From: GarySent: Friday, February 07, 2014 9:43 AMSubject: RE: [Digital BW] Epson 4900 not printing VLM or LC
Jimbo,
How can you tell if you have air in the line?
Thanks,
Gary Wagner
From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com [mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of mrjimbo2
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2014 8:37 AM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Epson 4900 not printing VLM or LC
Arthur,
It winter , really low humidity and it sat for a while.. So a couple of things you can do / try.. First make sure the two colors that won't show don't have air in the lines..
Next wet the park pad with water.. really wet it .. ( I use an eye dropper for this) Put the head over it for an hour or so.. Then try a nozzle test to see if your getting anything if you start seeing a few lines go ahead and do a regular cleaning cycle.
If that doesn't work , This one you'll want to keep an eye on so you don't start wicking ink out thru the head.. wet a paper towel with a mix of water and simple green... fold it in half to double its thickness... get that in the rollers manually...make sure it's good and wet even if you have to add more with an eye dropper.... then pull the head off park and let it set on it for several hours.. (no windex or similar as that dries it out).
As far as Epson saying you need a new print head.. well too soon to say that I think..... you might have a damper issue or simply struggling with air in the line...
jimbo
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Message
Re: [Digital BW] Epson 4900 not printing VLM or LC / Gary / Arthur
2014-02-07 by mrjimbo2
First to answer your question you can typically see
it .. Open the hood and look. I have a small flash light that I use on some
printers where visibility is difficult.. but it will show up.. A power
clean typically will get them out but you could also pull them out with a
syringe but that in my experience has gotten a bit messy with me at the
helm...:-)..
Ok I forgot something very important in my last
post.. some how I was thinking it was the 7900 not the 4900...Ok the 4900
does not have a pressurized ink system.. (have the 4800 ) Anyway they use
an ink reservoir of sorts .. so repeated efforts at cleaning or nozzle tests can
run the reservoir dry especially if it's starved. So going slow with these guys
is in my experience the way to go.. If you seem to be going backwards then
just stop.. wait several hours and come back.. or the next day.. Also if
the channels that are giving you a hard time are low on ink..(pull the carts and
shake them to make sure your good to go) put fresh carts in those
channels then after the issue is resolved put the old ones back in to finish
them.
Ok, one more thing.. this is for printers that set
for some time.. I posted this once before and freaked everybody out.. or think I
did.. The inks can settle in your lines. So they can get a bit sludgy on the
bottom.. When inks start moving thru the lines again I think it's possible
that improperly mixed inks are moving inside the tubes.. ( No I can't prove this
..it's a theory) Anyway, I have a printer set up with K6 and if it sits for a while the images are always screwy..
Soooo I now occasionally tape a battery powered egg shaped vibrator that is
adjustable ( yes it exactly what you think it is) to the lines and let it
run for 5 minutes or so... the vibrations get to the entire line length and it
put all the particles back in suspension.. To be honest I don't really notice
that much difference on color images but I sure do on B&W ..
jimbo
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