Denial

I just acquired a nice boxed MPS801.

It had a ribbon but it was very faint so I looked on Ebay and spotted the friendly German store selling 2 for over £40.

If I need some new ones I will be going to Alibaba I think.

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/ ... 2bcde4N3g8

In the meantime a quick tip.

I used a Parker Quink black ink cartridge, punctured it and squeezed and wound the ribbon.

It looks pretty good for just a few pence and was not very messy.

Here is a before and after shot.

Very good job . I had a 801 in the past, and enjoyed it. It's a neat noisy machine. Back then, I found the appropriate ink in Amazon, at a reasonable price. Never tried re-inking it, I guess that it would have been a complete mess (I'm not so accurate in precision tasks ). Recently though, I couldn't resist to a boxed 1515, and bought it. It's in the garage now - I'll have to re-ink this time, as 1515 has no ribbons still for sale anywhere.

It was surprisingly easy and low mess until I finished and a small run of excess liquid leaked out of the side so I have a black thumb

Just keep winding and the capillary action and a small squeeze of the ink cartridge every now and then restores it well.

Some self test is needed to get rid of excess but in half a page it started to come out quite well.

I saw a 1515 recently for sale but they were missing the cover which is a shame.

The MPS 801 is pale so nearly the same colour as the Vic20.

I've found a solution where my hands stay clean. Fax paper roll.
It no longer matters how good the ribbon is.
Maybe not good for business, but for some listing dumps IMO OK.
The fixation of the bracket is a bit tricky, but doable.
Look that. Is not the on original MPS801 but compatible SP-180VC. BR

If anyone is thinking of re-inking a cartridge, I would suggest you have a look at this video on maintaining an MP 801

https://youtu.be/IkPEbDQ_Xkc

It goes into re-inking at about 7:45