Hey
There are 2 free plotters that needs some level of repair available for free on Craigslist.
I have messaged them asking for them to be donated to the Hackspace, I think it would be super cool to have wide format printing at the hackspace, and I am sure between all of us, we have the know how to make one of them work.
What do the peoples think?
https://vancouver.craigslist.org/van/zip/d/vancouver-hp-designjet-1050cm-and/7052241577.html
Yes & Yes! Fascinating to see the anatomy of them!
Thank you for the sharp eye!
I sent the email, someone got to it first. but we next on deck of the first guy does not show up.
Hi,
Just wanted to add some info on these (I posted the CL ad):
The 1050CM unit probably needs new ink, printheads, and might need a new ink tube system. When I fired it up last month, it printed 3 of 4 colors decently, but was giving me Replace Printhead messages.
The 5500 unit definitely needs a new carriage belt, ink, printheads, and likely a new ink tube system as well. SAMINK dot com has ink locally. MyPrinterShop dot ca has printheads. LPSComputer dot com is in the US, but has inktube systems and carriage belts. They also have a ton of very informative repair videos on YouTube.
The 5500 is the better unit, but a bit more $ up front. I know a few printshops in town still use these units, so they might be able and willing to donate some older ink and printheads to help get your feet wet.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Ok I am gotten in contact with Luke and I am picking up the plotters tomorrow afternoon. Now If anyone want to take the lead on fixing these beasts, please comment here.
Should we collectively set a time limit on getting these fixed up before we send them on to a new home? 
Personally that’s helped me from filling my apartment with stuff to fix.
Update, snow is really heavy around my place so i can’t make it out today, I will try to arrange a pickup once the snow on the smaller streets becomes a little more manageable.
And yes. I agree with setting a deadline, Lets see the condition they are in and set a reasonable deadline for ordering parts and stuff. I will personally pay for the cost of removal if we can’t fix it.
Ok I picked up one of the plotters. It is in my car but I can’t move it out of my car on my own. I will drop it off at the hackspace when I get some help depending on road conditions tomorrow. I hope we can get it to work, but if we can’t we can just give it away from free again.
Ok one plotter is in the space. It is a lot bigger then i thought. I will look into the things that needs to be bought to fix this thing. Another idea that has been floated is simply to harvest the control system. We can harvest some key parts of a smooth camera slider. I will look and see what is possible.
I will be emailing luke to say that we don’t have space for 2 at the hack space. It is simply way too big.
Ok, After some digging, I think it is simply too old to be fixed. It is about 15 years out of production, and parts that are available all come from other broken machines. I think this product have reached end of life. I am going to start tear-down this week so that the garbage and be removed on the weekend along with the wood shop garbage. (I will be helping with that as well).
Hey @yeungx the hackery will accept the whole thing for disassembly and recycling if you fancy hauling it there.
https://thehackery.ca/ewaste.html
If we end up with a bunch of electronic-type stuff especially after the clean room clean-out they’ll also come pick up the electronics for free. Someone just needs to be around to let them in on Wednesdays (their pickup day).
https://thehackery.ca/request.html
Edit: I read in another thread that you’re harvesting organs already for another project so no worries. Hack on!
Thanks Janet, that is really good to know for next time i decide to pick up something stupid.
Hey! Picking up free stuff and possibly fixing it or hacking it to make other things is never stupid!!! Sometimes ya gotta pick up the free thing first to see what state it’s in. Let me tell you about the 5 roombas I once owned. I’m down to only 2 now thank goodness. All good.
Looking forward to seeing what you get up to @yeungx. Sometimes even the tear-down is the most fun part.
And the plotter has disappeared, reduced to useful parts for future projects. Though and plotter is gone, it sprite and guts lives on. But the real plotter was the friends we made along the way.
Thank you @GrantFraser for helping with the disassembly. Getting an early start on it really made the job easy. I look forward to meeting you in the space and working on some project together.
If ever another plotter should come available, please ping me. I continue to build plotters including polargraph, zarplotter, Corexy, and Cartesian. If it involves plotters then I’m your guy.
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