Practical Automation was indeed the hardware manufacturer. Lubrication of the pins is a tricky issue. Supposedly, there is lubricant in the inked ribbon and, as the pins strike, they are suficiently lubricated. *ANY* petroleum based lubricant will eventually boil off all the volotiles, leaving a sticky residue which is as good as glue so far as the pins are concerned. Not to mention that petroleum based lubes will rot the rubber rollers. All that said, I have successfully used projector oil in extremely small quantities: wash hands, rub 1 drop around the tips of my fingers, hold finger in front of print head, print all possible characters in one character space (print - backspace - print -etc etc etc) The electronics and the software components were all designed and executed by Dr. Robert Suding (the technical brains behind "the digital group". There is a web site "www.ultimatecharger.com" of Suding Associates, Inc. The writing sure reads like digital group documentation used to read! He was known to be big in amateur radio and amateur astronomy. You may be able to radio him - W0LMD. Have you tried the www.practicalautomation.com web site? Dosen't the "ATX 38" Kiosk Printer look familiar - even today? Dave Hilton Staff System Administrator entelos(r) Foster City, CA "Linux is like a wigwam - No Gates, no Windows, Apache inside." -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Bryan Blackburn Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2003 4:37 PM To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Help request: Impact printer by the digital group Hi all, I am in the process of restoring a 96 column impact printer sold by the digital group around 1977. (See my progress at: http://members.cox.net/oldcomp3/dgp/dgprinter.shtml) The first question I have is about the print head: Does anyone have any idea what, if anything, is the proper lubricant for a print head? What little lubricant I found on the heads felt like it might be a silicone grease of some kind. I have no idea if this was original lubricant or not. Labels I have found on other printers warn against oiling the print head, stating that the heads are lifetime oiled at time of manufacture. Next, I wonder if anyone on the list might have any information on the printer itself, which appears to have been manufactured by Practical Automation Inc., of Shelton Conn., or on the digital group electronics. Any ideas? -Bryan