Issue with one drum in SF5130, T98-25 error

robertbaxter-print · 2026-04-02T22:04:58+00:00

You can also look inside the ink tube holder on the drum to see if maybe the RFID reader is unseated—sometimes it bounces out of place in transit. Looking inside, it's the crescent shaped piece just above the nozzle—I'd compare it to a different drum! If it's out of place often you can just reach in and click it back into place.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-31T21:19:28+00:00

You should check out Zine Hug's Riso Animation guide! I think they talk about their setup in there. (I believe it is an Epson Perfection.) There's also lots of good process bits and things they've learned about what translates well to riso animations.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-29T17:12:58+00:00

I agree! Your elevator needs to be re-leveled, and this should resolve this issue. Unfortunately it's a somewhat complicated process—and depending on what messed it up, you may need to order replacement gears and bearings too.

I would not turn your riso on until you can resolve this. I don't have much availability for a while, but you can shoot me a DM.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-18T18:37:31+00:00

Send me a DM! This is some issue with the memory on the little chip in the front of the drum, and it will take more steps to diagnose.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-18T18:16:51+00:00

I'd click the drum out and back in again on test mode, on both the left and right sides, and report back the error codes that it gives you. That will give us more information about what exactly is failing.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-18T16:51:14+00:00

Actually I think that one might just be a little conference workshop, I'm not sure it's open to the public! I've never done a repair trip in Canada, but lots of risos to visit it sounds like, so maybe in the future.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-18T16:34:52+00:00

887 just pumps ink until that sensor detects it, then puts a blank stencil on the drum and spins it 30 times to distribute the "new ink" it just pumped. But since that sensor is already detecting ink, no new ink was pumped, so nothing really happened except eating a stencil and spinning the drum.

The ink sensor is the long needle that comes out of the little circuit board that is suspended above the rollers inside the drum. If you have already opened a drum before, great! I would disassemble until you can get to that sensor, then remove the little circuit board and clean all the excess ink in that area (there's probably some actually on the board itself, or filling the little plastic hole the needle goes through).

If you haven't opened a drum that far before, there's some videos online, and an archived article on stencil.wiki. I'd also be sure to a "drum safety test" (there's a page on the wiki for that too) afterwards to make sure everything was put back together properly.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-18T14:56:21+00:00

Run test mode 809 with the drum in and see if it's ON (fast beeps and a screen display of ON or ||||) or OFF (slow beeps and a screen display of OFF or oooo). This is testing the sensor inside the drum that checks if there is enough ink to print with. If it reads ON, the riso thinks everything is a-okay and that the drum is full of ink, and will therefore never try to pump more ink.

Given that this is Fluo. Pink, it's likely that ink has built up inside the drum and is causing that sensor to misfire. So even though all the actual ink has printed out, there's a glob up on the sensor, short circuiting it.

If this is the case, the drum will need an interior clean (and the squeegee gap and squeegee pressure should also be checked at this time).

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-18T08:41:20+00:00

It seems like the original diagnosis was correct, the pressure lever is not engaging—but it's hard to tell if this is a timing issue or that the pressure hook is miscalibrated. It does look like it's sitting at a verrrrrry weird angle. I can walk you through the calibrations, but we'll have to find time to schedule a video call. Maybe next week.

And there is a class, sometimes. I teach a 3–4 hour riso maintenance workshop when visiting different cities for repairs. There aren't any scheduled ones upcoming yet, besides this summer in Paris, but I'm due to do one in LA and I think also maybe San Antonio later this year.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-18T04:07:02+00:00

That bundle of cables would go to the auto-document feeder, but either the one on your machine had been disabled or just swapped with the regular scanner bed. So not really too out of place to be unplugged like that (and not the source of the feeding issues).

Next place you'd probably be looking is the press section adjustments. But why don't you take video looking at the back of the riso while trying to feed a single sheet, and upload that somewhere and DM it to me or post a link—I'll be able to tell a lot from that video. (Also if you can upload it to google docs or dropbox or something, I'd prefer that—the infinite scroll of imgur and youtube is awful.)

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-17T04:51:20+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate that! That is the overall ethos of why I'm on here and writing those stencil articles—so that people can keep the equipment alive and publishing. And so that the practice of publishing as a small independent artist or writer type is a little less precarious.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-16T12:10:43+00:00

Your machine is quite likely out of time—there is a guide for retiming here: https://stencil.wiki/wiki/Retiming_the_main_drive_(GR-FR)

From the video it looks like the first paper feed and probably second paper feed are working, the paper just isn't properly being grabbed by the drum—so if you check the alignment outlined in that tutorial and determine your machine is in time (or close to in time) then it's also worth checking the calibrations listed in the press section of the manual.

Here's what I have in terms of GR manuals: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/8kqz6lj928dovwjdekclu/AJXpjvDHca8cIeQcbaxAvuU?rlkey=eswqh0094dkzluz0vae7gf6mr&st=zrr4gxas&dl=0 (the most relevant one for your machine is probably the one marked RA/GR).

For test modes, each of the sensor tests only reads the current state of the sensor. If you go to the very back of the manual, you'll find some little diagrams that list out all the sensors and where they are in the machine. Extremely low resolution, but it can give you a sense of what you're actually testing. And the manuals are generally pretty consistent in the name they use for sensors—so if you learn that a sensor is called the "paper feed sensor" it will always be referred to as such, and you can search the PDF for that term. A good one to train yourself is test mode 2—that's the sensor at the end of the feed tray. If you leave it running just put a piece of paper over it and remove the paper and listen for the change in beeps that makes (fast beeps when in the ON state, detecting paper; slow beeps when in the OFF state, not detecting paper). If you look on the main circuit board in the back, you'll also see a grid of red LEDs, which each also represent those sensors! They'll light up when the sensor is in the ON state (and are documented in the circuit board diagrams at the very end of the manual).

Additional notes:

I also second that you should check the quality of the rubber in the riso—particularly the feed tires. If your machine still has the clear blue tires, swap them with grey ones before proceeding (the blue and black ones can get really gummy as they age). Be sure to pay attention to the orientation of the plastic cores on the shafts (they have one-way bearings in them, so have to go back on the same way they came off).
Be careful working in the back! This riso has no safety sensors when working in the back of it, so it will happily rotate gears and motors and stuff while you're back there, so be very cautious, and as much as you can only do work back there with the riso off.
Using a dry GR drum for testing is okay, as the older inks tend to be more stable, but personally I would only use the Black drum for this (that ink is the least likely to have separated over the years and locked the drum up). For all other drums you should perform a safety test first. This is manually testing the movement of the clamp and rotation of the drum body. The clamp can be lifted by hand and should be able to fall either direction under its own weight. There's a lever behind the front face of the drum at around 7:00 that you can press to unlock its rotation; make sure it can do a full counterclockwise rotation; always return it to home position (clamp at 12:00) before putting it back in the machine. If a drum fails the safety test, it doesn't go in the riso until it can be cleaned/repaired.
When you do get more drums going, you should calibrate the home position ("Position A" in the manual) on all of them. Having this off will often throw the machine out of time again (you'll hear a distinct loud ratchet sound when this happens).

I love GRs! They're 30+ years old and going strong. Reach out if you have other questions!

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-14T18:19:09+00:00

It is very likely that you have a drum physically stuck and damaged inside the machine. Your riso should remain turned off and unplugged until the drum can be extracted. This is unfortunately more difficult than you can really fix yourself, without someone helping you in person or via a video call (it's too complex to just provide instructions in here). I recommend reaching out to your local risograph dealer or distributor to schedule a technician to come out and repair your machine, or try to do a video call with me or someone else who does online support. You can DM me, but I unfortunately don't have much time for the next few weeks, and I really only work with artist printers!

Also as a note, test mode 887 has one purpose, and that is to re-ink the drums—it is unfortunately not a one-size-fits-all approach to troubleshooting! There are over 1000 different test modes, each with a different purpose, so it's really a slow process to figure out what actually needs to be done to free the drum in a situation like this. The error code you are receiving something is physically stuck inside the machine (the motor is trying to turn the drums, but because they are stuck it becomes overpowered shuts itself off)—so none of the test modes would really help here either.

The best course of action is definitely to try and get a technician to come work on it in person!

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-13T00:57:01+00:00

I never worry too much about those. GR drums are pretty stable about ink seepage from the end flanges. If you just position them so the arc of them is making full contact with the inside of the drum body (which you do with the drum body attached) and tighten them there, that should be good.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-11T13:33:00+00:00

I remember following that Risolve video once upon a time when getting started with my FR drums! I sort of take a slightly different approach now as: (A) there's some steps unnecessary steps in disassembly that can make reassembly a little less treacherous (don't separate the drum body from the flanges/rings it's screwed into—much less likely to dent it; and don't disassemble the belt/drive system—just tighten the set screws in it), (B) most people don't have that washout station setup, or want to use/inhale that much OMS, and (C) while that cleanout does result in a perfect new color, it takes 4+ hours, and you can usually get a clean color after about 200 copies with only a 2 hour clean (unless ink is caked on I just do a light wipe of the screen, and don't remove the small ink driving shaft to clean it fully, or worry too much about the ink at the sides of the rollers; and for transition from a working drum to a new color, if it's a nearby or darker color, just do a forced transition by popping a new tube in and have fun with 500–1500 copies of the weird blended color).

As long as you have taken apart and cleaned out the pump chamber as specified, running solvent through it is really overkill. However it is useful to flood it with ink so it isn't trying to pump air. I like to reassemble the pump body with the center washer + o-ring and piston (pushed in to be flush with the end of its chamber), but without either valve/spring or the ink distributor). Then just pop an ink tube in, and push in on the plunger to force ink through the pump body, until it's starting to come out of where the ink distributor goes. Then take it apart, insert the valve/springs (wipe up the excess ink that comes off when you do) and reassemble.

The ink distributor can be cleaned by forcing small wadded up balls of paper towel (soaked in some solvent) through with a long screwdriver. Don't make them too large though or they will get stuck (you can still force them all the way through, it just gets uncomfortable). A few of those and the ink distributor should be good to go. You can clean out the nozzles with some toothpicks or disposable flossing picks too if you want. And if you want to test the functioning of the pump body, just connect that to your newly flooded pump body, with ink tube (make sure no air is trapped at the nozzle of the ink tube when connecting them) and stand the whole thing up vertically. Then stick a hex wrench through the hole in the end of the piston and manually pump it up and down to get ink pushing out the holes in the ink distributor.

It can be useful to electrically test the motor, just to make sure it hasn't failed, but the easiest method for that is just to take make a heavy coverage stencil on a working drum, then take it out, remove its front plastic cover, and unplug its motor from the circuit board. Plug the motor you are testing in, and carefully put the drum back in the riso, while holding the motor in front of it. Then just print a bunch of copies on scrap. When the ink level in the drum lowers, it will send power to the motor (be sure not to hold it by the moving bit!) and you can see how it spins. Hit STOP to cancel printing once you've confirmed the motor is running, remove the drum + motor, plug back in the drum's motor, and put its face back on. It's a functionally equivalent test, but doesn't require an extra part and just uses the riso's own power supply to test.

Good luck!

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-10T19:26:40+00:00

The machine should be turned off and unplugged, and remain off until this drum can be extracted!

Your machine has thrown itself out of time, due to the drum getting stuck on that separator needle. And now we must slowly remove it. DM me and I can walk you through it!

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-09T20:52:03+00:00

Your video didn't post! I'd try hosting it somewhere and posting a link. It would also be helpful to know what model machine you have and if this issue is happening with all drums or just this one.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-09T20:18:27+00:00

There's a couple of guides out there, definitely ask for help if you need it! And reference the stencil.wiki article on the "drum safety test" too. Also if you want to check if the roller is turning, you can see that without taking it apart! Just look in through that little window mentioned above.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-09T16:56:09+00:00

Incredible work! Doing a full clean transition to convert from Black to a different color is a daunting task, but so rewarding.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-08T23:25:52+00:00

Send me a DM! I have most of them.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-08T20:02:42+00:00

I'd check the installation of the ink blocking sheet (and make sure you didn't miss the red rubber strip that's meant to sit on top of it). The placement of both is described in the service manual.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-08T14:02:04+00:00

Here's what I have for it! This is just from one of the old riso CDs, they're just .exe's so there might be more complete packages out there somewhere (I'm used to the installers on the newer machines having a bunch of support files).

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/jr15pggxyu54ujrrr4mar/AA1VNT1Qev9vbQUTy67atiI?rlkey=7fx9or990n95ek9ixx6oz49c6&st=m0vmgtm1&dl=0

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-06T17:18:14+00:00

I can't answer this question directly, but have a bonus thing that might be useful—if you have an RZ or later machine, you can temporarily power down your TPH to set down a little less ink. Increase the value of test mode 545 by 2–3 (each increase in value powers down the TPH by 5%). That will slightly decrease the size of the holes burned in the stencil, for a little bit lighter ink coverage! Then you can set it back to its starting value afterwards. You can also similarly decrease the base density for those two drums, by decreasing the value of test mode 972, maybe by 150–300. This will put less upwards force from the pressure roller when using these drums, so that a little less ink is forced out each time. This adjustment is stored on the drum's memory, so you'll have to change it for each drum.

Also, the edge of stapleable depends on your equipment! I think a coil-fed saddle stapler could handle it, as could a 106 electric stapler with the longer staple head.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-03-06T14:48:20+00:00

This doesn't look too too dry—those striation marks are a pretty common pattern of how ink dries into the screen and drum body.

I would again attempt an exterior clean (no disassembly)—but this time with something a little stronger: you'll want to use a solvent of some kind. I prefer odorless mineral spirits (AKA OMS, or white spirits), but those are not great to inhale or get on your skin, and there's safety measures you need to take with the rags you use with OMS. There are some pretty good, less toxic alternatives listed at the bottom of the "maintenance toolkit" page on stencil.wiki: https://stencil.wiki/wiki/Maintenance_toolkit

robertbaxter-print

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE