-------------------Original Message: From: Pete Turnbull <pete at dunnington.plus.com> Subject: Re: atari printers - gears <snip> a matching flat to what the lifetime of apart a few years down even an M2 would be far too big. <snip> -- Pete ----------------Reply: Indeed; the gears in question are only about 5mm (1/8") dia. with 12 (13?) teeth. As Tony explained, as the plastic ages they split due to the stress of being pressed onto the motor shaft. Although my CGP-115 was working fine when last used several years ago, when I dug it out recently I found that both gears had split in the meantime. I reamed out the centre hole a little with a 1/64" drill to relieve the stress, put a tiny drop of superglue on the inside of the split and put it back on the shaft with a gentle clamp (to avoid deforming the fairly soft teeth). Let it dry, carefully scraped a bit of excess glue from between the teeth at the split, and so far it's survived several feet of test printing in text mode (which stresses the gears much more than line drawing). What I was testing was re-inked pens. I suspect that some of the people who made suggestions re the pens have not seen one of those either; they are small ball-point pens, 24 x 5 mm (1" x 1/8") with a very fine point (for printing 6pt characters, 80 cols on 4" paper). There are two types, a plastic tip and a metal tip in a plastic sleeve. The tips are easily removed; the absorbent insert inside the body can also usually be removed, although that's not necessary. After a thorough soaking and drying they can be refilled and reassembled; briefly put them in hot water to force ink out the tip to get it started, and that's it (unless it was too solidly clogged or corroded). Since they have to fit into a small 4-pen carousel, the shape and size is pretty critical so they can't be replaced with any generic pens. It might be possible to replace the metal tip with a cut-off ballpoint refill, although a normal refill might not work very well since the pens are mounted horizontally. YMMV, mike ---------------------------------------- Upgrade your account today for increased storage; mail forwarding or POP enabled e-mail with automatic virus scanning. Visit our member benefits page at https://members.canada.com/benefits.aspx for more information.