Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "wilfred71118" 
<wilfredm@b...> wrote:
> In the past I recall reading much about nozzle clogs. I should have 
> payed more attention. I think I have my first clog. When I print a 
> nozzle check the cyan bars have missing lines. I have run the color 
> cleaning utility about 5 times. It still has missing bars. It is an 
> Epson 3000 and refilled MIS ink. What is the best approach to 
fixing.

I don't own an 3000 so I guess all the rules may not apply that I 
learned. So that's a bit of a disclaimer. But a couple things off the 
bat.

Don't do more than two or three cleanings in a row! It will only get 
worse, and you will lose ink, and possibly flood the pads and get 
excess ink splattered around. I do at most two these days on my 1280. 
Then I put a few drops of Fantastik, 40:60 ethanol to water, Windex, 
etc to what I think are two (in 3000), not one pad as in the 1160 and 
1280 on the right hand  side. This procedure is very common and 
documented all over, search Cone's site for example, or the posts 
here. You send the head to the left and put three-5 drops or so on the 
pad, then send printer back and turn off for six hours minimum. There 
are tricks beyond these, but this first one has a high sucess rate.

Educate yourself as to what tricks work for what symptoms. For example 
the towel under the head trick works best for ink blobs and lines that 
jump up or down in nozzle pattern. Learn to recognise a clog from a 
possible air bubble. Air bubbles tend to generate more gaps as you do 
cleanings and the missing lines tend to trade around. Real clogs tend 
to be the same line in the pattern not printing out over and over. 
Your 3000 should be less prone to clogs because the nozzles are bigger 
than more recent printers.

You mention a "refilled" MIS cart. I have never used a refilled cart 
on any of my printers, just never got around to it. I just fill virgin 
carts. I don't know if that could be a problem. You don't state 
whether you just installed it or not. So I cannot help there.
Jim H.