Periodically I have clients who ask about paper feeding issues with their printers or scanners. I’m sure you’ve experienced this from time to time. Your scanner likes to grab several sheets of paper at a time or the paper skews when being pulled into your printer. The cause, often, is dirty feed rollers. The silicone or rubber rollers, being somewhat sticky by their nature, pick up paper dust. This build-up lowers the friction against the paper and causes slippage. There you go – a royal pain.

The answer is cleaning the rollers, but not the way you might think of doing it. What I hear usually is a DIY approach involving Q-Tips and rubbing alcohol. And then a note of pleased self-satisfaction at a small personal victory over recalcitrant technology. Good! Oh wait . . . NOT so good (the alcohol part, that is).

I don’t know if anyone really remembers the typewriter days but there was something called “typewriter platen fluid.” This was used to clean the roller inside of the carriage. Over time, paper dust would build up and it  would lose its grippiness. Platen fluid would clean it without damaging the rubber.

Related posts:

1. Paper LESS: Now More Than Ever
2. Paper LESS Update: Newest CLE Materials and a New Paper LESS Article
3. The Tao of Paper LESS
4. The Original, Often Imitated, Genuine Article: Ross’ Paper LESS Office
5. Sound Advice from the Past on Law Firm Training