How all this got started...
FixThatCalc.com is not your normal business. Why? Because there simply is not enough HP calculator repair work out there in the world for a big building filled with bustling, busy people with rows of workbenches. No, we're just a small home-based business that keeps two people from becoming sedentary with a daily trip to the Post Office and fetching the boxes that UPS and FedEx occasionally drop by the garage door. Just the two of us, Gale, who does the fetching and Randy (that's me) who does the fixing.
While we might be small, that doesn't mean we're not serious about fixing your broken HP. I've been an HP fan since 1976 with the purchase of an HP25C and don't know how to deal with numbers without an RPN calculator.
It all started a couple of years ago when I managed to kill my trusty HP42S. I quickly discovered that HP no longer supported my favorite calculator. What does a confirmed RPN addict that is also an electrical engineer do? Very simple, I fixed it. With some help, of course. I found some fellow RPN addicts on the online Museum of HP Calculators. Honestly, it wasn't that simple nor was the result perfect but I did indeed discover that I could effect repair and not end up with a pile of useless parts. Never tell an engineer they can't do something. That led to buying some used machines for further experimentation. Further work led to looking for more broken HP's and before I knew it, I was being asked for help in fixing other machines from contacts made through the Internet.
Months passed and with more and more machines repaired. I bought some early model HP LED machines and relived my younger days. In my quest for yet more machines, I contacted Hewlett-Packard directly. That led to the idea of repairing machines on a more commercial basis. Those conversations with HP led to the web site you see today. Several years later and thousands of repaired HP's later, we're still repairing the otherwise unrepairable. I treat every machine as though it was mine and do my best to restore it to the best possible condition, not just get it working. Every machine, one at a time. No production lines, no quotas. The only way we can maintain that philosophy is to "keep it simple".