[rescue] Looking to dump old Centronics printer

[Jeffrey Nonken]

On Mon, 10 Mar 2003 22:27:45 EST, Innfomail at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 3/10/03 3:33:53 PM Pacific Standard Time,
> jeff_work at nonken.net writes:
>
>
> > I have a Centronics 702 printer. Condition unknown, worked 10 years ago
when
> > I
> > stuck it in the garage. Comes with a printer stand and a paper catcher.
> >
>
> This thing is worth saving. I have trashed so many of these I feel guilty.
> This is an early heavy old printer. It is one of the first of its line and
> was rebranded by many companies.
>
> At least try to sell it on eBay. Since you have a spare head it should be
> worth something to a collector.
>

OK. I've hauled it out of the garage in stages (damn, it's heavy, and I'm
not getting any younger -- or enough exercise). Looking it over I find that
- it's got a lot of accumulated dirt and grime. The front cover (the one
that covers the head, some of the driver electronics, ribbon, etc.) was
missing when I got it, so most of the schmutz landed in there. The optical
position tape is also schmutzy, but should be easily cleaned.
- Most of the exposed iron, and some of the painted iron, is rusted.
- The support bars for the head assembly have peeling chrome. There's no
way to fix that short of re-chroming the bars. On the other hand, it's
probably not necessary; clean off the flakes, remove the rust, smooth the
metal, and add some thick lubricant and it'll probably be fine.
- Of course there's schmutz all over the roller and other exposed bits.
- The LF button is missing.
- There's no ribbon on the thing, I think I stopped in the middle of
attempting a transition. I know where the ribbon assembly is, it's in a
plastic ziplock bag on a corner of my work bench.
- I have a printer stand and a paper catcher for it. And I mean it's an
actual genuine Centronics printer stand just for the 702 printer.

I took a chance and powered it up. I have to say I'm impressed; it came
alive and beeped at me, showing an Alert light, which is doubtless due to
the fact that it had no paper. It line-feeds and form-feeds. I'm reluctant
to try anything fancier (like inducing the head to move) without cleaning
it up first.

However, I have to ask once again if it's worth it. Nostalgia just isn't
what it used to be, and the only real reason I've seen to salvage it so far
is nostalgia. I'll be sorry to lose it too, but even Christof said "Ah, now
that is useful for some things. hang onto that one" when I mentioned the
somewhat more modern (and much lighter) Epson.

"It works" isn't good enough. The Epson works, too. The printer
functionality is not irreplacable; you can still buy perfectly good 15"
carriage dot matrix printers with standard ribbons, and they'll take
Centronics signals in and produce readable text on demand, just like this
one will. Except that you get better quality print and can select your font
on the front panel of the newer units.

The ONLY thing this printer does better, as far as I can tell, is slew
paper faster.

It weighs 73 lbs, according to my bathroom scale, and that's not counting
the stand.

I too really hate to lose this piece of history, but I simply don't see any
practical reason to salvage it. On the other hand, if somebody else is
willing to make the effort and foot the bill, I might be willing to ship
it.

Think fast, because it's a dead weight right now, and we're in the process
of lightening our load.

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