bowlerboy

Q: LaserWriter Select 360 - requesting repair shop locations

I have an Apple LaserWriter Select 360 printer which I believe still has a lot of life in it, so I want to see if it can be repaired. it is more-or-less fully functional, except that it prints out evenly spaced, horizontal black lines on the page, which makes the printer's output unusable for anything but drafts. Also, sometimes the paper would not feed continuously, as if something was slipping and/or failing to pickup the paper and feed it into the printer.

 

I had taken my LaserWriter Select 360 to a local repair shop, which had always come through for me in the past on other legacy Macs. Unfortunately, over the course of the 18 months (yes, a year-and-a-half) that my printer cluttered up the local repair shop, the shop's owner was unable to obtain the parts he said were necessary to make the repair. So, with my patience exhausted, I reclaimed the printer and set it back up in my small local area network (via my original AsanteTalk network bridge device) to print drafts of a book I am working on.

 

Ideally, though, I would really like to be able to restore this well-designed, 300,000-page capacity workhorse to full functionality—and clean print-outs—by the time I complete my work-in-progress.

 

Accordingly, I am asking for any referrals and/or recommendations to printer repair shops in the continental United States which might be able to fix this printer at a reasonable price and allow me to feed paper into its engine without slippage and to deliver clean pages once again. I have done an extensive Google search for such a repair shop, but I have been unable to locate one which can do the job.

 

Although I have a copy of the service manual and I have visited a few do-it-yourself websites, I am not skilled enough to perform such a repair myself. I need a professional to do this. So, I'm throwing the problem into the community to see if anyone has any recommendations.

PowerMac G4; iMac G5; MacBook Pro., Mac OS X (10.5.8), Running Leopard, Tiger, Panther. LAN. Cloned LaCie FireWire driv

Posted on Mar 4, 2013 7:19 PM

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Q: LaserWriter Select 360 - requesting repair shop locations

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  • by varjak paw,

    varjak paw varjak paw Mar 5, 2013 8:42 AM in response to bowlerboy
    Level 10 (169,876 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 8:42 AM in response to bowlerboy

    If paper is slipping, most likely the rubber rollers have dried out and become hard. You may be able to improve things temporarily by using a roller conditioning kit, if you can still find one, though that's just a short-term fix and will eventually degrade the rollers even further. As to the black lines, if changing the toner cartridge didn't fix the problem, something, perhaps the fuser roller, has become scratched.

     

    Parts are indeed going to be very difficult to come by for that old printer, and I very much doubt that any repair shop will charge much less than the cost of many new laser printers just for their normal diagnostic charge, much less an actual repair. You'd also very likely spend more than the cost of a new printer just to ship the 360 to someone if you can't find another local repair shop.

     

    It's really time to send that old 360 to recycling and buy a new printer, in my opinion.

     

    Regards.

  • by bowlerboy,

    bowlerboy bowlerboy Mar 5, 2013 12:59 PM in response to varjak paw
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 12:59 PM in response to varjak paw

    Thanks for your assessment, varjak paw. I don't disagree with you in the least.

     

    Part of the problem is that I am a **** pack rat who finds it difficult to let go of things that are still somewhat useful, even if they are no longer functioning like new. I had come to the same insights you have, so let's just call this thread a "Hail Mary" pass to see if anyone out there has both access to the parts and to the skills to bring this tired workhorse of a printer back up to full speed at a reasonable cost.

     

    One of the other main reasons that I have held on to the printer for so long and have tried to restore it to full service is that my local repair shop owner stated that this old machine was so better-designed in its day than the "junk" he sees thrust out onto the current market that it was worth the time and effort to try to locate the parts to fix it. He hates giving up the search to breathe new life into it as much as I do.

     

    However, if nothing comes of this last-ditch plea to save the Select 360 from the trash heap, or if it is not financially to tos any money in a salvage operation, so be it: I'll just relegate it to doing the dirty work of printing out drafts of my works-in-progress, which is why I recently brought it back home. Concurrently, as you recommend, I'll start checking out the market for new Laser printers.

  • by varjak paw,

    varjak paw varjak paw Mar 5, 2013 1:19 PM in response to bowlerboy
    Level 10 (169,876 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 1:19 PM in response to bowlerboy

    I don't know what you'd consider a "reasonable cost", but if you have to ship it somewhere, you're probably going to at minimum pay around $70.00 to send it and get it back. Add to that the cost of any labor and parts, and I think you'll quickly reach the point where it's just not worth it.

     

    I understand about the difference in quality of those old laser printers; we hated to get rid of our LaserJet 4s and similar-vintage printers since they were built like tanks. But there comes a time where it just isn't feasible to keep them going, and I fear that your LaserWriter has reached (or probably passed) that point. Only if someone local would be able to do the repair gratis might it even be thinkable, and again finding parts is going to be very difficult.

     

    Good luck, and regards.

  • by mtgmackid,

    mtgmackid mtgmackid Mar 5, 2013 1:53 PM in response to varjak paw
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 1:53 PM in response to varjak paw

    I wouldn't *totally* give up yet. I would recommend checking Herb Johnson's website for the parts that you would need - he has a large stock of new Laserwriter parts and is one of the best vintage Apple hardware dealers around.

     

    http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/m_newprint.html

     

    See if your normal dealer can fix the Laserwriter with Herb's parts. He doesn't have much specifics on parts so I would punch the Apple part #s in Google based on his descriptions so you know what you're getting.

     

    Good luck!

  • by bowlerboy,

    bowlerboy bowlerboy Mar 5, 2013 8:04 PM in response to mtgmackid
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 8:04 PM in response to mtgmackid

    Thanks for the link, mtgmackid. I know that my local repair shop has his own sources for parts, but I'll bring this web site to his attention, just in case it is useful in solving the problem of obtaining the necessary parts.

     

    Also, I'll ask him if he can identify and list for me the parts he thinks I need (by part number), so that I can independently—over time—do some searches for those parts on my own.

     

    That way, if I can locate the parts he needs and bring him those parts, it should make this a do-able project "for a reasonable cost." But, as varjak paw points out, I will still have to do a cost comparison between repairing my antique printer and getting a newer one, to determine which is the best option to choose. At the moment, though, I don't have sufficient information regarding the parts I'll need or how much they'll cost or how much shipping those parts will end up, if indeed they do exist.

     

    No worries, though. This is just a slow, back-burner, low priority project that will get warm only if users toss me a tip now and then.

  • by Appaloosa mac man,

    Appaloosa mac man Appaloosa mac man Mar 8, 2013 11:40 PM in response to bowlerboy
    Level 5 (4,330 points)
    Mar 8, 2013 11:40 PM in response to bowlerboy

    Where are you located?  We have a technician available to us in Spokane, Washington who can fix those older machines.  We have plenty of parts machines and I use that printer periodically.

     

    Go Zags basketball.  (In case you did not know where Spokane is located@!)

  • by bowlerboy,

    bowlerboy bowlerboy Mar 18, 2013 6:57 AM in response to Appaloosa mac man
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mar 18, 2013 6:57 AM in response to Appaloosa mac man

    I live in Buffalo, NY.

     

    You've got rain; we've got snow. More on the way, in fact, says the news.

  • by Appaloosa mac man,

    Appaloosa mac man Appaloosa mac man Mar 18, 2013 10:06 AM in response to bowlerboy
    Level 5 (4,330 points)
    Mar 18, 2013 10:06 AM in response to bowlerboy

    We found a great recycler in Seattle that has 'used parts' in their 'as - is' department.  Ask around your area for older Apple service providers.  We have one in Spokane who will still fix older Apple products for $40 per hour.

  • by twbranch,

    twbranch twbranch May 16, 2013 3:13 PM in response to bowlerboy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 16, 2013 3:13 PM in response to bowlerboy

    Try this place if you are technically inclined. I am not affiliated by the way! I use this site restore Apple printers all the time.

     

    http://www.fixyourownprinter.com