Imagewriter II ribbon cartridge sources?

[equant]

Can anyone tell me the best/cheapest place to get an imagewriter II printer cartridge at the moment?  I got an imagewriter at the local salvage place a few be days ago and it has a color ribbon which I'm not going to even try given the stories about these things I've read on here.

 

[johnklos]

What have you heard? I've used ancient ribbons without any issues.

 

[equant]

I've heard that with the color cartridges, the rollers are a hard foam (or rubber or something) that pretty much fails and disintegrates upon any attempt to print.  I figured I'd leave my cartridge alone in case there's any chance of refurbishing the cartridge using 3d printing or something in the future.

 

[Dog Cow]

Take your pick; plenty of suppliers for black ribbons

 

[equant]

Take your pick; plenty of suppliers for black ribbons

Yeah, it's always risky to post a question like mine on a discussion board where I'm looking for recent first-hand experiences from a group of like-minded people.  Honestly I thought there might be a few people willing to share a "This worked well for me" or "Stay away from these" or "This is compatible and 100 times cheaper than what you find using ebay/google" stories.  And if they did, maybe that would be more useful to me than going with what I find on google which sometimes can result in wasted money (such as if I just used google and bought NOS color cartridges).  But your LMGTFY link is funny; point taken and cheers!

 

[johnklos]

I bought some black ribbons on Amazon many years ago, but it was too long ago to find in my history. Just read the reviews and look for ones written by people who can write in complete sentences and convey information unambiguously.

I didn't know that about color ribbons, but it's good to know. I bought a few color ribbons a few years back based on a thread here about someone sourcing new components, and although I haven't gotten to use them much, it's good that they're new

 

[Dog Cow]

Yeah, it's always risky to post a question like mine on a discussion board where I'm looking for recent first-hand experiences from a group of like-minded people.  Honestly I thought there might be a few people willing to share a "This worked well for me" or "Stay away from these"

After I posted that link, I was wondering if that's actually what you wanted.  And now I'm not wondering. I bought a black ribbon from one of these suppliers probably about 8 years ago. Don't remember which one, but it is still working fine.

 

[beachycove]

It would be pretty easy to re-ink one with stamp ink, using a sponge, a rubber-gloved hand, and maybe a slow speed drill to draw the loop of fabric through. Stamp ink is what was traditionally used to re-ink typewriter ribbons that were not physically worn through back in the day.

 

[maceffects]

I would buy newly manufactured ribbons, don't buy new old stock.  Sadly, all original Apple Color Ribbons have degraded and will no longer work.  I used to have them manufactured, but they ran out of supplies and needed a new MOQ of 1000 units.

 

[LaPorta]

I ordered a pack of blacks less than a year ago. They work pretty well, though I’ve had a slight issue with them being overloaded and leaving small smudges around the letters on the first few passes.

 

[Scott Baret]

@maceffects, if you need a guarantee for someone who will buy a ton of ribbons, look no further. If all the kids decide to use Kid Pix when I have the lab set up, I can plow through one or two a month. (It also teaches patience when this happens...remember the "Waiting for AppleTalk ImageWriter" message on the network?)

 

[Chardonneret]

Can anyone tell me the best/cheapest place to get an imagewriter II printer cartridge at the moment? I got an imagewriter at the local salvage place a few be days ago and it has a color ribbon which I'm not going to even try given the stories about these things I've read on here.

Open the cartdrighe, remove the remnant of felt rings around the axles, replace with o-rings.