#SHORTS – Atari 1027 Printer – The ‘Revive1027’ project

… or printing a printer part so it can print again 😀

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The SillyVenture 2022 summer edition ended a while ago. Cool party place but I prefer old 80/90s buildings 😉

Even Jesionen/JagNES Fest managed to survive it after a few heavy shots 😉

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Yes! Atari this time … but with a twist 😉

There is this known issue with rubber stripes on printing drums in Atari 1027 printers that tend to disintegrate as time passes. Some time ago, I stumbled across a forum post on AtariArea forums (Polish readers only) from 2018 about this issue. I was like, hmm why has no one sorted it out yet?! We are in 2022 now with lots of new options! Like UV resin printing for example ;P

At that time, I didn’t know anything about the ‘Revive1027’ project ongoing on the AtariAge forums. One of the forum users (Cheers Perinoid:) linked an STL file “ready” for 3D printing.

Stiff printout

I’ve started with tests on standard UV resin to check if a printout is of proper quality/resolution.

This is how it looked after the printing

I had to print it several times to tune up all preferences. The last one was finally ok.

While working on the above, I ordered elastic UV resin. I’ve decided to try out eSun Flex and I’ve bought a 500g bottle. Rather an expensive bottle… 😉

It came in short so I could finally start some real tests.

Flexible misery

The first printout was just to test flexibility.

The quality of letter stamps was ok but that is thanks to previous research on printing parameters.

I ran some tests on these samples to test their quality and they looked promising.

Now, the real challenge with printing this object is to maintain good stamp quality, meaning, nice and even, and at the same time keep proper locking pads at both ends of the object.

It can be printed like so:

… or horizontally to the printing bed

I’ve printed tenths of samples and concluded that I have to print it with a support which will result in a slightly distorted bottom.

I’ve compared two printouts and decided to go with the horizontal option. The one with the support of course.

On the left horizontal printout and the right vertical one.

Cutting off support is a bit painful but surely doable.

That’s it, mission complete. Now I need to find someone with Atari 1027 printer to test it as I’ve worked on this only based on pics from the glorious internetz lol 😀

This is my small contribution to the ‘Revive1027 project. See you in the next post 😀

Outro

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6 thoughts on “#SHORTS – Atari 1027 Printer – The ‘Revive1027’ project

  1. Agree with resin being superior and lack of resolution seemed to be reported as a problem with Revive1027. My comment is directed at readers who may have IDEX such as myself (4 printers, none are resin). I fear however that the fast spin and high impact may make resin fail quickly. FDM is higher tensile and flex strength, so durability may be insufficient except for short tests with resin? I will see about a high res IDEX.

  2. With a high quality IDEX printer, you could print with TPU or some other flex material in the first extruder, print the letters face down and use dissolvable support material as the second filament.

    1. Hi Greg,
      IMO the resin 3D printer is superior to FFF 3D printers if it is about resolution and this is what counts here. I kinda know what I am saying since I am into 3D printing since 2012 as you’ve probably seen on my blog.
      However, if you’ll make a successful print, please let me know! I am very interested in such stuff. Also, I don’t have an Atari printer to test it all out 😀

      Cheers

  3. I have a 1027 that is in original box, that I’ve never opened/tried. Thanks for this information, it seems the print head you’ve made is better (higher fidelity) than the Revive1027 valiant attempt. I may try to power on the 1027 and see if it functions. If so, I will photograph the print head from several angles if it is still intact as it seems very few are. I do not believe it would work/survive long if I were to try to print. Perhaps I shall try to make a print as you have done.

  4. I think it would be great to print it with the letters first, so that they lay really flat in the end. But I guess this is impossible, right?

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