[GreenKeys] TTY Materials Lists - Compendium, DIY materials, Carbonless Form Options

[Keith Mc]

According to another thread, many of the old printers were ribbon-less, 
and used special pressure sensitive paper .  In another thread, the
example was an Extel, that used a special 3M paper with micro ink capsules,
that broke when struck to make a dot.
Many of those papers are no longer available.

So, what are the options these days?

Right off the bat, I see a few main ways to approach this problem:
1) Compile a list of the "special" materials, that this group may need
(oiled ASR33 punch tape, TTY roll paper, 3M encapsulated ink paper, etc...)
2) Compiling vendor sources for the old, original materials.  
3) Finding substitute "tricks", using currently available materials.
4) Coming up with our own material, to work with these printers.
5) Make a mod to the printer (eg, add a ribbon assy) to allow it to
use more standard paper or materials.
If anyone has more suggestions, please feel free to add them to this list.

Taking them in order:

1) TTY Consumable Materials List - First off, what are the common 
"special" (consumable) materials we need, for working with TTYs?  
Compiling a comprehensive list would be a great asset to this group.  
Adding an index to the end, by model, greatly enhances it.  

Does this exist anywhere yet?  If not, is there an experienced "Elmer" 
here, that could easily whip one up, for the benefit of us newbies?  
IMO, it should contain things like: the various ribbons, roll paper, 
oiled paper tape, 3M encapsulated ink paper, carbonless forms, 
specified lubricating oils for the machines, etc...
Frequently needed "consumable" repair parts (like punch pins) 
might also be good to add, in a second section.

2) Vendor List - A companion document to the above would be a 
"known current vendor list", for all of those materials.  
I say separate, because this is a HIGHLY mutable document, 
whereas the above Consumable Materials List is fairly stable.

3) Finding workarounds, for hard to find or obsolete consumables:

Ex: Ribbons - ALWAYS save your old ribbon carriers, once the ribbon
has dried or worn out.  Flipping and reinking is still possible, to extend
the life of many ribbons.  If you keep the carrier, you can also often
find a similar WIDTH ribbon for sale intended for another machine, 
and move the ribbon from it to your old bobbin.  I've done this 
MANY times with some of my old printers.  If you have a reel-reel
pair instead of a continuous loop cartridge and the ribbon is of
a longer length, a clothing rivet gun can add a new reversing 
rivet to the moved ribbon.

Carbonless forms:  Would old fashioned carbon paper, or carbonless 
form paper work in ribbon-less printers (such as the Extel)?  
Those are still available.  A sandwich of two pieces of paper with a 
carbon paper sheet between it would still print.  Yea, it's not cheap, 
but would at least be good for testing.

What other "work arounds" has people come up with, that would
be good to share?

4) DIY materials - Has anyone created a carbonless form equivalent,
found a substitute for no longer available materials, or come up 
with other cool tricks, they'd like to share?  
(An example might be a separate paper tape oiling machine, to 
add a touch of oil to non-oiled paper, to help prevent punch wearout...)

Carbonless papers - OOC, has anyone ever created some kind of touch 
sensitive REUSABLE  "paper" that could be "reset" and reused, to 
work with pressure strike style ribbon-less printers?   
I'm thinking something along the lines of a paper equivalent to
the old peel top cover Magic Slates some of us had as kids.
(You use a stylus to mark it, and peel the plastic cover up to "erase" it.)

Perhaps a flexible variant of that technology could be created, to 
at least work with page style ribbonless printers. (Something for 
a continuous roll tearoff printer would be a whole 'nuther problem...)

5) Mod tricks, to allow old TTYs to use more modern materials:
For example, has anyone worked out a Ribbon Hack, to add a 
ribbon assembly to a non-ribbon printer, or an oiler mod for 
punches, to allow them to safely use oil-less tape? 
If so, please talk about it.

What other "common" mods, are good to know about?


Bottom line - I'd love to see a nice resource archive site, WIKI, and FAQ,
to consolidate some of the arcane knowledge everyone has into 
one, easily searched place.  I'm hoping some of the TTY experts 
here may be able to help create this.

Of course if all of this already exists, never mind!  Please just 
point me to it.   (I'm a newbie here, myself... :-)  
But if all of the above doesn't exist yet, can we start compiling it, 
to help all of us newbies out? (and reduce repeating the same old questions... :-)

Thanks!
- Keith Mc.