Hi MMDers.  Have you ever come across a roll that won't track, even
though the paper seems to be the correct width and the holes all seem
to be in the right places?

If such a wayward roll has pressed steel spool ends, the trouble may
be that the roll has been dropped so that the right-hand spool end has
been pushed in.  This causes the distance between the inside surface
of the spool end and the bottom of the well on the outside to be too
small.  If it's much too small, the tracking mechanism can't cope.

I've constructed a gage that enables one to measure this distance for
a roll of any size, without having to do anything to the roll except
take it out of its box and hold it vertically.  In case anyone is
interested, I'm sending Robbie a couple of photos.

John Phillips in Hobart, Tasmania.

 [ The two photos are very good, John. I'll fix up everything
 [ next week on a new page at the MMD Pictures site.  -- Robbie