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How To Build A Printer?

P

pbd22

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi.

Does anybody know if there are any good books, guides, etc.
on printer design (specifically) ?

Thanks!
 
H

Homer J Simpson

Jan 1, 1970
0
Does anybody know if there are any good books, guides, etc.
on printer design (specifically) ?

There aren't. Why or what do you want to know?
 
S

Shawn Heil

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi.
Does anybody know if there are any good books, guides, etc.
on printer design (specifically) ?

Thanks!

Anybody know if there are any good books, guides, etc. on how to build a
Space Shuttle?


Real Daleks don't use the stairs, they level the building!
 
D

D from BC

Jan 1, 1970
0
Anybody know if there are any good books, guides, etc. on how to build a
Space Shuttle?


Real Daleks don't use the stairs, they level the building!

Anybody know if there are any good books, guides etc. on building sexy
female robots that are great in bed and do housework? (specifically)
D from BC
 
M

Michael A. Terrell

Jan 1, 1970
0
D said:
Anybody know if there are any good books, guides etc. on building sexy
female robots that are great in bed and do housework? (specifically)
D from BC


All of the designs start that way, but they always end up as Phil
Allison.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
 
P

pbd22

Jan 1, 1970
0
There aren't. Why or what do you want to know?

Homer -

I am surprised. Everybody else on this list seems to think
that building a printer is rocket science, but I knew a guy
when I was in grad school that designed a pretty simple,
working model. I am just curious and would love to see
some material on the subject.

If anybody out there has some *useful* feedback, thanks.
 
J

Joel Kolstad

Jan 1, 1970
0
pbd22 said:
I am surprised. Everybody else on this list seems to think
that building a printer is rocket science, but I knew a guy
when I was in grad school that designed a pretty simple,
working model.

Perhaps you could ask him? :)

I've never built a printer, but some of my gut feelings include:

-- A "dot matrix" printer wouldn't be that hard. The printhead is
effectively a bunch of tiny solenoids... and if you look back far enough,
some of them weren't exactly "tiny!" 9 and 24 pin dot matrix printers were
quite the norm for a number of years, and I believe really old ones used as
few as 7 pins.
-- Daisy wheels are even simpler (just one "hammer")... if you can still
find the wheels.
-- To build an inkjet with a reasonably small dot size, you need access to
an IC fab process -- although it can be a *really* old one (older inkjet
heads have feature sizes on the order of tens of microns).
-- The right person could put together some Frankenstein-esque laser
printer, but if you don't have access to an optics lab and a good machine
shop, I wouldn't even try.

Part of the problem you're having here is that you haven't told us what
*kind* of printer you're trying to build -- hence the people asking for
books on building a space shuttle -- and whether you're trying to just do
some science fair experiment, perform a "proof of concept" demonstration for
venture capitalists, build and commercialize a product out of your garage,
etc. Something like a 40+ PPM office laser printer or a mid-level consumer
photo printer has so many "pieces" that there's almost no individual who
could build one himself. On the other hand, if you're trying to build a
customized version of, e.g., the $29 printers at Wal*Mart, you'll have a
shot if you get the printhead from the likes of HP or Canon. (I seem to
recall HP once had a program whereby they'd provide inkjet printheads and
ink cartridges, and then you built the rest of the printer around that.) Of
course you'll spend far more than $29 to do any of this (where I went to
college, there was a group that had designed a braile printer which was
eventually turned into a commercial product... due to the low production
volumes, the cost per unit was still thousands of dollars... the low-end
printer marketing model is effectively to give away the printer at cost and
make money on the ink...).
I am just curious and would love to see
some material on the subject.

For some "diversity" requirement in college I took an industrial engineering
"electronics manufacturing" course where they have an exploded view of the
original IBM ProPrinter compared to that of the ProPrinter II... they
reduced the number of discrete mechanical parts from something like 100+ to
a couple dozen. It's a cool drawing... (and the ProPrinter II was a very
good dot matrix printer -- I bet there are still some in service
somewhere...)

That's about as close to a book on printers as I can get you. :)

As I say, you really need to narrow down just *what* you'd like information
on: Printheads? Carriages? Control electronics? ...etc...

---Joel
 
D

delo

Jan 1, 1970
0
what about to search for a service manual (with schematics) of a simple
model?

bye
delo
 
P

pbd22

Jan 1, 1970
0
Perhaps you could ask him? :)

I've never built a printer, but some of my gut feelings include:

-- A "dot matrix" printer wouldn't be that hard. The printhead is
effectively a bunch of tiny solenoids... and if you look back far enough,
some of them weren't exactly "tiny!" 9 and 24 pin dot matrix printers were
quite the norm for a number of years, and I believe really old ones used as
few as 7 pins.
-- Daisy wheels are even simpler (just one "hammer")... if you can still
find the wheels.
-- To build an inkjet with a reasonably small dot size, you need access to
an IC fab process -- although it can be a *really* old one (older inkjet
heads have feature sizes on the order of tens of microns).
-- The right person could put together some Frankenstein-esque laser
printer, but if you don't have access to an optics lab and a good machine
shop, I wouldn't even try.

Part of the problem you're having here is that you haven't told us what
*kind* of printer you're trying to build -- hence the people asking for
books on building a space shuttle -- and whether you're trying to just do
some science fair experiment, perform a "proof of concept" demonstration for
venture capitalists, build and commercialize a product out of your garage,
etc. Something like a 40+ PPM office laser printer or a mid-level consumer
photo printer has so many "pieces" that there's almost no individual who
could build one himself. On the other hand, if you're trying to build a
customized version of, e.g., the $29 printers at Wal*Mart, you'll have a
shot if you get the printhead from the likes of HP or Canon. (I seem to
recall HP once had a program whereby they'd provide inkjet printheads and
ink cartridges, and then you built the rest of the printer around that.) Of
course you'll spend far more than $29 to do any of this (where I went to
college, there was a group that had designed a braile printer which was
eventually turned into a commercial product... due to the low production
volumes, the cost per unit was still thousands of dollars... the low-end
printer marketing model is effectively to give away the printer at cost and
make money on the ink...).


For some "diversity" requirement in college I took an industrial engineering
"electronics manufacturing" course where they have an exploded view of the
original IBM ProPrinter compared to that of the ProPrinter II... they
reduced the number of discrete mechanical parts from something like 100+ to
a couple dozen. It's a cool drawing... (and the ProPrinter II was a very
good dot matrix printer -- I bet there are still some in service
somewhere...)

That's about as close to a book on printers as I can get you. :)

As I say, you really need to narrow down just *what* you'd like information
on: Printheads? Carriages? Control electronics? ...etc...

---Joel


Joel -

Thanks.

Well, I haven't talked to that guy in a long time (been a while since
grad school).
As for printer heads - I am mostly intersted in something that is
attainable. As for what I want to do - I have been kicking around how
hard it would be to build a printer that is capable of combining the
printing and binding process in one. So,
it would it be able to print a small newsletter with a paper-back
cover - that kind of thing. This means that I am looking to learn
everything about how to do this - what kind of print heads, control
electronics, embedded design requirements (etc, etc).
There is surprisingly little information out there on printer
projects.

Thanks, I'll look into the ProPrinter stuff.

Peter

PS - braile printer sounds like a very cool idea
 
H

Homer J Simpson

Jan 1, 1970
0
I am surprised. Everybody else on this list seems to think
that building a printer is rocket science, but I knew a guy
when I was in grad school that designed a pretty simple,
working model. I am just curious and would love to see
some material on the subject.

Because this involves a mass of complex mechanics and electronics. The
simplest style would be a plotter which uses a pen of some sort to draw on
paper but even these are complex.
 
D

D from BC

Jan 1, 1970
0
Anybody know if there are any good books, guides, etc. on how to build a
Space Shuttle?


Real Daleks don't use the stairs, they level the building!

Space shuttles are easy to build!
Use NASA as an example..
Just hire a whole bunch of engineers..wait many years...and presto!
....one shuttle..
The trickey part is getting all the money... :p
D from BC
 
R

Rich Grise

Jan 1, 1970
0
Space shuttles are easy to build!
Use NASA as an example..
Just hire a whole bunch of engineers..wait many years...and presto!
...one shuttle..
The trickey part is getting all the money... :p

s/trickey/tricky/ ;-)

If I had the money, I'd build an entirely new shuttle, that's cheaper to
get into orbit. For one thing, I wouldn't throw away the EFT and recover
and reuse the SRB's - I'd do it the other way around.

The ultimate rocket, of course, is the NERVA style, if you could get a
hot enough reactor to run reliably.

In the interim, I'm investigating antigravity in my secret laboratory. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich
 
S

Stanislaw Flatto

Jan 1, 1970
0
pbd22 said:
Hi.

Does anybody know if there are any good books, guides, etc.
on printer design (specifically) ?

Thanks!
If you can - phone Fam.Gutenberg and ask this question to the parents.
If they remember.

HTH

Stanislaw
 
D

D from BC

Jan 1, 1970
0
s/trickey/tricky/ ;-)

If I had the money, I'd build an entirely new shuttle, that's cheaper to
get into orbit. For one thing, I wouldn't throw away the EFT and recover
and reuse the SRB's - I'd do it the other way around.

The ultimate rocket, of course, is the NERVA style, if you could get a
hot enough reactor to run reliably.

In the interim, I'm investigating antigravity in my secret laboratory. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich

Just won of mi bad spelfing dazzs I gis...Speling is tricky suntymes..
D from BC
 
I

Iwo Mergler

Jan 1, 1970
0
pbd22 said:
As for printer heads - I am mostly intersted in something that is
attainable. As for what I want to do - I have been kicking around how
hard it would be to build a printer that is capable of combining the
printing and binding process in one. So,
it would it be able to print a small newsletter with a paper-back
cover - that kind of thing. This means that I am looking to learn
everything about how to do this - what kind of print heads, control
electronics, embedded design requirements (etc, etc).
There is surprisingly little information out there on printer
projects.

In that case, I would start with an existing duplex
printer and 'just' build the mechanics to pick the
printed sheets and bind them.

I assume you are aware that such devices exist.
They normally come in the shape of automatic staplers,
folders and envelope stuffers. Everything you need
to flood the neighborhood with junkmail... ;-)

Kind regards,

Iwo
 
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