Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "David J. Bookbinder" 
<david_bookbinder@s...> wrote:
> Jim,
> 
> I didn't do a definitive study. The 785 is a much cheaper printer, 
and
> perhaps the springs are less effective, if the head is further from 
the pad.

I supose this is something we can only guess at.

> I was getting clogs every day or so, and they'd take multiple 
cleaning
> cycles or sometimes Windex treatments to unclog, when I had the 
lever in the
> "+" position. Now, with the lever on "0" except when I'm printing on 
thick
> paper, I get a clog every week or so. In both cases, I'm doing the 
same
> amount of printing, on average.

Well, then I'd say you don't have a precisely controlled situation, 
but it sounds like it makes enough of a difference to suspect you are 
right in what you're experiencing. I base this on your having clogs 
every day with cleaning cycles vs getting one each week...that's a BIG 
difference. You also mention that you get lower clogs at "0" except 
when using thicker paper, which is also telling.

> 
> I don't account for it. I'm just saying that on my particular 
machine,
> moving the lever to "0" (which is where the manual recommends I 
leave it)

The 1280 manual is vague- it says to return lever to "0" when finished 
printing envelopes. I think I will call Epson on this.

> solved the clogging problem. Your mileage may vary.
> 
> As for warranty problems, in my very limited experience Epson seems 
much
> more willing to swap out machines than it does to spend time solving 
a
> problem. Maybe it's cheaper for them, in the long run.

No, what I meant was as an engineer, I would not design in a feature 
that would allow customers to mess up the cap sealing with the flick 
of a lever. They'd get a lot more returned printers, whatever their 
policy on replacement was.

Thanks again,
Jim H.
> 
> - David
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: jimhayes361 [mailto:jimhayes@j...]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 7:09 PM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y...
> Subject: [Digital BW] Re: +/0 lever, Leaving your Epson left on/off
> 
> This is an interesting theory. I have some questions:
> 
> 1) Is this something you have observed and recorded in some way,
> removing other variables such as time interval between prints,
> humidity changes, etc? If so, can you give a rough percentage of
> getting a clear nozzle in both "+" and "0" positions, that is, can 
you
> say that if left in "0" position, you tend to get clogs only "x % of
> time" vs "y%" of time in "+" position? You may also have to account
> for alignment operations, which whatever position the lever is in,
> move the head up and down relative to it's old position. For 
example,
> a good test might be to align the printer with very thin paper on 
"0"
> and compare with the printer aligned to a thick paper on "0". Then
> repeat on "+" , yada, yada.
> 
> 2) How then would you account for the large amount of travel 
possible
> in the parking pad, being spring loaded to the large extent that it
> is (I'm going by the 1160 and the 1280)? My guess (based on my ex-HP
> mech eng experience) is that Epson engineers would design the 
printer
> to take up head height variation due to lever position with this
> design, as they could not guarentee where customers would leave the
> lever or paper thickness alignment, and they wouldn't want warranty
> problems. And it looks to me as if one function of the springs may 
be
> to do exactly this.
> 
> I'm not saying you're wrong, I would just like to carry the
> supposition further. I often leave the lever at "+", and would like
> some clarification before I go off and design experiments around 
this
> idea.
> Thanks for the notion,
> Jim H.