[cctalk] Re: 3/16ths inch ink ribbon

On Sun, 29 Jan 2023, Eric Moore via cctalk wrote: WD40, or a very light machine oil, not even being an ink, is an emergency fraantic attempt to get through the next couple of hours. And yes, sometimes it will get it working briefly. It'll dissolve some of the dried ink enough to make it work. Nylon ribbons are designed to go through using the same part of the ribbon multiple times. Re-inking will extend that, but the cloth itself still has a finite life. You can extend the ribbon's life but it ain't the same as a new ribbon. Adding more ink is far preferable to just diluting the remaining dried ink. But, it is only a temporary measure, until you can replace the ribbon. There used to be cheap devices specificaally for re-inking ribbons. Just a motor to turn the ribbon shaft to advance it past a saturated pad of ink. https://hackaday.com/2019/04/03/reinking-dot-matrix-printer-ribbons-because… https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/4591/how-to-renew-and-re… If you can't find printer ribbon re-inking ink, stamp pad re-inking ink will do. Or even cut open magic markers. BTW, you will have a helluva mess to try to get ink off of everything.