I entered the copier industry in the early 70's, during the days of wet process, coated paper e-stat machines. I watched (and serviced) the hardware as it progressed from those cumbersome units to what we have today.

Even during those early days, a copier Technician was something of a Rodney Dangerfield; we got no respect. Ignorant "cube dwellers" who know nothing of the sheer complexity required to produce an image on paper would invariably come off with the same tired remarks:
1) You here AGAIN!?! (No, you're dreaming me this time...)
2) We're gonna have to put you on the payroll! (You can't afford me...)
3) We're gonna have to get you an office/cot/desk! (See #2)
4) (With the machine obviously disassembled,) Can I make JUST ONE copy? (As if 1 is somehow more likely than 2).
And on and on.

People often fear what they don't understand. They fear copiers for that reason, and I believe that at some level they fear Technicians because we DO; hence the remarks above. The interaction of atomic physics, optics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, electronics and software results in a device somewhat akin to the flight of a bumblebee; it's remarkable that it works at all. Place this device among people uneducated in the nuances and complexities of making marks on paper and the result is the Rodney Dangerfield effect.

The following is an excerpt of a book review from an unrelated industry. It succinctly states what I believe to be the heart & soul of the true concept of a Technician. Enjoy.


Ode to a Technician
"The science and art of making and fixing actual things — as opposed to the "information work" increasingly idealized in modern culture — is the most personally satisfying and intellectually rigorous environment in society, because the correctness of one’s thinking is not open to subjective interpretation. There is no ambiguity about the success of a repair effort; the thing either works properly or it doesn’t. Yet there may be tremendous ambiguity in the problem that compelled the wou1d—be fixer to act, and much metal effort may be required in gaining an accurate understanding of the problem and devising an adequate solution. This is not the same as the "book learning" of physicists and engineers. Required also is a knowledge and intuition acquired only through the accumulation of direct experience working with actual things (as opposed to ideas) in the real world of dirty, corroded and buggered hardware owned by actual people (as opposed to the sterilized, standardized, idealized and unencumbered laboratory of theory."
Author - Mark Barnes

If it works, thank a Tech!

Service Technicians Do It in The Field.

Thanks, Wet E-Stat.

I started in April of 1988 on the last of the dry e-stat machines, but the sentiment holds true.

Welcome to our collection of minds (our collective mind?).

Good description, but does the term "metal effort" relate to the random use of a sledge hammer?

THEY TOOK MY HAMMER AWAY!

Got hired to clean SAVIN tanks in 1979 for summer work in college, that toner got into my blood. Over the years I put together a list of related job skills for the ideal copier tech.

Job skills required of a copier tech:

10% Shrink
20% Diplomat
20% Programmer
20% Electronics Tech
10% Robotics Tech
10% Educator
10% Paper Quality Assurance Expert
20% Mechanic
10% Scientist
10% Pastor/Bishop
10% Doctor

Lets see that is 140%, yeah seems about right, feel free to add your 10%.

Oh yeah, it has been a fun 30 years.

Well, I'm a rather recent entrant to the copier technician field. Started out as a "Digital Data Systems Technician" in the Marine Corps working on the, at the time, brand new Honeywell DPS-6 main frames, also know as the AN/UYK-65 systems to any of you Navy/Marine Corps types out there. Integrated with these new "State of the Art" computers where antiquated old 7 or 9 track Mag Tape units through which all the Consumable and Repairable items storage inventory control was updated. We also had Data card readers and punch units, along with this really cool "Line" printer that printed out onto the wide green bar tractor fed multipart carbonless paper. That thing had a character set on a chain and a bank of "Hammers" that would hit the paper and press it up against the ink ribbon and chain to make the impression. This thing was so loud it came with it's own sound proof box to run inside of, and it was still annoyingly loud. All the timing was done with various cams and then timing the hammers was accomplished with a spacing screw that would change the distance the hammer had to travel before striking the paper. When the solenoid would start to fail you would just close up the distance some until you had time, usually on a weekend, to replace it. Now this was back in 1984 through 1987 so it ain't quite state of the art anymore. One funny thing was since we where the "Computer Techs" we always got calls from the admin pukes who where just now getting these damned old "Zenith" Green Screen word processors to use, and they would always want us to come fix them for some reason or another, those things made great boat anchors. After I had enough fun there I have went on to doing various different things from being part of a start up crew for a brand new "State of the Art" Medium Density Fiberboard plant where I operated the Energy and Refining systems to working Construction and it seems no matter what job I had, if there was a copier around that was jammed or not working properly, I always got asked to take a look at it cause they would say, "Come on, you know about these technical sort of things". I finally decided I may as well get paid for it. So if there are any techs out there with a Navy or Marine Corps background and went to school out at Mare Island Naval Shipyard; Vallejo, Ca drop me a line at eheatherdale@yahoo.com. I would love to here from ya, especially if you remember the story about the Navy guy who tried to hold San Francisco Hostage back in either the early 80's or late 70's for some unheard of ransom amount. He claimed that he had built his own nuclear bomb and was going to set it off.

Wet E-Stat wrote:Ode to a Technician
"The science and art of making and fixing actual things — as opposed to the "information work" increasingly idealized in modern culture — is the most personally satisfying and intellectually rigorous environment in society, because the correctness of one’s thinking is not open to subjective interpretation. There is no ambiguity about the success of a repair effort; the thing either works properly or it doesn’t. Yet there may be tremendous ambiguity in the problem that compelled the wou1d—be fixer to act, and much metal effort may be required in gaining an accurate understanding of the problem and devising an adequate solution. This is not the same as the "book learning" of physicists and engineers. Required also is a knowledge and intuition acquired only through the accumulation of direct experience working with actual things (as opposed to ideas) in the real world of dirty, corroded and buggered hardware owned by actual people (as opposed to the sterilized, standardized, idealized and unencumbered laboratory of theory."
Author - Mark Barnes

Wow, great post, great quote above, this is kind of what I was saying a few posts back about this field in general, if you've been in it a while and really experienced the ups, the downs, and all else there is a high degree of satisfaction.

Wet E- you are instantly promoted to "Copier God" sir, you answer only to Chris L, the real one and only "CG" .

quote:

Originally posted by Airborne:
Wet E- you are instantly promoted to "Copier God" sir, you answer only to Chris L, the real one and only "CG" .

I believe I will have to cede my "CG" title until I can figure out what can be shorted out in a 6030 that causes the Deck PWB to release all it's smoke - literally. Copier is winning with a 2-0 count, we are only in a timeout while I wait for another board.

Check the switch wiring in the paper deck primary feed,for short or scraped wire

quote:

Originally posted by Chris L:

quote:

Originally posted by Airborne:
Wet E- you are instantly promoted to "Copier God" sir, you answer only to Chris L, the real one and only "CG" .

I believe I will have to cede my "CG" title until I can figure out what can be shorted out in a 6030 that causes the Deck PWB to release all it's smoke - literally. Copier is winning with a 2-0 count, we are only in a timeout while I wait for another board.

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Ross:
Job skills required of a copier tech:

10% Shrink
20% Diplomat
20% Programmer
20% Electronics Tech
10% Robotics Tech
10% Educator
10% Paper Quality Assurance Expert
20% Mechanic
10% Scientist
10% Pastor/Bishop
10% Doctor

Lets see that is 140%, yeah seems about right, feel free to add your 10%.

Oh yeah, it has been a fun 30 years.

10% Linguistics interpreter (being able to understand what a customer means when "the doo-hickey fell off the whatsit and won't let me open the thingy").

I'm not sure what percentage to assign for Forensic Crime-Scene Investigative Scientist, because I think some of the already listed jobs fall under that too.

Todd, I was already noticing the damaged-looking wire bundle in the back of the deck feed section. I really had to separate out the bundle and probe with my meter carefully before I found the 1 wire with broken insulation. It passed visually, but the meter showed continuity through the insulation. Had to ohm-out all wires at the pwb also just to satisfy my own fears. Then when I get it all together with a different feed section, stupid machine starts giving hard disk system errors. One more round trip to get a hard disk and finally fix the thing. Ah yes, just another week-long adventure of a technician.

quote:

Originally posted by Todd A.:
Check the switch wiring in the paper deck primary feed,for short or scraped wire

quote:

Originally posted by Chris L:

quote:

Originally posted by Airborne:
Wet E- you are instantly promoted to "Copier God" sir, you answer only to Chris L, the real one and only "CG" .

I believe I will have to cede my "CG" title until I can figure out what can be shorted out in a 6030 that causes the Deck PWB to release all it's smoke - literally. Copier is winning with a 2-0 count, we are only in a timeout while I wait for another board.

Check LCF deck Left side feed unit....wire gets shorted after metal cover put back on incorrectly after someone replaced the paper empty actuator.

hey Wet E Stat
you left off janitor

I started in 1972
I was a Offset Printing presses and mimeo graphs and dittos etc. I was doing escofot and Savin 200 Savin 220

love those tank jobs and belt changes.

did BD32 Toshibas too

This post was a good read I started in 1986, I'll always remember my first Mita color school 7500/7600 and Kieth McManus on the first day within the first 15 minutes of orientation compared technicians to surgeons and after he was done explaining the basis of his comparison for some reason "Kieth" with the gift of gab left you feeling better about what you do for a living then what you walked in with.