Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "scrber" <stephen.bate@m...> 
wrote:
> Run about 30 A4 sheets through my new MIS VM set-up (in a no more 
> carts CIS).
> 
> I have some horrid black problems.  The set-up seems fine, then it 
> leaks black ink all over one side of the page and the nozzles clog.
> I've run about 10 cleaning cycles and still can't get perfect black 
> nozzle checks.
> 
> I've tried searching the archives but cant really find the oracle 
> tips on clearing clogs - is this just a teething problem that 
> plagues new installations?

I'm not an oracle, just a tired old guy trying to keep his nozzles 
clear<g>.
But I think I can pretty well, with the above disclaimer, isolate this 
for you. It's one of two problems:

1)(NOT very likely from your desrciption): If your printer has been 
getting dust in it for three-nine months, depending on how clean the 
environment is, blotting is often a sign that dust and cat hairs, etc 
are collected on the bottom of printhead. This is solved by getting 
printhead to left with power off, sneaking a paper towel (I use a 
strong, tear resistant, lint resistant "photo-wipe"), putting a few 
drops of windex, Fantastik, or my favorite: 40% ethanol to 60% 
distilled water. Then you wipe the head back and forth across the 
towel and watch the lint come off.

Since this happened just after a new CIS install, I would guess the 
2nd option is much much more likely...

2) Air in printhead/CIS: this causes two things to happen... if it's 
trying to print air, you don't get ink in your nozzle check-it's 
misssing lines, maybe most or all of them in the k. A pump can't pump 
water if it's sucking on air bubbles in the line, after all. A water 
pump will also "sputter" water as it deals with the air. This is what 
"cavitation" is all about. Well- your printhead is "sputtering" or 
coughing up ink because there's air in there. Happened to me a lot 
when I was installing new non-CIS, non-Epson carts in my 1280. So- ink 
messing up your printer bed.

1st thing: stop doing excessive cleanings! If you do more than two or 
three in a row, you actually INCREASE the amount of air in the line, 
because the printer is trying to pull more ink in after two or three 
times and actually sucks itself dryer. Put just three or four drops of 
yoiur fav fluid described in #1 above on the parking pad and let the 
printhead return to the right and press the off button. Go away for 
6-12 hours. You need to let the printer recover from all those 
cleaning cycles. Ink will slowly percolate back into the printhead , 
at least a little if not fully.

Then turn it on and get some Epson heavyweight matte paper, EAM, or 
some other paper you can scrap or that is cheap- but thicker than 
plain paper so that if it blobs you can absorb it in the paper. Put 
the printer dialog setup in draft mode, choose "plain paper". You want 
to run a quick print, not putting down lots of ink all at once as you 
would at 1440 dpi or with photo paper setting. Run the Mis purge 
pattern file print with all the colors on it (see MIS site for 
download). Now as you run it observe the color stripes carefully. If 
you get blotting of k ink, esp on left side of paper, immedieately 
cancel print. Be on your toes, it will happen suddenly. If this 
doesn't happen, but one or more colors doesn't print fully, let it go 
for awhile and see if it starts to come back.

If a color has come back in, good. If not, or if blotting has occured 
, well okay. Next, do a nozzle check followed by  ONE cleaning cycle. 
Then do a nozzle check again (use the heavier paper still- it may 
still blot on you). If needed do a 2nd cleaning cycle. Then another 
nozzle check. Maybe risk a third cleaning, nozzle check.

If it clears after two or three cleanings, fine. If not, run one or 
two purge patterns as before. Runnning purge pattern or other prints 
allows the nozzles to recover from the cleaning cycles, so you can 
risk another round of not more than TWO cleaning cycles after the 
first or second purge print. If it doesn't clear after the second 
round then return the printer to off and repeat these last three 
paragraphs in 6-12 hours. You can try running a solid color purge 
print (MIS download) of the k if the sputtering has stopped but the 
nozzles aren't quite filled in- this is more intensive as more ink is 
used.

If it's not cleared then you need to buy some MIS Rivets or a set of 
EZ-Plugs from a nomorecarts seller.

Install NEW Epson carts. If you have an 1270/1280/1290, a slightly 
used set might work. The Epson ink is very liquid and contains a 
solvent. It seems to remove both clogs AND air bubbles. You run a 
purge pattern. Then a nozzle check followed by up to three cleaning 
cycles. Then a purge print. With any luck, after up to three cleaning 
cycles you should start to see the air clearing out. You can run a 
purge print on a higher dpi setting with heavyweight matte paper 
selected in dialog. Also use your cheap heavy paper still in the 
printer, but the sputtering should be gone. After running a few purge 
patterns, maybe some of them just the K pattern print, Your nozzles 
should be clear.

You now have a choice. If you have a 1270/1280/1290 it's a little 
easier because the Epson carts self seal when you remove, at least 
for a few removals anyway no air gets trapped in them. So if you need 
to install them again you can. If it's an 1160 say, the Epson carts 
get air trapped in them when you remove them and aren't as releiable 
for clearing this problem again once removed.

You can remove Epson carts and quickly pull out the rivits/EZplugs and 
install CIS...or you can assume that CIS has air in it and go the 
extra step of removing ink/air from the bottom of the bad ink chamber 
with a syringe with a MIS "bottom fill adapter" (see their assories 
page). You draw ink from bottom of cart by gently inserting bottom 
fill adapter, and then dumping it back into the right bottle, and 
repeating until no air bubbles or foamy ink is seen in syringe. If you 
press in too hard, the filter in the bottom of the CIS cart may get 
damaged so be gentle. If you choose this latter method, leave the 
Epson carts in printer until you are done so the switchover will be 
quick. I have never done the latter procedure on a nomorecarts CIS, 
only a CFS (MIS flavor of the same system), so view that as a 
disclaimer. It did help my CFS run marginally better.

Either way, when you reinstall the CIS carts again, run two cleaning 
cycles right away- this will minimise any more sputtering that may be 
reintroduced as a result of changing carts, and draw that nasty ink 
down into the printer pad where it won't cause a mess. But no more 
than two or three or you will add more air to the problem. Then run 
purge prints- maybe three of them, unless on the first you get no 
color stripe at all for a chamber. Then you either have to repeat 
something to get the air out again.

Finally, I think some others have simply raised the bottles about 1/4 
inch (use a CD jewel case) for awhile and this I guess helps. Raise 
them too high and the ink will drain from bottles into printer though. 
I think I tried this at times myself, but I must have got mixed 
results, because I wound up doing all the above garbage.<g>

Anyway, good luck.

yada, yada
Jim H.