New (old) drums for a Riso FR3950... master goes BANG BANG BANG... T1.. Master Clamp

[Engelgrafik]

I have a lightly used Riso FR3950 I just picked up and has only ever printed black I believe.

I managed to acquire some old GR, FR and FR/GR drums. One of them is Green, and the ink seemed pretty fresh. I cleaned it up a bit with citrus degreaser, but even the ink on the master seemed tacky to touch. I ran a few prints and they looked OK, if a bit splotchy.

Then I decided to make a new master. I have never made a master before. I am completely new to Risography.

I hit the PROCESS button which switches it to "Master Making". I hit START and the machine whirs a bit... and then fires off a succession of loud fast BANG BANG BANG BANG BANGs... as if a big object is coming in contact with fan blades.

It stops and I get a T1. I open the front door and can't see anything. I can't remove the drum (I forget the code to unlock the drum as well... ugh). I hit ALL RESET and it says something about the "Master Clamp". Honestly I can't remember exactly what it said. But I followed its directions to open the scanning surface and then open the case that covers the Master. All I see is a perfect master roll and a semi-loose feed of master going into darkness. I close the case and then the scanning surface and now the display says to hit START to continue.

With trepidation and fear, I hit START. Horrifyingly, the BANG BANG BANGs start up again and after about 5 seconds of terror, they stop. Actually... I remember now, I actually just turned the power off. I don't know, I'm just freaking out. I feel like I'm breaking this machine that worked PERFECTLY a minute ago and now with this green drum I feel I have destroyed it.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

(BTW, I'm using 11x17 paper... I'm printing 10 at a time and both the black and green drum worked fine. I decided to reuse the paper and placed the 10 green and 10 black sheets back into the paper feed upside down... and noticed I had to kinda squeeze them in there because the Riso holds the paper tightly.... I hope this didn't cause the problem!)

[Iowatech]

The master clamp plate on the drum is hitting the master removal hooks in the master disposal area during the initial master removal process, and the drum is unable to rotate further, and that hopefully is just the sound of the drum trying to drive when it is so seized.
If you open the scanner unit by using the green handle on the right hand side of the machine, you should be able to see that.
Check that out, and let us know what you find.

[Engelgrafik]

The master clamp plate on the drum is hitting the master removal hooks in the master disposal area during the initial master removal process, and the drum is unable to rotate further, and that hopefully is just the sound of the drum trying to drive when it is so seized.
If you open the scanner unit by using the green handle on the right hand side of the machine, you should be able to see that.
Check that out, and let us know what you find.

Thanks for the diagnosis... I think you may have been correct. I originally couldn't remove the drum but then I remembered the "code" to unlock the drum tray (pressing the two buttons, "Line/Photo" and "Master/Print", while I power up the machine and then pressing the green drum unlock button. I was able to remove the drum however it was in its spinning position and the master plate was all the way flipped over on the other side. I started to wonder if maybe I had mistakenly done that since I was cleaning the drum earlier.

Regardless, I decided to try and see if anything internally broke so I tried to put the black drum back in. It wouldn't go all the way in and that's when I remembered that the drum had come out while in free-rotation position. I managed to get the black drum to freely rotate and aligned the little axis nut inside the machine that connects to the drum with the female position on the drum itself and the black drum finally slid into place.

I set everything to create a new master and it worked like a charm. However, when it pulled a piece of paper in, it jammed. I pulled the paper out, and tried to print whatever was on the master now. It jammed again. Tried to make a new master. It jammed again. I looked at the master and the master wasn't place all that great (it had folds all over it). I manually removed the master and tried again. Another jam. Looked at the master and the paper was this time attached to the cylinder but the master looked great.

I'm completely at a loss. The printer worked great this morning running black and green on a master that had been on the drum for a year or so. Now I feel I must have broke something internally... or something. I don't know. But I can't get it to print anything. Whether I make a master or try to print 10 or so prints... no matter what, it pulls a sheet and then just stops while the end of the paper is still viewable from the feeder side. Sometimes it continues to slide in after I hear everything wind down, but each time, it does indeed wind down and allows only one piece of paper to even pass near the drum. The page that is jammed inside is always only about 1/3 of the surface printed... and it's printed on the edge (ie. page bleed), which doesn't make a lot of sense because I thought you couldn't print bleeds.

Anyway, that's where I am now... it seems to (usually) make a master... but now I can't make any prints, even though it made prints wonderfully this morning with the old master. I wonder if something has bent or maybe even broken.

[jermyth]

Sounds like the timing is off, usally happens when bang, bang, master clamp jams in disposal. Get a manual and look in older posts on how to retime your machine.
Good Luck.

[RRodgers]

We use to shim the clamps when they would "pop" and not flip over. Probably not what you are having but I had to put my $.02 in.