Digital BW, The Print

Thomas;

You might ring Jerry Olson's bell on this one, he just went through 
what sounds like the same problem initializing a CIS, but here are 
some of the suggestions offered:

Pull the black cart out, tilt it up 45 degrees, and apply a syringe 
(w/ bottom fill adapter)to the cart's ink port. Pull enough ink out 
to get rid of any air in the cart around the port, and verify that 
you have vacuum in the system. If you don't, those bubbles in the 
lines won't move, in which case you need to go looking for air 
leaks. When all that seems in order, do a windex injection into the 
K head by attaching some model fuel line hose or heat-shrink tubing 
(whatever you have that fits) to the syringe. Inject slowly and 
gently, put 2-3 ml through it. Put the cart back on and do a couple 
cleaning cycles, etc. 

Best luck

Steve Karafyllakis

http://www.stevekphoto.com


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Thomas 
Keesling" <tom.keesling@a...> wrote:
> Art offered a couple of suggestions re my problem off-list, but 
I'm now
> certain my problem is the black CIS cart. Here's the background.
> 
> My 1280 with CIS and VM inks has performed extremely well for two 
years, but
> now will not print black at all.
> 
> I'm on my second set of 4-oz bottles of VM inks, and installed new 
tubing
> and carts when I got the second set of bottles about 9 months ago.
> 
> I recently had to take the printer in for minor mechanical repair. 
I removed
> the CIS and installed new Epson cartridges when I took the printer 
in for
> the repair. Upon the return of the printer, I continued using the 
Epson
> cartridges for a few days before reinstalling the CIS/VM inks. The 
printer
> was printing flawlessly before I took it in for the repair and 
continued to
> print flawlessly with the Epson carts.
> 
> The printer repair took only 24 hours, but the CIS was out of the 
printer
> nearly a week. During that time, the CIS carts were stored using 
the CIS
> plugs (metal pins on lucite-type plastic). The CIS seemed to work 
OK right
> after it was reinstalled, but the printer was not used for a few 
days
> thereafter. The next time I started the printer, the red light was 
flashing
> and the color cartridge indicator in the status monitor was grayed 
out. I
> reseated the cart and everything seemed fine until I tried to 
print. No
> black. I printed a purge pattern and all five "color" carts are 
fine, but no
> black. Initially, I could get a good nozzle check, but now there 
is no black
> even in the nozzle check. There are visible air bubbles in the 
black tubing
> and they've been stationery through half a dozen cleaning cycles 
and test
> prints. The cart is clearly still full of ink and the black bottle 
is still
> about 1/3 full.
> 
> Today, I placed a drop of Fantastik on the black nipple and 
printed a purge
> pattern. The five color carts are still fine, but the black 
printed as a
> medium gray briefly and then quit completely.
> 
> It seems I need to replace my black cartridge, but I'm wondering 
what might
> have happened so suddenly to my black cartridge while it was out 
of the
> printer. I'd appreciate your thoughts because if this happens 
again, I'd
> like to be able to avoid the problem next time.
> 
> Tom Keesling
> Intelligent Design, Inc.