Making Makeready

It wasn’t an stress-free experience ripping apart the two Riso ink drums I recently finished servicing. The first went very smoothly while the other — the one which needed a more thorough cleaning, went well — until it didn’t.

During final reassembly (for the third time) after resolving an issue with a bent sensor wire that was incorrectly completing a circuit within the drum, the very last screw lost its head. You don’t realize how soft metals are until the right combination of stress and friction come into play. Luckily I was able to methodically drill out the broken screw and repair things well enough to then reprogrammed to use Risofederal Blue — and get it back in action.

I owe a sincere debt of gratitude to traveling Riso technician extraordinaire, Robert Baxter, who taught me a few new tricks and really helped save the day.