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Not a common topic, but restoring old dot matrix printer?

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First post, by keenerb

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I've gotten a Tandy DMP-133 up and running. It was printing very erratically until I cleaned the round metal guide for the print head.

What other standard maintenance would you recommend for an old printer like this? I know that bar probably needs to be lubricated. There's a belt that moves the printhead back and forth as well which is probably VERY hard to replace; it's in excellent condition visually, but is there anything I shoudl consider doing to proactively protect it/renew it?

Reply 1 of 2, by kenrouholo

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Do you know what kind of rubber/polymer the belt is? It matters a lot if you want to do something to it. You can use "belt dressing" (typically used in automotive) if it's something like neoprene, but that would dry out EPDM, for example. Silicone grease can be used with some types of rubber, but can dry others out. The belt may have markings on it but if it doesn't and you don't know how to tell what it's made of, I'd leave it and just try to find a replacement when it someday snaps. Belts are sold by size and it's usually the case that you can find a replacement - you just need to know where to look.

clean and lubricate is probably the only thing you could do. You could also check the state of any capacitors on the boards inside it, as it will have caps, and that's a common issue with basically any sort of old electronic item.

Yes, I always ramble this much.

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