I did my first professional printer repair today.

The short story: laser printer repair is remarkably easy.

The long story: Had an HP LJ1200 at front desk and a LJ1000 in the shop. The 1200′s laser unit died a few weeks ago (according to the local, and very cool, printer shop). We replaced it and kept it around for spare parts. Then, a few days later the 1000 has an electronics problem. Here’s the cool thing: the 1200 and 1000 physical innards are almost identical. The mainboard and formatter board are not, however. (again, thanks printer shop guy!)

So, I called the printer shop guy and asked if the laser unit could be removed from the 1000 and put in the 1200 giving me a new printer. He said YES, and gave me a quick rundown of how to disassemble the units.

I tore down the printers and swapped the laser unit. BLING! Now, we have a working printer for the shop again.

I really should look into doing printer repair for the business. Could be a good thing. Don’t want to hurt the local printer guy though, he’s really cool.