Re: Immersing in alcohol Message #8 Posted by Tony Duell on 29 Aug 2011, 4:24 a.m., in response to message #7 by David Ramsey
Err, yes. That gunge is really nasty, and gets everywhere. I've even had it inside the edge connector between the keyboard cable and the backplane (located unfer the printer) where it can cause bad conenctions.
The only way I've found to get rid of it is to completely dismantle the printer. Some parts are not likely to be affected by any common solvent (e.g. the side plates, metal spindles, etc), others might be (like the plastic gears). I remember trying all sorts of things on my printer, but I think propan-2-ol (ispropyl
alcohol, isopropanol) was what I used most of the time. And yes, I used a lot of it. Propan-2-ol will not attack any part of the printer AFAIK.
Acetone/Propanone will not damage any of the metal parts. I am pretty sure the plastic bearings in the front section are PTFE and will not be attacked by acetone either. Try it carefully on the flexible PCB (I am pretty sure it's OK) and on the printhead.
I can see no good reason not to leave most of the bits sitting in a bath of solvent. It's not going to damage them. But I wouldn't leave the printhead or PCBs soaking in acetone, just in case.
You probably want to separate the printhead from the driver PCB 'tail'. Loosen the allen setscrews in the clamp and it'll all come apart. Realigning it when you put it back is not that hard. Take great care when cleaning the head (you can crack it!) and the flexible PCB tail.
There's probably no need to dismantle the motor (the gunge rarely gets that far back!), but it is possible. From memory, you take off the rear cap (3 screws) and the plastic sleeves under it. Then take off the drive pinion and spacer, the circlip and washers from the spindle, and slide the rotor out. Handle that with care, it's brittle!. Then unlock the rear plate on the stator by rotating it, take that out, the large spring washer, and then take out the stator parts one after another. Mark the coils so you get them back in the same order and the same way up (otherwise it may run backwards when you reassemble it).
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