Howdy old doggies!
As part of the original workup of FidoNet back in the time of 300 and 1000 baud
modems I've still got a number of much later yet classic computers here and there that still use digital printers. Typically Epson LQ870's or whatever. For YEARS I have used the beautiful Mac Inker to re-ink the standard ribbons over and over again until they wind up with holes worn in them or whatever. What you normally do as I have done for years and years now is just use up the big bottle of the special ink you pour in the little hole enabled container on the inker and it wets the new ink on to the dry ribbon in about twenty minutes or so. Well things have gotten so much slower for these printers that this last bottle of ink has gotten sort of dried up and really isn't what I need to go on doing this for the pile of ribbons I still need or others need to service.
OOPS! Come to find out that the Computer Friends manufacturer seems to have 'vanished' to a couple of different addresses in the same area and somewhat different telephone numbers that even the latest one 503-257-2321 answers 'No longer in service' or whatever. There are a pile full of so-called individual sources of the machines here or there on Ebay; whatever. But I can't find any real source for the 'official' bottle of ribbon ink! I think I spotted one suggestion for a company called Alibaba which seems to be a HUGE Chinese outfit
with, say, a USA interface. But outbound telephone call attempts to it get nowhere! As well there are hundreds of all this and that 'ink' items but I can
find nothing that points me to what I think I need,
Sure, I could dump a bit of Cutex fingernail erase stuff in it. But I sure don't want to get any solvent in the ink ribbons that might damage the digital printer heads on these needed printers.
Anyone have any thoughts on where I can go to get the real stuff to keep my Epson printers working? Sure I can buy even official new Epson ribbons for these machines. But they aren't near as BLACK as the old ones. As well as who
wants to throw them away after each one goes out of original ink.
Suggestions?
Mike Luther as N117C at 1:117/100
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