I have a fairly new machine at my current shop. It is perhaps three years old and runs pretty well. Mostly. The last few months there has been a clutch inside that is slipping. It spins until it sees another piece of paper then sends the paper forward thru the machine. Occasionally it doesn’t see any paper and spins for a few seconds instead of seemingly instant and makes a noise while doing so. If it takes more than a few seconds, I get a jam. Then I have the pleasure of removing paper from fifteen different places, most of which are difficult to get to. Sometimes I want to beat whoever designs these things. But that is a different post.
Two weeks on Friday the clutch started sticking a LOT. Several jams throughout the morning but I had to get these jobs done. Service has been called but they suck out here and are taking their sweet-ass time getting a new part. Meanwhile I keep trudging on. About 11:30 the clutch sticks and makes its usual noise. The difference this time is that the noise kept going. I look up and thirty seconds later it is still making nose and then I see smoke coming out from the machine. Oops!
I quickly turn the machine off, but smoke still is coming out of the machine. I yell for the owner, open the front and grab the extinguisher. I don’t want to use it unless I have to because that would really mess up the machine. We flip the lever to allow us to open the bay and pull it out. A little more smoke comes out but so far, no flames. That is a good thing. Quickly the owner grabs a huge fan and points it towards the back door and opens it up. The goal is to blow the smoke out, so the alarm doesn’t go off. That too would be bad. Water doesn’t mix well with paper or electronics.
Thankfully no fire was found although what little of the clutch we could see was quite dark. I ended up off early and on Monday while they got a new part. I have had machines drop toner all over the floor, pop fuses, shut off mysteriously on their own and just generally not work, but never one on fire. Wonder what’s next?
The Pissed Off Printer 