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Vintage Printers Anyone?

billdeg

billdeg

Technician
Joined
Nov 18, 2003
Messages
3,885
Location
Landenberg, PA USA
Anyone a vintage printer collector? What are the highly sought-after printers? Is there a holy grail of printers? Teletypes? Weird variants? OEM stuff?

To answer my own question - Printers are really only interesting as part of a system. "The printer that I bought with my IMSAI" kind of thing. They don't really do much for me collecting-wise, by themselves.

I have some old Commodore IEEE printer variants, Tandy stuff, Epson, etc. Mostly they take up space as I rarely print anything. I have some boxed/near mint condition printers however. If they're old and beat up, they get the boot. If anyone is interested I could post an inventory.

bd
 
Hmm. Not really.

I kept my Seikosha GP100 7 needle matrix for a long time (it came with my C128D)- until I dropped it.
Good memories about my trusted Citizen 120D that printed everything during my study- HQ mode took all night long..

Now I only have an IBM Proprinter 'that came with one of my IBM PC's'.. and an Oki ML192- so sturdy it will work for centuries.
 
I don't collect printers although now adays when one is offered it's a toss up. Any vintage system certainly looks cool sitting on a dedicated computer desk with expansions, manuals/disks, and a printer on top. Unfortunately the weight of the printer for me is a tough one to chew. The other catch is a lot of these printers are ribbon based which is fairly unusual to expect a ribbon that hasn't dried up so you're sort of doubling your shipping ($60?) for a dead printer.

I really don't know though. I have a large (for a personal) collection but most of the auctions I've seen with printers mention and offer not to send the printer if the bidder doesn't want it just because of the shipping cost.

In fact, the only printers I have are 1 plotter/printer for the Commodore which I don't have a real interest in but it's in the box, small, and a few folks said it was a cool printer which made me want it for no particular reason. I also have the printer to a Panasonic ("Electronic Typing System"?) which was a weird enough system plus the way the person had it on a table looked cool. I did try to get a printer for my Model 16 although that never made it down my way (it was a freebie that someone was supposed to let me drive up and grab) but I think I've lost interest in that feature plus the space factor.

It would certainly be interesting to hear from someone that collects printers though. I do think there is room for something like mechanical devices although again with space constraints I'd have to choose wisely.

- John
 
Oh, I'd forgotten all about that. So ya never touched base with the other John? (I haven't heard from him in a while either...hope he's all right).

BTW, I have about 2.5 printers myself, including the Kaypro-badged SpinWriter that I got from someone here.

--T
 
lol, I wasn't going to name names ;o) Nah I never could get ahold of him but that's ok, it was a freebie and he was doing the haul afterall.
 
I somewhat collect printers. I don't get them like I do PCs. Just because I see an old one doesn't mean I buy it. It has to either look cool, be collective/valuable, or I have to have a want for it. I keep one printer per computer. My main PC uses my server's OkiPage 20DX(laser printer), and has a dedicated Lexmark inkjet, if I need color, my AT&T 6300 uses it's own mint condition Citizen MSP-15, and has an external 3.5" drive, so if I need color, I save to disk and feed it to my main PC next to it, and that is all the computers I have setup, except the server. I also have a Panasonic P1092i dot-matrix I keep around, a ImageWriter II for my Apple PCs, and an HP inkjet which I only keep around because it is in nice condition, came with the PC my grandfather gave me, and has all the original manuals, disks, software, and cleaning kits. I used to have a fax machine, but when my eyes popped out of my sockets(J/K, BTW) from seeing the price of ink for it, I chucked it into the dumpster.

I don't find ink/ribbons to be a problem even for the oldest of my printers. I can still buy ribbons/ink for most of my printers at Staples and OfficeMax(even for my typewriters) but what I can't find locally or cheap, I get off eBay, brand new still sealed. Not a single problem with them yet. I always buy bulk(like 3 or more ribbons) for my Dot Matrix, so I don't have to buy ribbons for awhile. I take comfort in knowing if I need something printed NOW I don't have to wait at all for it to be printed. When I get down to the last ribbon, I just buy more.

Oh, wait, I am border OT. Well, I guess not, he DID mention dried up ribbons. But still, I am the type of printer collector who doesn't do it intentionally. I just buy what I think looks cool and appears to possibly work, or at least appears to be an easy fix.

--Ryan

By the way, BTW=by the way, J/K=just kidding, for you old timers.
 
I usually buy vintage printers out of necessity rather than nostalgia, because, personally, I've had very few printers I actually liked, and very few I don't hate with a passion enough to come after them with a sledgehammer. My requirements are that it jams only once or twice a year, can get good toner/ink/ribbon mileage, and is compatible with the machines I use, and that it has an old LPT/Centronics style Printer connector.

My Top Picks
Okidata Microline - Dot Matrix Winner
HP DeskJet 855C - Ink Jet
HP LaserJet 4L - Laser

And if I'm going Impact, I'll just use an old Selectric Typewriter, because, just like anything IBM, it'll survive the apocalypse, and it's about the only Impact type device that seems readlily availible.
 
I've got some old printers I really like, a few DG Dashers (with the slanted typeface), some old OKIs, an OTC trimatrix (three heads on one platten), citizens and HPs...and more POS printers than I can shake a stick at. My favorite isn't really vintage, but getting close: an IBM 6262-T12 band printer--it's about 5 feet tall and takes up more floor space than a double door refrigerator.
 
I don't collect printers, but for some reason I have quite a few now.

I still have my Epson Actionlaser 1500 laser with full RAM (5MB) that I purchased in the mid 90's new (still works fine and has toner so I keep it).

After that I have my NEC superscript laser 870 in my room (purchased new in 2000?)

Sometime in 2005 I purchased an Apple 4/600 PS laser for my Macs to use for printing.

I have 2 printers for my C64 I got in a lot of C64 equipment last year. One is Commodore brand, the other is okimate? Both need ribbons.

Snagged a Mac SE FDHD last year that came with an Apple Imagewriter LQ with the Appletalk card installed and some funky multi sheet feeder add-on (this is wide caridge dot matrix). Ribbon is dead, and there is some feed problems, but looks fixable if I feel like messing with it.

A few weeks ago a guy who gave me a Quadra 950 emailed to say he had a HP 4SI with postscript option so I snagged that and a few other items. He had spare parts (rollers, fusers, etc) for it. Works ok had to change a roller out because of jams. I wanted it mostly because it has ethernet, a mac printer port, and the bidirectional pc printer port built in and 17PPM at 600DPI isn't too bad for a 1995 printer. Maybe someday I will get the duplex printing option. Same lot had 2 Apple Stylewriter II inkjets. I needed to remove the rubber rollers from both to make one working unit, but the ink is empty so I need a refill kit (if I feel like bothering).

So I now have something like 9 printers here. They breed like tribbles :(
 
The only thing as a printer I'd probably find cool to have is the kind of lineprinter that was attached to the Pr1me system I used 20 years ago.

I always liked the way it warmed up (it was like a huge pressure building up) and than the explosion of printed lines it 'burped up'.

That thing was idling like 99,999% of its time.

Oh, and of course, if you call it a printer, the Teletype attached to the same system.

Hmm.. makes we wonder. Anybody know where I could get a Pr1me mini?
 
I guess I probably still have the printer that went with our Zenith somewhere but I haven't seen it for a while and had no interest in it last time my folks asked so it may be in electronic heaven. Still, all the talk of older printers does remind me when was printing out "The Hackers Dictionary" (jargon file) back in the mid 90's. I printed it off of my Zenith although I think I had it on my 386 luggable so I may have been reading it from the 386 via interlnk and printing it off of my zenith to the dot matrix (can't remember make/model). What I do remember is the 70 some hours it took to print and sleeping with the dot matrix printing each line twice lol. I still have that stupid 3" binder. I figure, it took me 3 days to print.. there's no way it's going in the trash.

So in an attempt not to derail this post just with memories and song writings of early printers, has anyone looked up anything regarding to value of vintage printers? Did we decide there is a collectible value?

- John
 
Well, to further the conversation on old printers, I have a Comrex Comwriter 1 that I think is still operational. I haven't found any info on it yet but I Google occasionally in hopes that something will turn up.

It's obviously a converted typewriter as it has platen knobs and Pica and Elite markings on the translucent platen cover, and a blanking plate where the keyboard should be. It uses IBM Selectric ribbons and Brother (I think) daisywheels.

The neatest thing about it, though, is that the carriage uses a linear motor instead of cables and pulleys.

No tractor feed, you have to put in one sheet of paper at a time, just like a typewriter.

Kent
 
DimensionDude said:
Well, to further the conversation on old printers, I have a Comrex Comwriter 1 that I think is still operational. I haven't found any info on it yet but I Google occasionally in hopes that something will turn up.

It's obviously a converted typewriter as it has platen knobs and Pica and Elite markings on the translucent platen cover, and a blanking plate where the keyboard should be. It uses IBM Selectric ribbons and Brother (I think) daisywheels.

The neatest thing about it, though, is that the carriage uses a linear motor instead of cables and pulleys.

No tractor feed, you have to put in one sheet of paper at a time, just like a typewriter.

Kent
Click to expand...


Did you try putting it in quotes? I get A LOT more information and most of the stuff don't wana see if I put it in quotes. That printer sounds REALLY COOL! It sounds like something you should keep around for awhile. Do you have any pictures? So then it uses TypeWriter ribbons as well?

--Ryan
 
Digging up an old thread...
Although I wouldn't consider starting a true printer collection, I consider a dot matrix printer is an interesting machine to have...hearing it slowly, loudly printing out accountings, rough graphics or whatever really takes me back in the eighties!
So I bought a Brother M-1109 (9-pin, prints on A4-sized paper, no tractor feed...very compact) to use it with my various computers & my serial terminal. I'll also try to make some musical use of it (using graphics modes with periodic patterns)

I also recently got interested by plotters and bought an Océ G1022 (HP 7475A compatible). These things are really too much fun to watch. And vector graphics rule!

What I'd really like to have too is a daisywheel/Spinwriter/Selectric-based printer, or a typewriter that has computer connectivity (for the "letter quality"/ OMG-it's-not-rasterized feel), but these are kinda hard to find...

(yeah, I really like electro-mechanical devices!)
 
I don't collect printers since they take up a lot of room. I do have a couple of dot matrix that were thrown out. The only vintage printer I bought came with a Tandy Model II. It's a Tandy DWP-510 Daisy Wheel. Big, heavy and real noisy. When it's printing, the table it's sitting on shakes.
I actually would like to have an old HP LaserJet Model II. However, I don't think you can get toner cartridges for it anymore or even a fuser if it went out.
 
barythrin said:
In fact, the only printers I have are 1 plotter/printer for the Commodore which I don't have a real interest in but it's in the box, small, and a few folks said it was a cool printer which made me want it for no particular reason.
- John
Click to expand...

I bought one of those because I was curious to try out the plotting functions -- I was hoping I might be able to use it to log temperatures around the house, ala the old-fashioned loggers. But unfortunately the ink cartridges were all dried up and replacements are impossible to find. Someday if I have lots and lots of free time (hah!) I might try to make new ink pens for it.

I find plotters interesting because they are so rare these days in any form.

Unrelated to this, I have an Apple Imagewriter II that you can actually print to from an OS X Leopard installation, over the network. (but not from Snow Leopard, which killed off the last portion of AppleTalk support). I think it is kind of neat to print to the same printer from a Mac SE and a semi-modern box.
 
I was just re-reading this thread and one thing that did come to mind was with old BBS systems and "secure" systems a very common security setup was to output your security (logon or authentication) logs to your printer. It's one way logging, can't be modified or overwritten if an attacker gets in they might be able to wipe out the log on the computer but other than physical break ins your logs as printed were secure.

So I guess if a person was wanting to replicate or show off a secured server system you might consider having a printer attached for that concept. You could also of course send the logs to another server but the risk was still the same if that server was compromised or dumb enough to accept bad data to overwrite a previous entry.

To sum up I still don't actively collect printers and with the amount of space they take (though I rarely come across auctions with printers) I'd be more tempted if it was local but less if it's far away.

With the commodore plotter I thought it took a pen http://www.commodore128.org/index.php?topic=1405.0 In my case I could probably mod another "pen" to work with it. That's kinda the charm with this model (it was Bo who of course already has plenty of printer models in his collection but said it was "cool" and thus tricked me into keeping it lol).
 
barythrin said:
I was just re-reading this thread and one thing that did come to mind was with old BBS systems and "secure" systems a very common security setup was to output your security (logon or authentication) logs to your printer. It's one way logging, can't be modified or overwritten if an attacker gets in they might be able to wipe out the log on the computer but other than physical break ins your logs as printed were secure.
Click to expand...

This reminds me of the The Cuckoo's_Egg, where Clifford Stoll hooked up a bunch of printers almost directly to incoming data lines to log the hacker's activity without touching the affected computer's OS. I think that's a great example of a solution (literally 'outside the box') that seems almost obvious once you read about it, but which I think very few people would find.
 
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