Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "s98103r"
<s98103r@y...> wrote:
> I set up my 1280 with MIS UT2 inks and a CFS two weeks ago and was 
> getting very nice prints.
> 
> Now I am starting to have problems with banding and clogged
nozzles.  
> This problem reoccurs even after several cleaning cycles and good 
> nozzle checks.  
> 
> Could someone direct me to links with procedures for cleaning the 
> nozzles and parking pad.
> 
> It would be nice to have cleaning procedures listed in the group 
> files.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> SR

SR,

I set up a 1280 with a CFS about two weeks ago too, however I am
Black-Only printing and using the $5 MIS carts in color slot.

I started to get banding a few days ago and it was driving me crazy.
Oddly, sometimes the clog would happen in the middle of a print.
Before making the print I did a nozzle check and it came out clean. I
called Marc at MIS. He told me that the Epson has three cleaning
cycles: short, medium and long. The short cleaning cycle occurs on the
first and 4th cleaning cycle and on every one after that, until a
print is made.  This short cleaning cycle can knock out all the
nozzles.  In otherwords, if you do a bunch (8 or 10) cleaning cycles
with out making a print, you may destroy your printer. 

After 3 cleaning cycles, print a test pattern (MIS purge6.tif is a
good one - http://www.inksupply.com/html/images/purge.zip).  Print it
using 360 dpi, plain paper settings.  Make at least one 8x10 print. 
It may not be perfect, but this will reset the firmware in the printer
so you can get the short, medium and long cleaning cycles again.  It
is the medium and long cleaning cycles that will get your printer back
up and running again.

The last two paragraphs and more can be found at
http://www.misink.net/misknowbase/question.php?qstId=29

After I ran three cleaning cycles and a purge print my problems went
away. I'm keeping my nozzle check sheets as a log and making notes on
them so I know what I did and when. So far I've only had to run two
cleaning cycles and haven't had any banding problems the three
printing sessions I did after this procedure, knock on wood.

Hope this helps. 

Jim