Hello,
Repairing machines in the grave yard is similar to what is bring discussed in this thread:
Last year I replaced a control card from an Up + 2 (I think that was the name) with one of the latest 32 bit Duet cards, effectively rescuing a dead printer as the manufacturer wanted silly money for the board.
Issues with grave yard printers can include lacking safety shutdown relays, play in bearings, and sometimes dodgy choices in wiring gauge. Having said the latter I always edge on the side of caution there.
Discussing pattentable ideas on an open forum maybe problematic from the perspectives you discuss. I'm not sure how patents and Open Source Hardware can fit together.
E3D are working with some fine nozzles at the moment can't remember whether it was 0.15mm or finer.
I had recently set up my own compay called BURPS (Brewed Up Research Products and Services, suitably non specific so it didn't limit the field of work) Ltd to do some work with an institution that was starting an Additive Manufacturing course. Unfortunately while the course leader was really keen, the contract was foiled by the finance department at second draft.
I've two running modified Ormerods and a P3Steel in build in my personal collection and a second P3Steel that I hope to commission this week that is bought for the business. Needless to say all can help with project work. These are all currently 0.4mm E3D hot end systems with the first ormerod still running on the 0.5mm RepRapLtd hot end.
My vision for BURPS was to work with companies looking to use AM and help guide them through the initial learning curve or project ideas they are looking to develop. I'd recently considered contacting the local chamber for introductions to local engineering companies to offer local prototyping, but margins are really tight there with the big players in the game.
I'd be interested to discuss working with you further, and may be able to make use of contacts at a nearby university who are always looking for bite size chunks of work for student summer projects.
Wesley.