On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:35:36 +1000, Bob Larter wrote:

If you're warping the spindle, you're using too much acetone. Dip a
coarse rag in the acetone, & rub the roller with it. You do need to be
careful to keep it away from the plastic.

If the rubber is impregnated with oil (to keep it soft), the
acetone will dry it out, causing the rubber surface to get hard after
about a month or two of use.

That's never been a problem for me. I've serviced a heap of printers
under service contracts, & never had any of these fixes come back to
haunt me.

Bob,

Most helpful to know! Many thanks. I have an older HP LJ (7?) that won't
pick a single sheet. There have been refurb kits, but I haven't been keen
on following through; access is from the back, and judging by the online
(poor quality) images, it's quite involved. It would be easier, I'd
expect, to resurface than to replace parts.

=+=+=

I once helped a friend (a lady geek) clean her Oki impact dot-matrix
printer. The print head drive motor was mounted with the print head (!),
and a pinion engaged a clear plastic rack that extended across the
operating space inside. Thinking that isopropyl alcohol (but, rubbing
alcohol, which contains other stuff) would be OK to clean the rack, we
were both amazed and horrified to see the plastic craze and disintegrate
*as we watched*!

As I recall, she contacted the regional Oki rep., and he sent a free
replacement, which was easy to install. Credit Oki for being decent.

--
Nicabod =+= Waltham, Mass.
who really should properly dispose
of that metal can of Freon TF; it's
never used any more. Was nice stuff...