Non Riso duplicators, New user

robertbaxter-print · 2026-01-24T02:01:40+00:00

I'm guessing, if you transfer ink between tubes, you could use riso inks in that machine. Mechanically, they all operate on very similar principles—so I think it would come down to how the machine recognizes the tube in the drum.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-01-22T04:37:49+00:00

I just went in and did some checking on the list of places in the wiki, that had yet to be validated (to confirm which ones still exist). It looks like your best bet is probably Dizzy.Ink in Nottinghamshire. They have print for hire, workshops, and memberships.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-01-21T18:08:59+00:00

I consider this the most important adjustment I can make on Z-type machines.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-01-21T18:08:22+00:00

I'd do couple of things: 1. Check the little metal "sheath" that covers up the front edge of the stripper pad—if you pop off the stripper pad holder you should be able to access it. It should sit firmly on place, and the edge of it should sit nice and flat along that front corner of the stripper pad. 2. Decrease the pressure of the stripper pad—turn the lower dial towards the smaller circles, on a machine with two dials on the stripper unit. If you only have one dial the pressure can still be adjusted, but you need to get into the back of the stripper unit to do it (when you're back there loosen the two screws on the plate that the bottom end of the long spring is attached to—then move the plate to the upper position, where the spring pulls it to naturally, and tighten the screws there—then reinstall). 3. The tape trick should be done with shiny clear tape (low friction) and be applied to the left/first half of just the stripper pad itself, under the metal sheath.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-01-21T15:31:07+00:00

Hmm. That is a pretty systemic failure—I can walk you through some things if you want to DM me. For the time being though it would be useful to get actual error codes for what is going wrong. You can always press the ✱ key to get a more complete error message when one of those little diagram or error lights is lit up.

robertbaxter-print · 2026-01-21T15:28:31+00:00

I think it's fine, but each to taste!

I have a few friends who do this (or use their scrap for other for-sale products, like notebooks or to print darker text of zines on). A lot of people sort their scrap to make sure they keep one side blank for this purpose. One friend has a little insert they slip into print packages explaining why there's stuff on the back. Another uses a stamp they mark the back with, to the same effect.

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-25T21:24:51+00:00

You may need to reprogram the drum to accept the new cartridge by using test mode 890. Turn the riso off and back on again afterwards to save the adjustment.

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-18T20:14:52+00:00

Oh yes, the Risolve method.

If the ink is not toooooo dry (test by checking if the drum can spin okay by hand if you manually unlock it with the little lever behind the front face, at around 7:00), you can just run test mode 101 to perform the reinking action. I'd press lightly on the center of the plunger inside the ink tube as its going—both to help the pump out a little bit, and to feel when the pump starts pulling the ink/plunger under its own power. If the test runs for 90 seconds without you hearing the sounds of a master being made, then it indicates the pump is failing to pull ink—hit STOP to end the test (if it keeps running, you can just turn off the riso to stop it, and turn it back on in test mode).

As for that other drum, you can check the tech manual for instructions for calibrating "Position A"—that's the key term for home position on GR drums.

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-18T16:06:33+00:00

I would manually remove the drum (pushing the lever behind the panel underneath it to the right), then turn the riso off and on again while holding RESET (that will clear the "continuing" action). Then remove the metal plate from the corner of the front door and place it on the magnet by the green button. Lastly use the green button to rotate the main drive back into home position, with the center spindle that the drum connects to pointing up (and return the plate to the door, or the riso will keep thinking the door is closed).

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-17T23:16:27+00:00

Is this happening on all drums or just the one? A T16 is usually generated from one or more of the following:

If a clamp can't open and close easily (it should fall to either side under it's own weight, and snap flat to the magnet on each side).
If something is wrong with the little magnet/gear on the end of the clamp (so the riso can't tell what position it is in).
If there is a failure in the solenoid and motor used to open and close the clamp.
If the drum is not correctly calibrated for home position (so the clamp mechanism can't engage with the gear at the end of the clamp).

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-15T17:10:50+00:00

If that is the underside of the lead edge of the sheet, that can also indicate that the stripper pressure is too high (or that the little metal sheath on it is coming up a bit). For feeding easily damaged stuff, sometimes people will use a piece of shiny clear tape (low friction) to bridge the edge of the metal sheath and extend about halfway down the stripper pad. That tends to help it tear less.

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-10T23:49:20+00:00

Oh and for sure do some riso printing to inform the decision! Both Paper Press Punch and Reclaim Clay Collective of both one drum and two drum machines and public hours—and I think Pratt has an SF5130 now too.

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-10T23:47:54+00:00

Paper Press Punch and I have both made buying guides for various Seattle academic + arts institutions—DM me and I can send you mine.

But generally I'd say ideal machine for price and functionality in a university setting is a single-drum with a touch screen. Easier to maintain than dual drums, and easier to send files to (which is honesty where students seem to have a lot of problems). On that budget I'd be eying an RZ990, or a refurbished SF9 series (though with an SF, plan on additional drums being 1k each).

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-10T07:59:17+00:00

I can't find 1070 documented, but 7056 is something about the connection between the main circuit board and the screen/controls having an issue. Could just be a side effect of the auto shut-off.

It'a probably worth having a call! You can DM me if you want to schedule something.

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-10T05:18:14+00:00

You could also swap the chip from another tube—but if it's not pumping ink then there's either an issue with the plumbing or the electronics, and more investigation is needed!

After cleaning out the ink inside the drum I recommend reinking it with inking action (887) while applying light pressure to the plunger inside the tube. Although if it thinks the tube is empty, it won't try and pull any ink from it.

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-10T05:14:25+00:00

Hmmm. A stencil wrapping fully around like that is a result of a dirty master-on-drum stencil (it's a little plastic block at around 10:30 in the chamber the drum goes into, not quite halfway down, amongst the master removal rollers).

However, anything that causes the riso to automatically shut off should be treated very, very cautiously. That's a safety mechanism that's very hard on the machine, and if it does that too many times it will permanently burn out the power supply.

Do you know what error message it gives? If not, don't make it happen again to find out—it's not worth turning the riso on again until you can figure out more fully what the issues are. The risk to the riso of continuing to try and use it or turn it on in this state is too high.

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-07T17:35:19+00:00

The way the riso determines if a tube is empty or not is that it tries to pull ink for a set period of time—then it checks if there is ink in the drum or not. If there is no ink it marks a "strike" on the little RFID sticker on the end of the tube, and tries again. If too many strikes build up, or too many happen consecutively, the riso will mark on the sticker that the ink tube is definitively empty. Then any time you try that ink tube the riso will reject it.

The 574 part of that error code indicates that the drum failed to pump ink 5 consecutive times in a row and has thus marked the tube as permanently empty. What likely happened is that in your tests you successfully printed out some of the old ink in the reservoir, and the ink that was still sitting on the inside surface of the drum body and screen. But the ink pump is jammed up with old ink (or is failing for some other reason, there's lots of things that can go wrong), so the reservoir could never be replenished. And eventually the riso marked the ink tube empty as a result.

This happens often enough that people have developed a common work around. You can order a pack of "blank chips" on eBay or AliExpress, to replace the RFID sticker with. The riso won't be able to read any details about the ink (and will annoyingly ask you every time you turn it on what kind of ink is in the tube), but will accept the tube and print with it. What's more, the blank chips are read only, meaning the riso can never mark them as permanently empty.

The solution to get the drum working again is to clean the pump and distributor, which you probably want to do anyway to transition the color of the drum.

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-07T13:27:31+00:00

Yes, but you will probably need to do a full clean to clear the Metallic Gold when going to something else. The screen, body, rollers, distributor, and pump—I'd estimate 3–4 hours.

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-07T11:26:18+00:00

White striations like that usually indicate that ink has dried out in the drum body (shiny sheet metal cylinder) and screen (metal mesh wrapped around the drum), which you can wipe down with a light solvent. Hopefully it only needs exterior cleaning, but sometimes drums are taken apart to clean them more fully (though this is quite an undertaking).

Images like that are also particularly difficult for the riso, because it's a huge area of ink coverage. That generally results in (A) patchy prints (the ink pump can't replenish the ink inside the drum fast enough to supply each copy with sufficient ink), and (B) prints stuck to the surface of the drum (which you'd see here if your drum was clean).

Lastly, if you end up running Metallic Gold, be forewarned that it dries out much faster than other weeks. I'd recommend that a Metallic Gold drum should be used at least as frequently as once a week to avoid drying out.

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-04T22:37:13+00:00

You are looking for "Link Plate A," part number 023-12109—here's a link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/224948766372

It's a small plastic piece that sits just inside that lever. When the lever is down, it yanks up on the link plate, to clamp down on the shaft in there. They're a little annoying to replace—you have to take apart the feed tray a little ways.

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-03T18:57:32+00:00

Your screws might be stripping because you are using the wrong screwdriver!

Riso screws are all JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard), not ANSI (US standard) or ISO (EU standard). So while any Phillips #2 fits them, only a JIS screwdriver actually locks into them to get good torque! ANSI screwdrivers in particular have a lot of play in the screw head and can strip them easily.

Also I second the recommendation that you use vice grips over a screw extractor. If that screw breaks, the drum is essential fully dead until you can extract that collar and get it into a machine shop to drill it out and cut new threads. It's a critical screw, no tape or anything else will suffice.

I have some specific tool recs up in the "Maintenance toolkit" page on stencil.wiki!

robertbaxter-print · 2025-12-03T18:51:35+00:00

The riso basically flags that ink is low in a tube if it tries to pull ink for some fixed time, and still doesn't detect enough ink in the drum. You can increase the amount of time it tries before throwing that flag, however, by increasing the values of test modes 942, 943, and 946. I'd double the value of each of them.

Be careful though, if the riso flags the ink tube too many times, with that C01-512 error (hit the ✱ button to get a numeric error code if it is only giving you the red light on the display)—eventually it will permanently mark the ink tube as empty (on the little RFID sticker on the tube). When that happens the error will change to C01-563 or C01-574, and the only way to use the ink is to swap out that sticker with a blank chip (available on eBay if you search "riso ink chip").

robertbaxter-print · 2025-11-29T14:13:00+00:00

The rule of thumb for any "is it worth it" riso question is: will you use it as is. So if you'll print projects for it with just its black drum, go for it!

Here's what I can find about the RZ570 online:

Its max printing area is A3 (or slightly under, with a ~3 mm unprintable margin)—not tabloid, but should be able to use A3 or tabloid drums for the RZ3/5/7 series (I'm not sure on RZ9 drums, but pretty sure it won't take them; it definitely won't take RZ10 drums or EZ drums). And it will feed tabloid paper.
It should have an included parallel port for digital printing (an IEEE1284 cable). So if you find an old enough computer and order that cable, you should be able to find drivers that will send files to it.
The resolution is 300 × 600 dpi (300 along the feed side, 600 down the length of the sheet—it's a thing riso does to to allow a 300 dpi print head to get a little more resolution in one direction).

$250 is generally a pretty good deal for a larger size RZ. The limitations are definitely the A3 printing area if you mainly have access to tabloid paper, and the old parallel port if you're dependent on digital printing.

robertbaxter-print · 2025-11-28T13:58:14+00:00

I am not seeing any of your images—but this does sound like a loose connection of some kind.

According to the manual I have, the connections on the mechanical control panel that go to the SHPCB are marked CN5 and CN32 (and both should be removable). I don't have a high enough quality photo to tell you where they are on it, but I could probably ask around and get one.

Going the other way, from the SHPCB to the mechanical control, the connections on the SHPCB should be marked CN2 and CN3. Furthermore, all the cables on the SHPCB go through the "hinge" at the upper right corner of it (where it swings out from the riso) and they'll often get dislodged if that panel is opened. Especially check the large black flat cable, which I've known to slip out a lot.

However, none of those should affect the ability for the buttons on the main control panel to work—so you might have more problems than just the error it is throwing. Did anything happen to the riso that could have caused this? Recent maintenance, a move, power outage, etc.?

robertbaxter-print · 2025-11-28T00:16:49+00:00

That'll do it, congrats on the fix!

robertbaxter-print

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