On Sun, 29 Jan 2023, Eric Moore via cctalk wrote:
Hello, I am looking for 3/16ths inch ink ribbon as used on the IBM 029
keypunch.
I have one lightly damaged ribbon that is entirely dry. I was told by a
typewriter restorationist that ribbon re-inking with nylon never works.
Has anyone had much success cleaning and rewetting ink ribbons? The WD40
trick on the internet seems like it would gunk up the punch mechanism.
Thanks for any information yall can provide,
-Eric
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-its-fun-okay/
https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/4591/how-to-renew-and-re-ink-old-printer-ribbons
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.
