Thanks Brian for the great info.
Philip
On 9/06/2021 1:57 am, Brian K. White wrote:
On 6/8/21 3:54 AM, Philip Avery wrote:
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?
Wherever makes the most sense for a given cartridge. They're all a
little different. Some just have a big cavity with bunched up ribbon.
That ends up being the messiest because you end up putting a lot of
ink in just to get it to even out. But even that style evens out after
a while from the bunched up ribbon rubbing on itself. Some have a felt
or sponge wiper block somewhere. And if there is a sponge roller
that's obviously the best. Definitely if there is a sponge roller just
add drops right to that and let it ink the ribbon. Main thing is don't
expect it to happen fast and add more and more. It happens but slowly.
It's messy stuff and travels everywhere. If you over do it, it will
seep out of all the seams in the cartridge case too. Being oil, it
clings to surfaces and kind of spreads itself and the whole cartridge
becomes an oily inky mess. It's easy to over-do it because you add a
few drops and it doesn't do anything except make one tiny spot black,
so you add more. But time and printing (winding the ribbon) evens it
out because of that same oil property.
For a DMP-105 cartridge specifically I don't know. Don't have one of
those.
But usually the case can be cracked open without destroying it.
Carefully, while keeping it flat on a table, to avoid having the
bunched up ribbon fall out. It's recoverable even if that happens,
just tedious and messy packing the ribbon back in one inch fold at a
time with tweezers. Probably want to do this on newspaper on a cut
open garbage bag and wearing gloves.
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.
