It always seemed like there was one of these in every copying machine I used.

http://www.flixxy.com/black-hole-short-film.htm

That's cute and funny. A black hole. I remember copiers.

At one point at work, we actually forbid certain people from "trying" to fix the photocopiers. One of our dear nearly retired engineers decided to replace a huge toner cartridge (it was 18 inches long and 6 inches on each side. Well, he pulled the tape at the wrong time and all the toner emptied onto the floor, his shoes and socks and pant legs... Then he got the vacuum from the Janitor's closet and tried to suck it all up, well the heat of the vacuum fused the toner... The cheap carpet stayed a lovely shade of gray with all that toner stuck in it.

It was worse when they got copiers that had hard drives, collated, stapled, used 11x17 paper for booklets, sensed paper size and color, and all that stuff. Then we had to insist the people get trained in how to use the machines because it was more than just press the button. Wonderful machines but common sense was required to program them and worse yet, you really did need a brain to find the paper path.

That's a good clip and funny! Some of these new copiers do require a bit of training especially for those that aren't mechanically inclined!

I can well imagine that huge boo-boo on the carpet and something one of my former co-workers, also an Engineer, would have done!

-What happened to him?

-Ah, he sneezed while refilling toner cartridge.

-And what?

-Well, we had to fire him - it was cheaper, than cleaning him up...

What happened to the copier guy? Well, he forbidden from touching a copier again. the secretary threatened to kill him if he ever touched the copier again. Not anything like castration, but death, real death. And that secretary won awards for target shooting with a 357 magnum.

Not a copier story but one of our workmen tried to move a 5 gallon bucket of coal tars in winter while it was frozen to the ground, the bucket buckled and sprayed him with tars. The HAZMAT team took all of his clothing and put him in a UV light booth next to the showers so the oils glowed on his naked body. He got that stuff all over his body. He had to use special soaps to get it off and the Safety Officer had to watch him do it and certify him clean. He was cute and well built - something like Matthew McConaughey. He borrowed some sweats and jersey to drive home.

I've run and serviced the docucolor 2060, ricoh 7-input-tray programmable, DocuTechs... those things need a week or two of training before you can replace laser units, etc. But after a bit, somebody can hand you a 30-page document and boxes of 5 different pre-printed stock and ask for color-indexed copies and it's just a minute (and 100 buttons to push) and voila, its running...

One time I placed (gently, I thought) four color bags of used toner/developer on the floor. KA-POOF! They all blew... probably 6 cups equivalent of fine, fine powder on a (thankfully) linoleum floor. That stuff flows just like water. I watched a spider walk through it, he suffocated to death in a minute or two after.

Yeah.. your engineer fellow woulda been shot if he tried to load paper much less turn on one of those machines .

Now I run a Xeikon 6000... the toner refills come in 800 gram bottles, and the machine goes through them in about 45 minutes on high coverage runs. Yikes.

Nice thread, much good information...

MUCHOS GLASSYASS! (http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-ydm3f7 ... _disaster/)

Idiots and copiers do not do well together...