[GreenKeys] Teletype Model 43 ribbon

[Gabriel Egan]

Dear Michael

Actually, you know what? I'll give this a try
myself! (The can-do attitude of the Greenkeys
list has inspired me.)

I've got the ribbon cartridge open. Bearing
in mind that my ribbon is about an inch
longer that it would need to be in order
to fit snugly around the rollers in the
43 (it's so loose that the tensioning roller
doesn't even start to take up the slack)
I wonder if someone has already opened and
re-inked my cartridge and put the ribbon
back incorrectly.

What's the correct path? I can see that
the ribbon follows the edge of the
inside of the case, getting squeezed between
a big inky roller and a little pinch
roller. But on the other side there's a
large white metal spring (not a coil spring,
just a springy metal strip bent around about
340 degrees) that doesn't seem to do anything.
Does the ribbon go into the compartment that
this spring sits in?

On the advice of Jim Haynes I'm ordering
numbering machine ink (Rexel, not Bates
as that's about 10 times the price of
Rexel here in the UK -- hope it's roughly
the same stuff).

Regards

Gabriel Egan




 >
 > On 5/20/2016 12:28 AM, Michael Zahorik wrote:
 >  > I have a model 43 and tried to find a replacement ribbon but had no
 >  > luck. I then cleaned my old ribbons and sponge with alcohol and ironed
 >  > the ribbon smooth with a cool iron. I also had to replace a tension
 >  > spring for the ink sponge. I used some ink I found on eBay. This ink
 >  > will dry out if you don't use the printer regularly, but a little more
 >  > will refresh it. Worked for me.
 >  >
 >  > Mike Zahorik (414) 254-6768
 >  >
 >  >
 >  > 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >  > *From:* Gabriel Egan <mail at gabrielegan.com>
 >  > *To:* greenkeys at mailman.qth.net
 >  > *Sent:* Thursday, May 19, 2016 9:59 AM
 >  > *Subject:* [GreenKeys] Teletype Model 43 ribbon
 >  >
 >  > Dear Greenkeyers
 >  >
 >  > I know it's not quite the technology preferred
 >  > by this list, but I've got hold of a Teletype
 >  > Model 43 and I wondered if anyone had expertise
 >  > to help me get it running correctly.
 >  >
 >  > It communicates with my Altair 8800 clone
 >  > computer perfectly, but the printing quality
 >  > is poor. The reason seems to be that the ribbon
 >  > isn't advancing. The ribbon comes out of a cassette
 >  > that is fixed to the body of the machine (doesn't
 >  > move with the printhead) and there doesn't seem
 >  > to be any machinery that would advance it. The
 >  > ribbon forms a big loop that is the width of
 >  > the platen and head its within this loop and
 >  > moves rightwards while the ribbon stays stationary.
 >  >
 >  > There are no rotating spindles on the ribbon cassette,
 >  > so any mechanism to advance it would have to haul
 >  > on the ribbon itself, but there doesn't seem
 >  > to be any such mechanism. It the printhead
 >  > itself supposed to drag the ribbon in some
 >  > way as it moves over it?
 >  >
 >  > Regards
 >  >
 >  > Gabriel Egan
 >  >
 >  >
 >  >
 >  >
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 >


-- 
________________________________________________________________________
Professor Gabriel Egan, De Montfort University. www.gabrielegan.com
Director of the Centre for Textual Studies http://cts.dmu.ac.uk
National Teaching Fellow 2014-17 http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ntfs
General Editor, New Oxford Shakespeare (forthcoming October 2016)
http://www.oxfordpresents.com/ms/nos