Frank,
Thanks for teaching me about this. I am glad people respond to these letters
of mine. I am always open to being told a better way of doing something.
John Amirault
Frank McConnell wrote:
John Amirault <amirault(a)epix.net> wrote:
How old are the machines? When is the last time
they were CLEANED? I am no
genius but the idea of CLEANING the rollers is, to me, a good one. Hope this
suggustion helps you.
Cleaning helps -- if the rollers have picked up dirt it will make it
harder for them to pick up paper. But the fundamental problem is
that rubber ages and gets hard.
Once upon a time (mid-1980s) some of the HP CEs used to carry an
aromatic fluid they called "Fedron" which was good for restoring the
gumminess of hard rubber rollers. I saw them use it on 2601 (Diablo
630) platen rollers and the little roller in the 2619 chain printer (a
Dataproducts something) that drives one of the paper-jam detectors
(roller not turning => paper not moving => paper jam, and when this
one got hard enough that the paper just slid over it without turning
it you got one frustrated computer operator).
Is this stuff still available, or did it get banned because it's bad
for the ozone layer?
Not sure it would work for LJ II pickup rollers, they're a softer
rubber. Nor am I sure what the fluid did, for all I know it stripped
off a layer of the rubber.
-Frank McConnell