mark lewis wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

 ml>> run yourself a couple of fresh sheets... enough so that you
 ml>> get 3 or 4 of those lines... then lay the paper down, end to
 ml>> end and measure from one line to the next... if all the
 ml>> measurements come out the same, it is likely that it is
 ml>> something on the drum...

 RJT> Got three pages here,  the last that I'd printed out,  and
 RJT> the pattern is different on all three of them.

 ml> not the pattern on each... the pattern across all of them
 ml> together... put the first one down and then the next and so on head
 ml> to tail... it is possible that the drum is larger around than the
 ml> paper is long... make sure you get them in the proper order and
 ml> oriented right... it is likely to be just one line on the drum...
 ml> you can tell this if the lines are all the same distance apart
 ml> across the sheets... there's no way i can do an ascii drawing to
 ml> show what i'm talking about ;(

I've held these next to each other,  there's no way to match stuff up...

 ml>> you can also possibly measure the circumference of the drum by 
 ml>> making a mark on its drive gear and then rolling it while 
 ml>> measuring with a flat ruler until the mark comes back around... 
 ml>> picture a gear driving a flat tray like a CDROM drive door...

 RJT> I've not messed with the drum itself,  the whole assembly that 
 RJT> pops out has a number of drive gears in it.  I'm not terribly 
 RJT> inclined at the moment to take it further apart, at least not 
 RJT> just yet.  Maybe I'll get to that point,  we'll see...

 ml> i didn't say take it apart... it may be possible to rotate the 
 ml> gear while sliding the ruler in the same way that the gear in a 
 ml> cdrom drive drives the door open on its toothed rail...

Grabbing handy sheets,  there's one line about 1/8" from the top, 
another one about 3/16" below that,  three more a bit over 1/16"
spacing below that,  another one 3/16" down,  then almost an inch of
no lines (though there's print in there like there's supposed to be).  Then
two lines real close together,  almost no space between them,  another one
with a bit more room,  another 3/16" gap,  a gap of about 3/8", 
one that's abou tan inch,  another line 1/16" down,  then one
1/8" down,  then a gap of about an inch.  It goes on like that,  the
pattern varying with not that much regularity to it.  The third page I have
here shows several lines that are close enough together to make an almost
continuous blur of gray,  some of them over 1/8" wide.  This doesn't
show up the same way on either of the other two pages...

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