Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!killer!dcs!wnp
From: wnp@dcs.UUCP (Wolf N. Paul)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Epson MX-80 print head madness
Message-ID: <32@dcs.UUCP>
Date: 24 Feb 88 13:21:45 GMT
References: <351@dalcsug.UUCP> <1139@houxu.UUCP> <4641@ecsvax.UUCP> <22216@clyde.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: wnp@dcs.UUCP (Wolf N. Paul)
Organization: DCS, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 28

In article <22216@clyde.ATT.COM> feg@clyde.ATT.COM (Forrest Gehrke) writes:
>The head for my Okidata 192 cost $93.50.
>
>When ordering it, the fellow said "Ah hah!  Ran it with a light
>ribbon, hey?"
>
>And, yes, that's what I had done.  Printed an 80-odd page document with
>a ribbon that was light to begin with.  The print head went sour in
>just minutes.  Turns out that print head wires get their lubrication
>from oil in the ink of the ribbon.  What burns me is that there  is 
>not a peep about this in the printer manual.

I used to have an old Okidata, and the manual explicitly warned against
using non-Oki ribbons because their ink might not contain the lubricant
(this was the old style Okidata with spool-ribbons almost like oldfashioned
typewriter ribbons).

By extension one could deduce from that that running the printer with a light
ribbon or without a ribbon was not a good idea, either, but it did not expressly
say so.

I guess now when Oki has its own cartridge ribbon they feel that it's not
important enough to mention it in the manual.

-- 
Wolf N. Paul                  Phone: (214) 306-9101 (h)   (214) 404-8077 (w)
3387 Sam Rayburn Run          UUCP: ihnp4!killer!{dcs, doulos}!wnp
Carrollton, TX 75007          INTERNET: wnp@dcs.UUCP       ESL:  62832882
Pat Robertson does NOT speak for all evangelical Christians--not for me, anyway!