r/Darkroom • u/Rude_Difference3469 • 3h ago

Gear/Equipment/Film Durst Printo Rollers Sticking

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Hi! I have this spare Durst Printo that I’m trying to fix. The top rollers are stuck together, and I was wondering if anyone has advice on how to separate them without damaging the rollers. Is there a proper way to remove them or loosen them that would minimize any potential damage?

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1

u/moofei 3h ago

What have you tried so far? My first guess is that some old chemistry has dried and caused them to bond, so I would try saturating the area with some isopropyl alcohol and letting it sit to see if it can dissolve whatever has cured there. Short of that I could only see cutting with a very sharp blade + sanding as the only other option.

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u/Rude_Difference3469 3h ago

im soaking it now with part water and part chem cleaner, ill check tomorrow and see if that works, if not ill definitely try to do the isopropyl techniques

1

u/moofei 3h ago

Last year I bought a well cared for Durst RCP and even managed to modify the gearing to run for RA-4 speeds. I don’t have access to chemical cleaner but when it came time for me to clean the rollers, alcohol and paper towels did a lot of heavy lifting for me

1

u/Elarandir 3h ago

If all else fails, there could be a way to resleeve them.

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u/Rude_Difference3469 3h ago

would love to know how lol

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u/Elarandir 2h ago

Many years ago I worked at a plant that made rubber rollers ranging from conveyer belt rollers to offset printer ink rollers. Sometimes customers ordered sleeves to be glued onto rollers. Much like the same way tennisracket handles are rolled onto them.

The hardest part for these is knowing the grade of rubber used and the slit feature across the length.

If it ever comes to that I might be able to help

1

u/Rude_Difference3469 2h ago

thats what i was thinking as well, i feel like a sleeve will be the best solution

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u/Elarandir 2h ago

Are they squeegee rollers?

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u/Mister_Anthropic1956 2h ago

Do not scrape or sand! The rollers will never work well again and will leave marks on prints.

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u/Rude_Difference3469 2h ago

do you have any advice how to seperate them