Path: utzoo!attcan!ncrcan!ziebmef!stephen
From: stephen@ziebmef.uucp (Stephen M. Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: How get a "good, dark ribbon"?
Summary: WD-40
Message-ID: <1989Jul3.162012.5185@ziebmef.uucp>
Date: 3 Jul 89 20:20:11 GMT
References: <2857@helios.ee.lbl.gov> <2359@uwovax.uwo.ca> <7714@cbnews.ATT.COM> <7732@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: stephen@ziebmef.UUCP (Stephen M. Dunn)
Organization: Ziebmef Public Access Unix, Toronto, Ontario
Lines: 31

In article <7732@cbnews.ATT.COM> holtman@cbnews.ATT.COM (James P. Holtman) writes:
$One way of rejuvenating your ribbon is to remove the top of the
$ribbon carrier, spray it with WD-40 and then let it sit for a
$couple of day to dry out. I have used this for a couple of years
$and you can get several extra 'cycles' out of the ribbon. WD-40
$is also a good lubricant, so maybe that is why it works.

   I did this with the original ribbon in my Star NX-1000.  The original
ribbon was getting very faint after about 4 months, so I squirted in some
WD-40.  I ended up having to do about 15 pages worth of the printer's self-
test pattern before the printing became fairly evenly dark (what I mean is
that it would go through a dark patch, then get faint, etc.).  For the first
week or so, I had to leave everything I printed sitting around overnight so
that it didn't smell like a garage, but after that the smell became so faint
as to be unnoticeable.

   This fix lasted about two months of light usage before printing once
again became rather faint.  I don't know how many times you can WD-40 a
ribbon before it finally dies.

   One of my guesses as to why it works is as follows.  If you look at a
dying ribbon, you'll notice that the middle third of the ribbon (width-wise)
is faint, while the outer two-thirds or so are still dark (because the ribbon
has to be much wider than the print head).  Perhaps the WD-40 dissolves some
of the ink from the outer part and it ends up getting transported to the
center of the ribbon.
-- 
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! Stephen M. Dunn              stephen@ziebmef.UUCP ! DISCLAIMER:  Who'd ever !
! Take off to the Great White North eh, ya hosehead ! claim such dumb ideas?  !
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