Cheap Envelope Feeder for Okidata

[csudman]

Ok, trying to do this on a shoestring budget.

I have an astro envelope inserter like this for our AB Dick Press 3246 ASTRO Envelope Feeder - YouTube
Its got an optical sensor on the end that triggers the next envelope. I think with a little fab work to the input of the oki and the end of the inserter I can make this work.

Any issues I'm missing here?

 

[OkiTech]

I don't mean to rain on your parade but Yes you might hit some issues. The by-pass tray that you plan to feed the envelopes trough has a sensor of it's own and designed to work with stack of whatever is in it. It raises the bottom plate to give pick-up/feed rollers enough grip to feed. As it taking on envelope from the feeder, it may not allow for a second one to be squeezed in continuously. Once the current fed in and nothing left it will lower the plate and allow more to come but will trigger "out of paper" message, once next envelope arrives it would have to raise the plate, feed and so on and on. It would probably slow down the printer to like 10ppm and eventually wear out lifting mechanism which made a lot out of plastic. You can go beyond all that and completely remove by-pass tray and work around sensors which is possible. I wish I would have enough time for this, not like I really have a need but I really wanted to do the same thing just lacking envelope feeder and time to experiment, printers - we always have plenty since we sell them. I have few of these printers for parts so you can count on me if you become in need of the whole by-pass assembly I will try to look in to it myself and if I will see any cheats, easy way to modify - will repost.Good luck.
Roman.

 

[csudman]

I don't mean to rain on your parade but Yes you might hit some issues. The by-pass tray that you plan to feed the envelopes trough has a sensor of it's own and designed to work with stack of whatever is in it. It raises the bottom plate to give pick-up/feed rollers enough grip to feed. Roman.

Have you seen the straight shooter work? Straight Shooter Laser Envelope Feeder - YouTube

It looks like the exact same principle. Just cost 8k, Oh. Incase people haven't heard. Xante bought the rights to the straight shooter. It now cost a grand more. There is another company that makes a similar inserter thought.

 

[JayDA]

I was not so happy when I realized Xante had taken over the distribution of the Straight Shooter. But to be honest, it's built like a tank....and it just WORKS. The first time, every time...I can't say enough good things about it.

 

[csudman]

Well, I just bought a Xerox Phaser 7400 on ebay. Same machine as the OKI 9800 series. 50.00 to buy it. 300 to ship it. Haha.

60k so its low milage.

It will be here in a week. I'll post back when and if I get this to work.

If it does work. You can by these feeders on ebay for cheap. We'll see.

 

[OriginalScuddy]

Oki C9600

Oki C9600

Just got a full tower C9600HDN which i was going to get the straight shooter for, but if you have an test unit you want me to put in my production, weekly use, digital printing, i have planed on biting the bullet and purchasing the straight shooter, but if you have another solution, please let me know.


thanks



mike

 

[csudman]

I should be getting my 7400 delivered next week. I plan on getting into it right way. This is not something that I am going to sell. This is just a DIY idea.

Thanks
CJ

 

[csudman]

Well, I'm still waiting on deliver. Ebay seller screwed up. Hopefully by the end of next week I can try this.

 

[csudman]

First test (with a broken Oki/Zerox) waiting on a drum. Tommorow supposedly. Got my Xerox Phaser 7400 (Oki 9600) from ebay. Got the inserter from our old AB Dick Press.

Anyway. Here is the proof of concept. I have some tweeking to do. But I'm hopeful.

http://youtu.be/ESOwwVXJ4Rs

 

[JayDA]

Link doesn't work.....

 

[csudman]

Try again. Fixed

 

[OkiTech]

Is there way to make envelopes go continuously? Every time printer will take the envelope and sense that there is no another one it may take unwanted pause slowing process down significantly. Other than that it looks like doable idea.
Too bad you already bought the printer - I just got 2 phasers 7400 one with 140k and one with like 8k only on it - no drums no toners should be needed

 

[JayDA]

Seems like a workable option, as long as you can get can the next envelope there fast enough so the printer won't keep stopping. Post another video if you ever get it running, I would love to check it out.

 

[csudman]

Is there way to make envelopes go continuously? Every time printer will take the envelope and sense that there is no another one it may take unwanted pause slowing process down significantly. Other than that it looks like doable idea.
Too bad you already bought the printer - I just got 2 phasers 7400 one with 140k and one with like 8k only on it - no drums no toners should be needed

I dunno about the slowdown. We'll see when I fire it up. It has to stop or they would just jam up. Its exaclty the same deal with the other feeders. PSI/Straight shooter.

I got this machine for 400.00 shipped on ebay with 100k on it. Just needed a drum(hopefuly).

 

[OkiTech]

Yeah, lets hope the drum is the only thing. This print engine is considered to be disposable as inexpensive as they come used... If it does not have sufficient level of supplies - usually near worthless. Lets say the cost of set of drums+toners for machine that does not have them is usually a deal breaker. $400 is not bad if 1 drum is all you need, I would assume if you spend under 1000 to get started producing $$$ - you're ok. I sell this machines 1200 to 1600 depends on set-up / brand / mileage but always in the condition that customer can produce descent amount of prints before spending more on it. Some of these come with supplies level so high that if person can get 25-30c per Ltr size click - he/she will make price paid back before buying any consumables....

 

[csudman]

Let me clarify. It ran for about 30 min. then I started screwing with it, taking drums out, toner out etc.. Getting used to it and the drum went bad. It did print when I got it. Very well. So all I need should be a drum. As that is the error I got.

CJ

 

[OkiTech]

CJ you can reset the drum life counter with minifuse, I can post a illustration on how to do so. It is 0.125A tiny fuse, some sell the on Ebay for 20 times the cost but they could be found on internet dirty cheap. On other hand if drum gives you quality issues - it is done. We had made a few attempts to dis-assemble them - mission impossible. What is interesting is that drums from all Phaser 7400, Oki ES-3640, Oki C9800 series could be used in any machine. There are tiny pins on the back that make all the difference. The pin fits in to plastic housing on the back wall of the printer. Remove the housing and machine is ready to accept any drum there are but a person doing this should take extra caution not to confuse the drums in between it's positions. Also toner pins where the cartridge fits that OKi, xante, xerox configure to their own combination, just completely remove them with pliers and Drum unit is ready to accept any toner cartridge.
I must add that last will allow the person to install cyan on place of magenta or mix them up in any combination so please be careful - Cyan toner goes on top of cyan drum, magenta toner on Magenta drum, Yellow on yellow and black toner must be installed on to black drum.

 

[csudman]

I would love to see that illustration. thanks

 

[damfino]

Drum Reset

Drum Reset

Having done the drum reset, I must caution that you will need to examine the output going forward very carefully. When the printer says the drum is expired, it's correct to within 90%. There may be some life left, but not much.

Watch for color shifts, weak imaging, and poor toner adhesion if you do a reset.

One note: The drums are rated for approximately 40M for 11" of paper length, but with most envelopes shorter than that (#10 = 4"), you can easily get 60 to 80M from a drum.

 

[csudman]

So, the error I'm getting is a PU K ASIC ERROR. Any help with that. From what I found its a drum error. Just replaced the drum with no change.

Thanks
CJ