Toner image drum cleaning

The Story
Here is how it started. I received a call from the secretary where I work and she was frantic, something was wrong with her HP 4250 Laserjet printer. Apparently she was printing several stickers and one had come off the page and stuck to the image drum. She had removed it the best she could but now when she printed, large blank spots appeared down the center of each page. My initial thought was "Well there goes a $125 toner cartridge". I informed her that we had a replacement and that I would install it asap.

The Fix
Once I had replaced the cartridge, I had a chance to look more closely at the old one. There were indeed several sticky residue spots, some as large as a dime. I had searched online for an answer in the past but tried again in the hopes of finding an answer. Nothing. On a previous cartridge several years prior, we had tried a solvent based cleaner with disastrous results. The coating on the image drum literally melted off. I had a hunch that rubbing alcohol might work and I was going to give it a try. So with nothing to loose I ripped of a small swatch of blue shop towel and added a little rubbing alcohol. I started on a small spot and rubbed easily. The alcohol dissolved the toner and the rubbing action pushed around on the drum but the sticky residue was holding firm. So I added more alcohol and rubbed harder. Soon I was seeing the green through the sticky spot. Hope!

The Result
It turns out that alcohol did not effect the image drum in any way. I found that I could clean the whole thing with no ill effects. It did however not dissolve the sticky residue but the rubbing action eventually rubbed it off. The excess toner was dissolved in the alcohol and stuck to the towel. After about 20 minutes and some very tired fingers, I had it looking like new again. I reinstalled the cartridge and it printed like new. So if you come across a dirty image drum, try a little rubbing alcohol on a soft cloth, it may just work.