8.50” wide roll paper adaptation
Adapting to the new paperless age, I have been researching sources for disappearing rolled paper for the printer from 8” to 8-1/2in wide (the width that will work in my model 28asr). I limited my search to single copy white paper. I have looked at rolled paper from 8in white rolled paper for paper towel dispensers (the hard stuff that doesn’t dry your hands well) to 8-7/16in wide 20# white high quality bond paper. Prices have ranged from $.008/ft. to $.033/ft. for the really good stuff. Surprising to me, the least expensive was not the paper towel rolls. I chose alternative and the least expensive. It is 8.5in hard white headrest paper rolls, like used in beauty shop chairs and medical exam rooms. It is very thin dense paper (13lb.) that takes ink well for a crisp print. The best way to describe it thick tissue paper, but stronger. It’s front side is glossy and matte on the reverse. I tried printing on either side and the glossy side seemed best and did not smear. I would not use this paper for archival, but for letting the machine bang away, it’s an inexpensive alternative. I found multiple sources on Amazon. I picked the least expensive for my evaluation, and seems to work fine on my machine. A carton of 25 rolls, 8-1/2in wide x 225ft./roll is $45 delivered, + tax. That’s $1.80/roll. The paper actually came in at 8-1/4” wide. The difference from traditional Teletype paper is the core tube diameter, and the standard Teletype 8-7/16” width. It comes with a 1.5” core tube, and the O.D. of these rolls are ~3.0”. The core tube can be easily adapted to the existing Teletype spindle and fits in the original location. I did not have any tracking or feed issues with the 8-1/2” width.
Cut a piece of 1” PVC pipe to 8-1/2” long, and wrap each end of the PVC tube with some Gorilla tape to make up the difference of the two diameters. The I.D of the 1” PVC fit nicely on the standard paper spindle. This fits into the existing 28ASR printer paper cradle. You may need to adapt it differently to other printers.
