Hello all,
Sorry if this is in the wrong section, this is the one I thought best matches this topic, I am new in this community so I may be incorrect.
I have an Apple ImageWriter II impact printer, and I have brand new black ink ribbons practically running out my ears (just bought a shipment of something around 20 of them), however, I cant seem to find replacements for the color ribbons, and my existing color ribbon's foam drive/inker wheel has fallen apart due to deterioration. I have looked everywhere for one of these, and even bought several 3-packs of color ribbons (supposedly), only to find out they were actually out of stock (despite the company's page claiming to be in stock on these, inventory issues I suppose) and gave me a refund on my purchase (If anybody buys rare things like this, just contact them before purchasing PLEASE, as inventory tends to be terribly dated on some web stores, and you can save yourself ALOT of headaches!). Anyhow, the point of this thread is to discover if anybody has any idea of either where to get color ribbons for these old things, or if anybody knows anything about refurbishing the cartridges, as even if I can find cartridges somewhere for them, I would like to learn how to refurbish them myself as a sort of hobby.
Thanks in advance,
Ricodragon
I have seen them on ebay on occasionally. Be sure to get the original ones from Apple. That's your best chance of getting one that works,in my opinion (assuming that they have not deteriorated by now). The ones which I got did not work at all because the wheel that moves the ribbon inside is made out of foam and it slips a lot and then the ribbon stops working.
Sorry.
I have seen a handful on ebay occasionally as well, the foam wheel is exactly my concern, when these get old the wheels deteriorate, and fall apart, one can generally take these ribbon cartridges apart and service them, however, I only have experience doing this with black ribbons, and I am unsure how I would go about doing such a thing with a color ribbon. When I took my color ribbon cartridge apart, I discovered the foam drive/ink wheel had deteriorated and fallen completely apart, this is the reason why I am currently seeking either recent replacement ribbons or to learn how to re-ink / rebuild existing ones. With black ribbons for my okidata printer with my C64, it's a simple matter of disassembling the cartridge, and checking the firmness of the pivot on the ribbon drive wheel, and adding a bushing of drilled out hot glue or epoxy if necessary, as well as adding black ink to the inker felt, in felt drive ones, one can cut a cylindrical piece of felt to fit and replace the old one, but I am quite dumbfounded as to working with this color one, I have never tried it before.