any more. Hot diggety, it's like having a new printer again! Cost to fix, an almost barf from the video and a 6 x 20 mm slip of paper. Pretty pleased with this. Really didn't want to have to buy a new printer - especially one's with the same design defect.

 

[pontiac428]

Digging deep into the bowels of the internet I found this was a common problem for Brother laser printers, especially the HL2040 series.

That was the toughest, best working, longest lasting, lowest cost, most toner-sparing duplex printer I've ever owned. If I could buy one NIB now, I would. My wife even plugged ours into EU 230v, letting out the magic smoke. Some careful work on ebay.tw got me up and running with a new board for $15. Maybe cold flowing pinch rollers was their built-in lifespan on a printer that otherwise won't die.

Edit: What finally killed mine was being left in the rain during a move.

 

[WobblyHand]

That was the toughest, best working, longest lasting, lowest cost, most toner-sparing duplex printer I've ever owned. If I could buy one NIB now, I would. My wife even plugged ours into EU 230v, letting out the magic smoke. Some careful work on ebay.tw got me up and running with a new board for $15. Maybe cold flowing pinch rollers was their built-in lifespan on a printer that otherwise won't die.

Edit: What finally killed mine was being left in the rain during a move.

This printer keeps on going. It only originally cost $89. Add a toner cartridge every 3-5 years or so... I don't use economy mode and it still lasts 3-5 years. Less than $60 for toner and that's Brother brand. Cheaper if you go off-brand. At $20/year for printing, umm, I'll stick with OEM. I bought two of them, but gave one away to one of my daughters. Think she tossed it, darn throw-away kid...

Leaving stuff out in the rain, that's not so good for electronics.

Knock on wood, the pinch rollers are holding up so far. Thing could use a cleaning, but I'm not motivated enough to do a real scrub down. Maybe if it croaks again. Still getting clean, crisp prints so can't complain.

 

[GoceKU]

Never a dull moment in my shop. White elephant No: 1 come to get oil, plugs and filters changed. Just as it arrived, i hear tire scratch then commotion then spinning tires, i go out side and found this scratch and dent on it. Apparently just as my brother walked out of the car, a kid was acting a fool in someone else's car going too fast and not knowing that has no abs brakes and skids into it. My neighbors immediately confront him, he just leaves with a burnout. My brother know whose kid it was so a phone call later he come back and fill up an insurance claim. By the time they were done i was finished with the other car and just swapped them and proceeded to service it. The dent will go the the body shop to get fixed the right way, it dented 3 panels, so it won't be easy or cheap to get right. I'm relife there was no one standing there to get hurt.

 

[silverhawk]

I did my first broaching in brass - two brass machine screws (1/4"-20 with a large head for official license plate installation on the green/gold car).



This was actually kind of fun, even though I wasted about 1.5" of brass material before I figured out that the order of operations meant broaching the socket after the rest was completed. (Tried two and failed on them because I couldn't get the head cone angle right, ended up with the block to lock it so I set the drill and broach up as a final operation.) It took me a while to realize this is not a spinning part, balance means nothing, and the broach hole does not need to be concentric to the cone and thread). Gotta fab the license plate light bracket before I can install these things, but one more part done.

 

[NCjeeper]

I got this welding fixture table from Vevor today. I put it together and it is pretty nice for $110 bucks after discount. I am going to make 3/4" spacers to put in between the wheels and the legs so the table will be the same height as my large table. That way I can use it together when needed.

 

[pontiac428]

I got this welding fixture table from Vevor today. I put it together and it is pretty nice for $110 bucks after discount.

Tom, what's your impression of the table? Is it solid/flat enough? Good buy for a utility table? Would they double up? What do you think the weight limit is (I mean what's your opinion, not what Vevor claims)?

Mmm... Horizontal surface...

 

[NCjeeper]

I think it is a good buy for around 100 bucks. It is 36x18. This top is 3mm thick so decent for what it is. The holes are advertised as 5/8s but I could not get a .625 gage pin in them. Largest that would go in was .620. They advertise the table will handle 1200 pounds. I think that is a stretch, but it looks like it will handle several hundered pounds no problem.

 

[pontiac428]

I think it is a good buy for around 100 bucks. It is 36x18. This top is 3mm thick so decent for what it is. The holes are advertised as 5/8s but I could not get a .625 gage pin in them. Largest that would go in was .620. They advertise the table will handle 1200 pounds. I think that is a stretch, but it looks like it will handle several hundered pounds no problem.

Thank you.

 

[DeadGuyAle]

Back to working on the bushing this evening.
Close to the max for the Sherline

Managed to keep everything within specs this time.
Trim to length is going to need about .187 removed



RF 30 gets in on the action. My lack of lathe operating time is only exceeded by my lack of mill time. So rough cut to close enough and back to the lathe to finish




Need to face off .003 then call it done