Digital BW, The Print

Living in a dry climate with two 1160's on a CIS and one 1280 on a CFS 
and individual carts (self filled) both. From this my modest 
observations:

1) Rule #1, IMPORTANT: run the thing at least once a day if not twice. 
I do a draft mode purge print from the MIS site. Then I follow with a 
nozzle check and up to two cleanings if needed. I once let a printer 
go for three weeks at 20% humidity and it killed it.

2) Humidity below 35%RH is not acceptable. You need at least 
around 40%RH. I have observed good results from about 38%-55% 
humidity.

3) High temperature can clog a printer. I find that printing at 66-72 
degrees F is ideal. If the temperature gets to 77 degrees F there is 
much more chance of clogs. Of course, relative humidity tracks 
temperature, so you have to readjust your humidifier as temperature 
changes. The equation is not so clear cut here as both temp and 
humidity are changing and it's hard to tell which is the culprit. And 
if you use a hot mist humidifier, it will increase temperature in room 
(but is better to combat mold growth which I definitely do not want in 
my print storage area).

4)Using a CFS vs seperate non-CFS carts will over time gunk up your 
printer. This is a fascinating new thing I'm discovering that I don't 
think the full extent of is realized by many yet-or it may apply just 
be my environment. For example I used expensive and labor intensive 
self filled carts with VM ink for a full six months. Every 12 hours I 
turned on the printer and did a purge print and a nozzle check. I had 
to do maybe one or two cleanings a week at most. Then in August I 
installed a CFS. For 1 1/2 months I got the same results every 12 
hours, but then- and at the same time I noted k ink caking on the 
inside of the bottle, I had to, with increasing frequency do cleaning 
cycles to get a good nozzle check. Now after 2 1/2 months on the CFS 
turning it on every 12 hours, I have to do at least one cleaning 
cycle, sometimes three (a few times that didn't even work) EVERY 12 
hours, not just once or twice a week. Shaking the bottles up every so 
often does not seem to improve it.

IOW, using a CFS for past two months has increased my needing to do 
cleaning cycles to clear printer by over SEVEN times from when I used 
seperate carts for an extended period of time. And it appears to be 
getting worse. 99+% of the time it is the k ink that is not giving a 
good nozzle check. By the random pattern of the missing lines in the 
k, it looks strongly like small clogs and not air bubbles I am 
clearing every 12 hours now. I suspect that the ink is evaporating out 
of the bottle/tubing leaving larger clumping particles both caking on 
the inside of the bottle, and worse, inside the printhead/cart. That 
is another reason to keep ink flowing thru head every day.

If I can get the CFS to last somewhere between 3-4 months, I will 
throw away the remaining ink in the bottles, and also the CFS with 
attached tubing. I will replace the CFS for about $40 and buy fresh 
ink. I could try getting two ounce bottles instead and sealing the 
remaining ink....or I could just go back to individual carts. A 
problem with seperate carts is that sometimes there are ink spills 
when installing new ones because of sputtering- air in the printhead. 
Also with the MIS chips on the 1280 I have to turn off and unplug 
printer every cart change as I have discovered it is very easy to blow 
these chips with power on when changing carts. Epson carts do not have 
this problem AFAIK.
Jim H. 







> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "cmpatti2001" 
<cmpatti@a...>
> wrote:
> > I hadn't used my 1280 CFS system for a while, and after many 
trials
> > and tribulations have got it working again.  I decided to try to
> > Tyler Boley curves for the first time.  Although they seem to be
> > giving me smoother tones, I've run into a new problem--light 
banding,
> > most visible in the mid-highlights, running in the direction of 
the
> > print head.  It is just visible to the naked eye