13 Dec
2015
13 Dec
'15
12:28 p.m.
Has anyone had any luck re-inking printer ribbons?
I spent a few minutes looking at this Vic 1525 printer that I got the other
day - turned out that the carriage was just gummed up and there was a blown
fuse in the PSU section (probably related to the former problem).
Of course the ribbon is completely dried out. I'd originally intended for
the printer to be a static "Hey, that looks neat" item, but looking at it
briefly, it's a good example of how to make a printer as cheaply as
possible, so I'm wondering if there's a way of breathing life back into the
ribbon so that it can print again in all it's noisy, glacially-slow glory :-)
I don't care if it's not as black as an original ribbon would have been -
it just might be nice if it was able to print something legible.
cheers
Jules
13 Dec
13 Dec
1:17 p.m.
On Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 12:28 PM, Jules Richardson <
jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> wrote:
Has anyone had any luck re-inking printer ribbons?
I spent a few minutes looking at this Vic 1525 printer that I got the
other day - turned out that the carriage was just gummed up and there was a
blown fuse in the PSU section (probably related to the former problem).
Of course the ribbon is completely dried out. I'd originally intended for
the printer to be a static "Hey, that looks neat" item, but looking at it
briefly, it's a good example of how to make a printer as cheaply as
possible, so I'm wondering if there's a way of breathing life back into the
ribbon so that it can print again in all it's noisy, glacially-slow glory
:-)
I don't care if it's not as black as an original ribbon would have been -
it just might be nice if it was able to print something legible.
cheers
Jules
I have found that most vintage ribbons can be replaced with new ribbons for
new devices. Worst case you may find the right width but you'll have to
re-thread to fit the vintage spindle. Just have to match the width.
I recently bought new ribbons for Decwriter II and TI Omni 810 without any
problem.
Bill
--
Bill
14 Dec
14 Dec
8:13 p.m.
On 12/13/2015 10:17 AM, william degnan wrote:
I have found that most vintage ribbons can be replaced
with new ribbons for
new devices. Worst case you may find the right width but you'll have to
re-thread to fit the vintage spindle. Just have to match the width.
I recently bought new ribbons for Decwriter II and TI Omni 810 without any
problem.
Bill
I'm having this issue right now with a Panasonic printer. The black ink
ribbons are still a dime/dozen. The 4-color ribbons are NLA from
Panasonic and finding them is proving to get quite difficult.
I'd be more than happy to re-thread a cartridge, but where does one find
CMYK 1 inch fabric ribbon?
-Jason
7:28 p.m.
On 12/14/2015 08:13 PM, Jason Howe wrote:
On 12/13/2015 10:17 AM, william degnan wrote:
Jason,
Is it cheaper to do it that way luckily I got 40 new ribbon cartrages
with my C-64 purchase.. Do they have screws or are they hot glued
together?
I have found that most vintage ribbons can be
replaced with new
ribbons for
new devices. Worst case you may find the right width but you'll have to
re-thread to fit the vintage spindle. Just have to match the width.
I recently bought new ribbons for Decwriter II and TI Omni 810
without any
problem.
Bill
I'm having this issue right now with a Panasonic printer. The black
ink ribbons are still a dime/dozen. The 4-color ribbons are NLA from
Panasonic and finding them is proving to get quite difficult.
I'd be more than happy to re-thread a cartridge, but where does one
find CMYK 1 inch fabric ribbon?
-Jason
18 Dec
18 Dec
10:52 a.m.
On 12/14/2015 04:28 PM, Mike wrote:
On 12/14/2015 08:13 PM, Jason Howe wrote:
They are, of course, glued together... I actually (finally) found a
vendor online selling these new. He said that while Panasonic has
discontinued production, a Chinese company has picked it up. I ordered
2 at $25/each (ouch!). We'll see when they get here. Regardless, if I
can find a source for 1 inch CMYK ribbon stock I'll have a few carts to
mess around with.
--Jason
On 12/13/2015 10:17 AM, william degnan wrote:
Jason,
Is it cheaper to do it that way luckily I got 40 new ribbon cartrages
with my C-64 purchase.. Do they have screws or are they hot glued
together? I have found that most vintage ribbons can be
replaced with new
ribbons for
new devices. Worst case you may find the right width but you'll have to
re-thread to fit the vintage spindle. Just have to match the width.
I recently bought new ribbons for Decwriter II and TI Omni 810
without any
problem.
Bill
I'm having this issue right now with a Panasonic printer. The black
ink ribbons are still a dime/dozen. The 4-color ribbons are NLA from
Panasonic and finding them is proving to get quite difficult.
I'd be more than happy to re-thread a cartridge, but where does one
find CMYK 1 inch fabric ribbon?
-Jason 
13 Dec
13 Dec
1:37 p.m.
On Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 10:28 AM, Jules Richardson <
jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> wrote:
Has anyone had any luck re-inking printer ribbons?
I spent a few minutes looking at this Vic 1525 printer that I got the
other day - turned out that the carriage was just gummed up and there was a
blown fuse in the PSU section (probably related to the former problem).
Of course the ribbon is completely dried out. I'd originally intended for
the printer to be a static "Hey, that looks neat" item, but looking at it
briefly, it's a good example of how to make a printer as cheaply as
possible, so I'm wondering if there's a way of breathing life back into the
ribbon so that it can print again in all it's noisy, glacially-slow glory
:-)
I don't care if it's not as black as an original ribbon would have been -
it just might be nice if it was able to print something legible.
One trick we used back in the day (I used it on my LA50 and also the
decwriter at school someone misdirected a print job to) was to spray a bit
of WD-40 into the ribbon spool. This got the ink moving around and helped
to re moisturize it when it was dried out. I don't know how universal this
trick was, or even if there were horrible side effects. I was a teenager it
it let me reuse the LA50 ribbon one more time. Not sure how I rewound it,
or if I sprayed the ink onto the spooled up ribbon, or as I rewound it
backwards. I had a lot more time than money in those days. I do remember
doing this a couple of times, and once using too much and having greasy
print outs.
Is the VIC 1525 a dot-matrix printer? Is the ribbon the cloth type that you
have a hard time seeing the stuff just printed (as opposed to the mylar +
ink where you clearly see what was typed in IBM Selectric Typewriters)?
There's a chance this might work. Your mileage may vary. This trick worked
once, maybe twice on fresh ribbons back in the day. I see from google that
it works on old ribbons too (but those posts were from 10-15 years ago,
don't know what another decade or two does to the drying process). I'd
approach this hint with caution and some common sense and weigh he harm to
your new toy against darker print. If it is printing fine, but the printing
is super light, this might help. You can give a quick blast of WD-40 on the
'about to be used' side to see if it will help. You'll see some dark print
that fades away again as the ribbon goes by if the trick worked.
Good luck!
Warner
1:52 p.m.
You need a Mac Inker, produced for years by Computer Friends. Basically
a slow-speed motor and a hollow tube with small holes. You fill the
tube with printer ink (very messy) and the motor draws the ribbon over
it. The ink will wick through the entire ribbon.
After I moved to laser printing, I gave away my Mac Inker. I didn't
miss it--as I said, it's a pretty messy business, but it got the job done.
The old trick was to open the cartridge and spray WD40 over the top of
the ribbon in the stuffer box. Close the ribbon box, put it in a sealed
plastic bag and give it a few days for the ink to permeate.
The limit to this is, of course, is that you're not replacing the ink,
but rather just moistening it. Eventually, all fabric ribbons will
wear out, however.
--Chuck
6:05 p.m.
On 12/13/2015 12:37 PM, Warner Losh wrote:
One trick we used back in the day (I used it on my
LA50 and also the
decwriter at school someone misdirected a print job to) was to spray a bit
of WD-40 into the ribbon spool.
Hmm, I'll give that a go and see what happens.
Is the VIC 1525 a dot-matrix printer?
Well, it's an impact printer, I guess. AIUI, it just has a single pin
(driven by a single solenoid) which hits the page through the ribbon,
rather than a dot matrix which can do several lines per pass of the head -
it's quite delightfully crude in terms of construction, which is why I have
this sudden urge to make it able to print :-)
Is the ribbon the cloth type
Yes, cloth ribbon. There's no actual direct drive to the ribbon spools;
instead there's a little clutch mechanism on the head and this snags the
ribbon when the head is returning back to the left-hand margin and causes
it to advance.
It doesn't look like there's direct drive to the head in the left-hand
direction either, incidentally; the mechanism can advance the head to the
right, and when it releases, spring tension pulls the head back to the
left-hand margin. Like I said, delightfully crude. :)
If it is printing fine, but the printing is super
light, this might
help.
Well, it *sounds* like the head solenoid is operating - whether it's
operating at 100% strength or travel is hard to tell. I'm wondering if I
might not be able to hold a bit of sacrificial ribbon from something else
in front of the head while it runs a self-test, just to make sure that the
head is doing its job. The ribbon certainly looks very faded, however, so
I think it's done for either way.
Good luck!
Thanks!
Jules
1:49 p.m.
On Sun, 13 Dec 2015, Jules Richardson wrote:
so I'm wondering if there's a way of breathing
life back into the ribbon so
that it can print again in all it's noisy, glacially-slow glory :-)
I don't care if it's not as black as an original ribbon would have been - it
just might be nice if it was able to print something legible.
Re-inking is not hard, although if not planned well, it can be messy.
Cheap re-inking machines, such as the classic "MacInker" from "Computer
Friends", are just a motorized platform to drag the ribbon over a pad
soaked with ink. Stamp pad ink might not be ideal, but should work.
In an extreme case, or emergency, anything that will moisturize and/or
lubricate the ribbon will work, particularly even including WD-40!
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