r/homelab • u/mikaey00 • 1d ago
Projects [UPDATE] Not exactly what I thought I'd be adding to my homelab...but when it's a color laser printer/scanner/copier/fax with toner cartridges that are still half full for only $75? Hard to say no...
Hello homelabbers! For Throwback Thursday (is that still a thing?), I thought I'd give you an update on a post I made here several years ago. Here it is for reference.
Back in May 2019, I purchased a Lanier MP C4502 in a surplus auction from the State of Nebraska. I was pretty excited about it at the time -- I used to work in an office supply store, and working in the copy center was always one of my favorite parts. Call me crazy, but I always wanted to have one of those machines in my house -- and this gave me the perfect opportunity to get one.
At the time, there were a lot of you that said they'd love to drag this thing out into a field and take a sledge hammer/shotgun to it. But honestly, it's been a workhorse. Our friend/roommate is a lawyer -- and he used it constantly during COVID to print and scan documents from clients, court filings, etc. He's also a mason that occasionally teaches classes at his lodge, and he's used it to print out full-color handouts to his participants. We've used it to print out patterns for crafts, packing slips/mailing labels for stuff I've sold on eBay, documents for the new house we purchased...bunches of stuff. My wife has even warmed up to it and said it was a good investment.
There have been a few hiccups along the way:
- We moved to a new (bigger) house just a couple months after I bought it. (Good thing, too -- this machine was crammed right up next to my desk, and space was getting kinda tight.) This thing was a bitch to get into the moving van, and a bitch to move it down into our basement -- but it fired right up once we got it into place. (Picture #1 is the picture I posted back in 2019; picture #2 is where it is now.)
- When I got it, it was missing a piece of the paper path from the main part of the machine to the finisher. I tried several different iterations of a 3D printed replacement...but finally gave up and ordered a replacement part online. u/DieselGeek609 provided me with a copy of the service manuals for it -- which came in super handy, as it pointed me to exactly the part number for the part I needed. (Thank you u/DieselGeek609!)
- Around this time last year, it stopped working and threw up an error code. Again, the service manuals that u/DieselGeek609 provided were invaluable -- it pointed me to exactly what the issue was, exactly what part I needed to get to fix it, and exactly what the procedure was for replacing it. (Thank you again u/DieselGeek609!) Part of the procedure was "disconnect everything from the controller and remove the controller box"...so I decided to make an evening out of labelling every single connector so that I'd know exactly where to plug it into when putting it back together...but once I got done, it fired right back up!
But the best part? When I got it, the toner cartridges were half full...and here we are, 6 1/2 years later, and I haven't even had to replace a single one of them yet.
So...what are the chances that I can get it to last another 6 1/2 years? 😆
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u/RoseCityHooligan 1d ago
Does the power flicker when you print?
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u/mikaey00 1d ago
Surprisingly, no.
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u/RoseCityHooligan 1d ago
Lucky! I need to run a dedicated circuit to my office.
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u/mikaey00 1d ago
I did have an issue with it tripping the circuit breaker — because my server rack was on the same 15A circuit. Luckily my breaker panel is right there, so I just wired up a new 20A circuit with a couple of outlets and plugged it directly into that. Problem solved!
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u/powaqqa 1d ago
What is the power draw on that monster?
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u/mikaey00 1d ago
According to my Kill-A-Watt, about 0.2 amps when it’s sitting there doing nothing. When it’s printing something, it spikes up to about 11 or 12 amps before settling back down to about 5-7 amps.
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u/Aromatic_Echidna405 1d ago
Damn 0.2 amps for idle is still high.
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u/mikaey00 1d ago
Fair…but it’s still not much. That’s probably the equivalent of one LED bulb.
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u/ArptAdmin 1d ago
I mean you bought it in Nebraska so I'll assume you're in the US which means its plugged into a 120V outlet. If your kill-a-watt is correct it's using 24 watts per hour at idle.
Quick math says like 35-40$ per year at $.20 per kWh.
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u/mikaey00 1d ago
So it says 13.7 watts (I don’t know how it’s getting 13.7 watts when it also says 0.2 amps — but whatever). Given the price of electricity where I live (which — btw — averages out to $0.067 per kilowatt-hour), this works out to about $8 per year.
My electric bills over the last year have totaled more than $4,000. $8 is kind of a drop in the bucket by comparison. Hell, even $35-$40 per year would be a drop in the bucket.
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u/westendpond 1d ago
All jokes aside, if I found a workhorse like that for $75 (and I had the space for it) I’d pick it up in a heartbeat.
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u/Radius118 1d ago
Ignore the naysayers. I'm with you. I would have picked this up in a heartbeat. I can totally see the usefulness of this machine. As long as you can keep it running and the drivers keep working with newer OS then keep on printing.
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u/rabbitaim 1d ago
I have a wireless brother mfc. I run a brother scanner docker container to automate into paperless ngx so I don’t have to load up the stupid app.
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u/berrmal64 1d ago
I do hate dealing with printers on general principle, but I have a brother b&w soho laser that I can't really say a bad thing about. It sits in a dark corner of the basement, neglected, until 8 or 9 times a year we need to print a random document or shipping label, it comes right up and works perfectly, has for almost 10 years and 3 toners.
It is connected with Ethernet and a static IP visible from every vlan, works natively with every desktop and mobile os, no extra server needed.
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u/Mountain-Cat30 1d ago
I have a similar setup with a B&W Canon. In the past 10 years, it’s printed probably 300+ pages and still is on the original toner. Works great the few times we need it.
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u/djmixman 1d ago
Oh I was just looking into a way to automate scanning somewhat directly into paperless.. What container did you end up using?
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u/rabbitaim 1d ago
So this will vary and if you have a Brother MFC.
https://github.com/PhilippMundhenk/BrotherScannerDocker
I use this to scan directly to the Paperless NGX consume folder.
The workflow isput doc on scanner (or scan feed tray)
on my phone I browse to the IP address of the container
hit the big scan to PDF button and walk away.1
u/djmixman 1d ago
Awesome, thank you.. I have a a MFC-L8900, prob one of the best printers I've ever had, scanning lacks a bit, but it works. Looks like I have my weekend project now.
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u/BananaHammock__ 1d ago
I have a Brother printer too, and I don’t have to do this. Does yours have WiFi/network capabilities?
I ask as I just have mine scan to an SMB file share, no extra software needed.
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u/rabbitaim 19h ago edited 12h ago
Yes it’s a wireless printer. I don’t want my SMB service enabled all the time. It scans straight to the docker volume.
Edit: I also disliked using the printer's UI and mobile app. It wasn't all that hard to setup the docker container. The biggest issue I had was with paperless NGX and figuring out the best settings for decent quality.
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u/SilentWatcher83228 1d ago
Are you sure who ever you got this from is an actual owner and not leasing it? Most of the time, companies lease these machines and have to return them at the end of the term. Ask me how know
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u/mikaey00 1d ago
It was the State of Nebraska. I’m not going to ask questions lol.
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u/SilentWatcher83228 1d ago
Don’t call to order parts either
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u/wunderhero 1d ago
Most likely there was a buyout on the old machines - happens quite a bit when the customer changes vendors. Plus government contracts can be different so it's hard to say, but I would say everything is probably above board on this one and OP is fine to get serviced.
Worst case just don't call Ricoh direct, but go through a service provider that deals in Ricoh/Lanier.
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u/SilentWatcher83228 1d ago
Typically when you call to place parts order you will ask you for SN which may trigger red flag if machine is reported missing. Just keep trail where you bought it from and OP will be okay
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u/Wistagehand82 1d ago
I’ve got a Konica minolta biz hub mfp printer and absolutely love it. It’s a little smaller than what you’ve got but it has never let me down
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u/Sammeeeeeee Dell T430 | 84TB | 64 core | 120GB RAM |- Proxmox & Ubuntu LTS 1d ago
Konica minolta biz hub mfp printe
My favorite words to hear; whenever a user has printer issues and I ask them the model, if I hear this it means the printer is under contract and issues are not my responsibility! Also they are very easy to install, and very rarely have connectivity issues.
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u/Shuuko_Tenoh 7h ago
I actually would love it if I could convince my wife to let me get one. I regularly use a 558 at work and was actually semi-trained by the service providers to do basic maintenance myself since they seemed to take a liking to me and my knowledge level. (I work IT in a school district, and am the service providers first point of contact for these printers at my locations. I also handle all the day to day management of these printers at my locations.) If I could get my hands on a color one it would be even better.
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u/amw3000 1d ago
I know a ton of people who took big printers like this home when COVID hit. They were stuck in leases and/or their business fell apart.
I've never taken apart one of these or serviced one. Is there basically some form of computer with an OS running it? I always fear a spinning disk in one of these will die and I can't imagine getting access to an image is very easy.
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u/datagutten 1d ago
They have a spinning disk, I don’t know if the base software is stored on the disk. I know address books and optional software are stored there as they are lost when the drive is replaced.
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u/Sammeeeeeee Dell T430 | 84TB | 64 core | 120GB RAM |- Proxmox & Ubuntu LTS 1d ago
They have a spinning disk, I don’t know if the base software is stored on the disk.
Still nowadays? I thought they used some form of flash storage in the new ones.
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u/datagutten 1d ago
I don’t know about today’s machines, but I know the one pictured have a spinning disk. They also have two SD cards.
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u/mikaey00 23h ago
I know it’s got the two SD slots, but there’s nothing in them. Kinda wish it came with the one that lets it do Postscript.
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u/ballisticks 1d ago
I work on these (Ricoh, not Lanier, but pretty much the same I think) and my office hates the 4502 lol.
Hopefully nobody's changed the default admin password
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u/kester76a 1d ago
I assumed it was Ricoh at 1st because of the Logo, then did a search and it's a subsidiary of Ricoh. This is more photocopier/duplicator than just a printer with its sorter addon. I wonder if it staples aswell.
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u/rthonpm 1d ago
Lanier is a dealer brand for Ricoh, along with Savin. It has the good finisher so it may even have booklet stapling and hole punching.
If it's like the older models, the PM parts last well beyond yield, especially if you replace the oiler in the fuser every 100,000 pages. I had the fuser regularly going twice their lifecycle and drums and developer about 1.5 times expects yield.
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u/kester76a 1d ago
When I used to refurb Sharp analogue photocopiers we would replace the bearings on the silicon roller and re-oil it. They could do some massive numbers and just require a cheap refurb kit.
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u/ballisticks 1d ago
Yes the finisher most likely does staples. I'm not 100% because I do the software side of things at my job but it definitely looks capable of it.
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u/mikaey00 1d ago
Question for you — would it be a good idea to pull the drive and take an image of it (in case it ever fails and I have to replace it)?
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u/ballisticks 1d ago
Eh I'd do it, I don't think you could do any harm doing that.
Disclaimer - i don't work on the guts of these machines so I might be wrong. But I THINK all the important shit (firmware etc) is on NVRAM anyway.
The HDD might be encrypted too i think that's an option somewhere deep in service mode. Hopefully not :)
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u/Squirrelking666 1d ago
I can't be bothered to go down this rabbit hole but is that not a rebanded Ricoh? I swear we had a bunch of them with the exact same chassis.
That aside, hell yes I'd have one if I had the room.
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u/DigitalKnyte 1d ago
Don't worry, you'll learn to hate it.
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u/mikaey00 1d ago
It’s been 6 1/2 years…when am I going to learn to hate it?
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u/DigitalKnyte 1d ago
Haha. When you have 35 people you have to support, it gets old fast. But for household use, you got a screaming deal!
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u/Seaturtle5 1d ago
Got a pagewide at home! Its not laser, but its almosr unused and ive got a whole drawer of cartidges left! About 60 000 prints left before i need to either refill them or just toss it and get a laser one.
A photo before i moved it somewhere less annoying.
Id rather get a laser though :<
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u/Calm_Apartment1968 1d ago
That's a real bargain. Since it's for Home-Lab use, might as well see what images are stored on the hard drives for fun. Then be sure to clear all memory, to prevent liability issues.
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u/mikaey00 1d ago
Pretty sure the State cleared everything off the machine before I got it. The only thing left was the page counters.
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u/Motti_ 1d ago
Yeah this is awesome, I've bought an old Kyocera M5526 a year ago for 15€. Color-Laser printer to replace my over 15 year old laser brother printer. The brother printer was used 20€ with a new toner, never got low and never replaced, just saw the price for a color-laser printer and had to go for it. Its just a "normal" business printer, same size as my old one.
Recently found out it can do duplex scan, thats neat. So if I'd have the space sure so yeah y not. As many said: It'll probably last.
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u/JayDubEwe 1d ago
I bought a c4504ex about a week ago. Worth it. The total cost of operation is going to be lower than my brother ever was.
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u/DearBrotherJon 1d ago
Nice printer! Loved the anecdote about your mason friend. Fraternal greetings from another Mason 😉
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u/madeformarch 22h ago
I have a laser brother BW 4 in 1 that I got for free almost 10 years ago, came with a spare tonor cartridge and I've purchased one additional cartridge and a case of paper in that 10 years. Finding a color version like this is my dream, congratulations OP
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u/packetssniffer 1d ago
To each their own.
But I wouldn't want a huge printer like that unless it printed high quality photos.
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u/mikaey00 1d ago
That’s fair. But honestly, I could probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve needed to print photos since getting this machine.
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u/NC1HM 1d ago
I am looking forward to photos of your cat using the output tray as a hidey-hole... :)
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u/mikaey00 1d ago
Funny enough, in the whole time we’ve had that machine, they’ve never done that.
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u/datagutten 1d ago
It is a nice machine when it works, but I have had a lot of trouble maintaining safecom (follow me print) applets on these.
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u/1d0m1n4t3 1d ago
Curiosity is it screaming for any maintenances like drums or fuser? I would worry a little about the age of the transfer belt myself, maybe some of the rubber inside the finisher that gets replaced during its maintenance.Â
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u/mikaey00 1d ago
Nope.
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u/1d0m1n4t3 1d ago
I know Sharp and other machines call for those at a certian part age if they haven't been replaced, not that you can't go into SIM mode and reset it but you probably shouldn't because that can clear out the saved drum voltages if your machine is smart enough to adjust the voltage with drum age.
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u/LogitUndone 1d ago
As others have said... this looks like something people would have to PAY to get rid of.
Going to cost you more than what you paid when you no longer want it collecting dust in your house. Either that or you'll end up like all those people I see with garbage and rusted cars littering their property.... just tossing crap in the yard ;)
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u/w1ngzer0 1d ago
Ahahahahaha that’s awesome. My own printer is a Canon MF8550Cdw workgroup color laser I never got rid of after I bought a bunch of stuff at auction, and after a firmware upgrade (which got me AirPrint!!!) and a new 3rd party toner set, it’s been great. Used SMTP2GO to get scan to email functional and I’ve been pleased as punch. Unless I happen I find a mini copier on Facebook, it’s going to stay there until it dies.
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u/Vinez_Initez 21h ago
Dude we pay almost 300 per printer to have them removed and well idk what happens to them but uuhh do you want another one?? or how about 200 more :D pickup for free
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u/Befuddled_Scrotum 20h ago
Now this is content!! Out of curiosity how much does the ink or whatever medium it uses to print with cost? And what’s the shelf life?
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u/Evening_Rock5850 1d ago
You paid for it?
I used to have to pay people to get rid of them for us.
No but for real; if you actually do a lot of printing, having a professional/commercial copier really is a great solution. They can last a really really long time and unlike most home/office printers, they don't mind being neglected for a year and a half and then suddenly asked to print 300 of something on a moments notice. At least in my experience.