So Brian, where do you apply the drops of ink? Just to sponge inside the
card, or directly onto the spooled-up ribbon in there as well?
Philip
On 8/06/2021 5:23 pm, Brian K. White wrote:
On 6/7/21 7:37 PM, Jerry Davis wrote:
Something Charles Hudson mentioned about his DMP105 yesterday led me
to ask this question:
Has anyone had any good experiences with non-OEM or re-inked printer
ribbons from companies like ribbonsunlimited.com
<http://ribbonsunlimited.com>?
I've cleaned and repaired a DMP110 that came with some old Radio
Shack ribbons. The old ribbons still worked and print evenly, but
they are dry and print very light. The 3rd party ribbons I've tried
print very unevenly. A band of dark followed by light followed by
dark. And the print quality from these ribbons seems rough, even by
dot matrix standards.
Until the ribbon physically wears out from the pounding, or the sponge
inside the card degrades, you can use oil-based stamp pad ink to
re-ink them properly.
Stamp pad ink comes in two main varieties, water/glycerine based and
oil based. The oil based can be either mineral oil or silicone
sometimes, but the important thing is just make sure you don't get the
water or glycerine type. Not just because it dries out obviously, but
because the oil is how the impact pins get lubricated.
Other than that, stamp pad ink is the right consistency and oil-based
etc and you can actually get it readily, while, you used to be able to
buy matrix ribbon ink from the same kinds of places that sold ink jet
and toner refill kits, but not any more. You can get it even locally
without waiting not just on-line. Both office and art supply places
have it.
A few drops goes a long way. Small bottles like for eye drops (like
what Staples etc will have) are plenty.
You get the light/dark evened out by just waiting, or by a few cycles
of winding the ribbon, wait a day, wind some more, etc. I've never
seen a new ribbon have dry patches like that, but when you first
re-ink an old ribbon it will of course. The ink soaks and travels
around and evens out by itself over time, but only among all the parts
that are bunched up touching each other. The part that's out in the
loop not packet in the case can get light patches. But just wind the
ribbon to cycle the dry part into the case and leave it like that a
while.
Probably in normal for-real use like if it was 1995 and you were
actually printing things at work all day, any light spots like that
would have evened out naturally within a day or so just from the
natural cycling of the ribbon. Especially for cartridges that include
a sponge roller inside. Some have that, some don't.
