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    Slippery rubber rollers in laser printer

    Recently my good ole LaserJet 4 started to jam. I cleaned the rollers, which helped for some time, but every now and then it occasionally jams again, and the paper comes out a bit crumpled and curly.

    I noticed that all the paper rollers in the feed mechanism are as slippery as an eel. No wonder after 14yrs and 170.000 pages.

    Does anyone know a way I could treat them to give them back some grip?
    "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken

    #2
    Re: Slippery rubber rollers in laser printer

    Use some 1000 grit sand paper and scuff the surfaces.
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      #3
      Re: Slippery rubber rollers in laser printer

      The flat rollers can be scuffed with sandpaper or a fine wire brush. Wash the rubber dust out with dish soap. This will restore the stick close to original.

      You can wash the D-roller to get the stick back but it won't work for very long if the tread is gone. You might be able to rotate the tire on the plastic D to expose some unused tread. Mark the D where the wear occurs since you'll forget when the tire comes off.
      sig files are for morons

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        #4
        Re: Slippery rubber rollers in laser printer

        The D rollers are still fine, probably because there's no toner involved at that point. They are made from a different kind of rubber, too... much more elastic.

        I'm a bit concerned about sanding them down because you can't adjust the pressure on some rollers.
        Just thought about that fluid for making ping pong rackets more sticky. Any thoughts on that stuff?
        "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken

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          #5
          Re: Slippery rubber rollers in laser printer

          Never tried this myself, but http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/spe.../chemicals/S03 .... ?

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            #6
            Re: Slippery rubber rollers in laser printer

            This is the stuff I use, and it comes with a needle tip to get in those hard-to-reach places. http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/S...productID=3127

            I keep a bottle of it with me in my traveling tech toolbox.
            Ludicrous gibs!

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              #7
              Re: Slippery rubber rollers in laser printer

              benzene will clean and condition rubber rollers. Cause them to swell and stay bouncy.
              “We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful.
              We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing.”

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                #8
                Re: Slippery rubber rollers in laser printer

                I had the same problem with my LJ4. Even with new rollers, it still did it.

                In the back of the printer, where the axle with 4 rubber rollers pushes the paper towards the exit, there are 4 plastic pressure rollers. I took these out and bent the springs out slightly to increase the pressure against the rollers.

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                  #9
                  Re: Slippery rubber rollers in laser printer

                  Sticky fluid is not a good solution, as toner dust and paper dust will stick to it and soon enough you have slick rollers again and gunk to clean off.

                  You have two main options, either use a very low abrasive (sandpaper/etc) to remove the hardened outer layer of the roller rubber, or buy new rollers. I don't know how easy it would be to find new rollers but HP parts & service might have some. You can get part numbers from the service manuals IIRC, or go to some printer parts 'sites where they have illustrations,for example and probably lower prices if you're willing hunt around long enough for the best deal. I had a LJ3 with over 500K pages on it before I finally pronounced it dead so I feel this printer is easily worth the cost of some rollers, especially when it may be more economical to print with as these old LJ were built like tanks and (at least LJ3, I never tried to refill a LJ4 cart) could use generic copy machine toner which is a lot cheaper.

                  As Maxxarcade mentioned, rollers alone might not fix it as the springs have to be in good condition too, neither part can make up for a failing of the other part(s). Even worse sometimes the springs mount on tiny little plastic tabs that get brittle and break off. SOmetimes the tab is a little piece and other times part of a giant piece. I ended up fixing a broken tab on a different printer by drilling a new hole and epoxying in a metal hook, then fishing the spring out of the bottom of the printer where it had launched itself when the tab broke.
                  Last edited by 999999999; 10-31-2007, 01:24 PM.

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                    #10
                    Re: Slippery rubber rollers in laser printer

                    If the rollers were just dirty that rejuvenator solution might work better but at this age, it seems most likely the rubber itself has hardened and the only longer term solution is removal of the hard layer. It shouldn't require reducing the diameter of the roller much at all, and there has to be some kind of adjustment for tension or path height to account for different paper thickness.

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                      #11
                      Re: Slippery rubber rollers in laser printer

                      The rejuvenator solution soaks into the porus rubber and both swells slightly and re-sticky's them.
                      Ludicrous gibs!

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                        #12
                        Re: Slippery rubber rollers in laser printer

                        Originally posted by dood
                        The rejuvenator solution soaks into the porus rubber and both swells slightly and re-sticky's them.
                        That's why I think it could be a problem, because very old rollers may crack in spots instead of evenly expanding. I'm suggesting that it would be better to lightly sand off the hardened surface before using something like this.

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