There was also a precision version called the Selectric Composer. I interfaced these standalone printers to a computer system for automated printing of MICR information on high security documents such as chequebooks and bonds etc. That was a good few years ago ...but am still using some of the plywood and timber from the packing cases :0)
These days, hardly any of your average home user bothers about RTFM or servicing/maintaining printers or anything else outside this forum. They will change an ink or toner cart,but little else.
For domestic use, such replacements might happen every five+ years. I know I've never had to replace those bits on the LJ3/LJ5 I've been using in turn since 2003 or so. If it did, it'd be cheaper to get a 'new' printer.
I did pick up a freebie the other day because it had some life left in its cartridges, which I knew would fit our own crap-o-matic home printer (and I figured I'd pull the gears and whatnot from it to go in the junk pile, then ditch the rest).
Of course the DIYer in me took it apart to see what was up with it - it turned out that the long plastic strip which the heads use for positioning had broken at one far end, which I suspect is a common failure on these beasts.
It was a trivial fix with a bit of glue and a repair patch cut from an ice cream tub lid. Now I'm not sure what to do with it because it works, but it's a "home grade" inkjet and so it still sucks :-)
I wish that were always the case. I got gradual colour shift - red slowly disappearing then, IIRC, yellow fading.
Took it apart and cleaned the lens, etc. and colour improved dramatically. But now there is a pale greyish smear across one sides of all duplex prints.
Colour laser, I guess you're talking about? They do seem to get through a lot more fuser assemblies than b&w, which I guess is simply because they do three or four passes for every colour page.
Worth pointing out that lasers like inkjets are often sold with "starter" toner carts which won't last as long as the replacements (some have different sizes available), but even so I predict it will long outlast the equivalent inkjet with far fewer jams etc.
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