How To Build A Printer?

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

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

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

martin

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.

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

what about to search for a service manual (with schematics) of a simple model?

bye delo

"pbd22" ha scritto nel messaggio news: snipped-for-privacy@d57g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

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

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.

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

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

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

HTH

Stanislaw

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

Now, *that's* a printer!

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