Help me fix my DYMO RhinoPro 500 label maker

January 4, 2012 1:16 PM

This tiny piece of plastic fell out of the back of my Dymo RhinoPro 5000 label-maker as I was removing an empty cartridge from it, and now the label-maker won't print labels anymore.

I've used this label-maker (with several cartridge changes) for the past 7 months without any issues. But now, when I put in a new label cartridge and press the "Print" button, the label-maker goes through the motions of printing, and both the spindle and "pinch roller" do in fact turn, but the label itself does not come out of the cartridge.

So obviously, this mysterious blue piece of plastic is integral to the printing mechanism. but I can find no documentation regarding its proper placement in the unit. The plastic looks like a self-contained piece, and doesn't appear to have broken off of a larger piece of plastic within the main unit (i.e. there are no signs of fatigue/wear or cracks).

Any ideas?

posted by melorama to Technology (7 answers total)

I just opened my RhinoPro 3000 and there is a very similar-looking piece of plastic with a soft pad on the end clipped to the inside of the cartridge compartment door, toward the bottom. It's held in place by a horizontal plastic tab that protrudes from the door's surface in that region and fits into the slot. It seems to be a cleaning tool of some sort and I don't see any way its absence could interfere with the operation of the printer, so maybe try changing tapes and seeing if the problem persists.

I had no idea this labeler came with a cleaning tool. Now I wonder what I'm supposed to clean, and how often.
posted by contraption at 1:32 PM on January 4, 2012

Oops, I see from your second picture that the holder tab on your unit's door is oriented vertically and located just to the right of the springy tab that keeps the cartridge held tightly in place. Try popping your errant piece onto that tab and see if it doesn't fit just like it was made to go there.
posted by contraption at 1:45 PM on January 4, 2012

Here is an image of how it should look like.
posted by Namlit at 1:51 PM on January 4, 2012

Now I just keep puzzling over that little icon on the handle of your cleaning tool, which does not appear on mine. Is it an 'x' with a droplet of liquid (don't get this wet?) Is it a dropper of cleaning solution or rubbing alcohol?
posted by contraption at 1:52 PM on January 4, 2012

Yeah, that's just a little chamois swab for cleaning the print head and rollers. Maybe it falling out was its way of telling you that the rollers need a cleaning to get the tape to feed through again!
posted by zsazsa at 1:54 PM on January 4, 2012

The manual describes how to clean it. Here's a link to the PDF.
posted by purple_bird at 1:57 PM on January 4, 2012

That manual just says:

To clean the print head

➤ Clean the print head using the cleaning tool
located inside the tape compartment lid.

posted by contraption at 2:04 PM on January 4, 2012