Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., Stan McQueen <stan@s...> 
wrote:
> At 09:54 AM 10/19/2002, you wrote:
> >Oh dear, the thing i worried about the most has happened with my 
1160 with
> >MIS CFS installed. Last time I printed was about 2 weeks ago, then 
when i

 Basically, you remove the cartridge and use a syringe to 
suck ink 
> through the bottom of the cartridge, then empty the syringe back 
into the 
> bottle. After I did this for a few syringe's worth of ink, I started 
> getting flow on my nozzle checks. Then a few cleaning cycles later I 
was 
> printing perfectly.

I wouldn't do this first though it is a nice trick. You need to 
rescue the head first. Put OEM Epson carts in and try to clear the 
pattern by running purge patterns. If after a couple days of this it 
doesn't clear, you can try direct injecting something into the head, I 
try to avoid it myself. Only then can you think of reinstalling CFS. 
If I were you, since it only costs $40, I would just buy a new set of 
tubing/carts and start over rather than risk skipping the nozzles 
again once you've cleared the head with Epson ink. 

> 
> I just recently returned from a 2.5 week trip to find that my 1280 
with Gen 
> 5 inks and Niagara CIS printed a perfect nozzle check the first time 
and 
> the 1270 with the MIS-VM inks and CFS required one cleaning cycle to 
print 
> a perfect nozzle check. I live in Orem, Utah, and we're in the midst 
of a 
> four-year drought, so I'm not sure that low humidity has much to do 
with 
> failures in continuous inking systems. Or, then again, maybe I'm 
just lucky.

No, can't be, can't be...can't be. And I live in Colorado, just one 
state over. I've been tracking humidity/temperature EVERY 12 hours for 
almost ten months now and correlating it with how well the nozzle 
clears EACH and every 12 hours. Anything below 35% is risky. Of course 
I wouldn't panic at 34%, I would just tweak the humidifier up a notch. 
I once left a printer off for three weeks with MIS inks at 20%RH and 
it killed it. Nada. No more..

40%RH is better as a minimum. And below 72 degrees f is good too. 
above 77 degrees f is hard to clear.

And now when I check a step wedge printed using a CFS for only 2 1/2 
months it no longer matches a "control" I printed before CFS install, 
but you have to view it under a nice sharp Ott-lite. More mottling at 
100%k.

If I leave my 1280 off for more than a day or two, clogs are harder to 
clear. I used to leave my 1160's off for weeks, but I already told you 
the fate of one of them.

Or perhaps there is more to individual printer head discrepancies as 
Martin believes...
Jim H.
> 
> Stan
> 
> ================================
> Photography by Stan McQueen
> http://www.smcqueen.com