Well, I was plotting an ANSI-B size piece of paper when I heard a "klunk", turned around, and saw three orange lights on the control panel. I opened the top and saw that the belt was thrown. I read somewhere on a website that 10% of belt breakage was from overuse, and 90% was from lack of lubrication.
I remember replacing the belt about 10 years ago, and I lubed it up a couple of times since then. But, it has been a while.
Long story short, if you take care of something you dearly paid for, you tend to give it a lot of TLC. The less money you spend on unnecessary repairs, the more money you can put in your pocket.
Thanks to eBay, LPS Computer, and less than a hundred bucks, I hope to have it back up and running very soon.
Meanwhile, I am going to have to utilize my Brother MFC-J6710DW ledger size scanner/plotter/whatever and hope I don't need a big drawing any time soon. I like hitting the print button and getting 5 ledger size drawings lickety-split! I have legal size in one tray and ledger in the other tray. My ancient HP 960c still cranks out letter size paper. I now have four printers and plotters hooked up to my computer system. I like HP - built like a tank.
What are some success stories on printers and plotters do you guys have? Any favorites?
Just replaced the carriage belt on my 430. Got the part for less than $10 on ebay, and put it in in about 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Would have gone faster but I was too afraid to screw something up. Not too bad a job really.
I keep new ink cartridges, print heads, belt and trailing ribbon cable in stock for my HP 500 just in case it goes down. I figure it is cheap insurance to keep the most often replaced items on hand and not have to wait a week or longer to place the order and get those parts in if they are needed. Since you've replaced the belt before you know to take your time and give it all a good cleaning inside before putting it back together - and clean that spittoon out while you're in there! GOOD LUCK!
:good:
got 'er done.....she's purring like a kitten!
I needed a 5.5 mm nut driver.....crazy! I used a 5/32", and it worked OK.
I gave it a good cleaning, cleaned out the spittoon (that was as nasty as the real thing), and cleaned out all the giblets of broken teeth of the old belt. The rails were really dry. Some good advice for all HP plotter users: Keep the rails lubricated with a non-drying synthetic oil!
Now, I need to do some surveys so's I can plot something! 😉
Lube for Plotter HP Part No 6040-0858
