A good friend of mine, a wonderful Model 28 mechanic, came up with a neat way
to re-ink ribbons.

He carefully cut some of the 'top' of an empty metal spool away, so that it
might be 1-1/2" 1-5/8" or so in diameter.  He was able to  CAREFULLY  add a
few drops of ink with an eye-dropper to different parts of the exposed ribbon
layers and then wind the ribbon carefully onto the other spool.  Then winding
back and forth off the machine usually gave him a good 'presentation' for his
print outs.  He only did this on metal spools.  I don't know how the others
that might be plastic or some kind of fiber would respond to cutting with a
pair of tin snips.

Part of the success of this method is  NOT  using the freshly re-inked spool
for a while.  Letting it sit somewhere and 'bleed' from layer to layer 
provided the best results.  He also had a Model 32 and may have done it on
that machine as well.  

I just offer this from a 'historic' standpoint as something I saw work
successfully, back in the 1970s and 1980s when he was involved with RTTY.

I look forward to comments from anyone who tries this.  On or off the list.

Ralph - W8ROI

-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -        


On Mar 22, 2022, at 5:43 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:


I have not tried it, but some say that you can give them a very light spray
of oil like wd40.

There is an article in one of the RTTY journals that shows how to take a M15
reinker and cut it so it will fit and work with the 28.  Long time ago and I
have no idea which issue it is in.

Ralph ku4pt



-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John, W9DDD
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2022 4:54 PM
To: Green Keys
Subject: [GreenKeys] Dry ribbons

It's been maybe 3 years since I returned to heavy metal.  During the
time I was searching for my 1st KSR, I spent a lot of time reviewing the
RTTY Journal archives as a refresher course.  Other than maybe a mention
of the kit for the 15 that replaced part of the standard ribbon
mechanism with a re-inking device, I don't recall seeing other options
for restoring a ribbon.

I now find myself with about 10 sets of dried out ribbons (which
represents 20 metal spools).  Some of them were still in the cellophane
wrap, which fell apart with opening.  I'm thinking, no ink, but fabric
should be fine it I can get some ink on them.


So far no good ideas have emerged. The only somewhat effective methods
have been labor intensive.  The 15 kit used a cylindrical ink reservoir
which had a felt wick wrapped around it. There were small holes in the
ink reservoir which kept the wick supplied with ink.  I'm looking for
something that's kind of automatic.  Was there ever a re-inker kit for
the 28?

Any ideas or suggestions?

BTW none of the dry ribbons were from Jim, his are great.  I'm just
thinking that he doesn't have an endless supply and ebay etc is
sometimes a crap shot.

--
---
----
The above comments or recommendations are SWAG. Use at your own risk.
John, W9DDD


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