Digital BW, The Print

> I'm interested in how you're using the Epson carts.  Are they 
> "sponge-free?"

I don't see any sponges in there. Have a look at this page:
http://anestoday.com/epson2200/anatomy.htm

It describes the anatomy of the cartridge in great detail.

> How do you clean them out?  

Just reposted my instructions on how to clean and refill them.

> Does the MIS chip resetter work with them?

Yes.

> I assume you bought the carts with 
> Epson ink in them.  Did you use the ink or drain it into 
> something?

I've always used the cartridges as a set until at least one of them
reads empty, and then cleaned out all of them, but you don't have to.
You could just clean out brand new cartridges. I just throw away the
ink, but of course you could save the ink in bottles if you wanted to
use it for something.
 
> It sounds like a great idea that many might want to start 
> doing.  The re-sealing outlets should make switching carts 
> that are half full much easier.

Very easy. The cartridges are incredibly stable, never spills any inks,
and seems to last forever no matter how you store them , or how many
times you use them. I have yet to refill a cartridge enough times to
break it. I also have one and a half year old cartridges here that still
works just fine. I don't store them in any special way, they have just
been sitting on top of the speaker in my office the whole time:
http://daniel.staver.no/img/epsoncartridges.jpg

> I'm so happy to see others are starting to get into this.  
> Especially if these Epson carts allow us to do this at will, 
> the flexibility of the system will really pay off.  The 
> creative control and quality improvements that this opens up 
> are really significant.  The open Y-position cart is a big 
> part of the design plan.  No one who is a hacker by nature or 
> "alternative process" fan will or should ever be happy with 
> some one else's inkset. Doing an entire inkset is a bit 
> daunting, but one ink is easy.  Lots of us old darkroom types 
> are going to love this.

I was surprised at how easy it was to add the new toner, I really
expected it to be more work. It took me less than ten minutes from I got
the idea to I had the first print with the toner applied coming out of
my printer. Right now I control the toner by making a solid color layer
with yellow, set the mode to 'color' and adjust the opacity to vary the
tone. 5-10% seems to be just about right.

I haven't yet familiarized myself with the new curves, but I'd like to
learn how to control the yellow position that way instead.

> >The toner I mixed was 84% UT7 light cyan and 16% MIS 7600 
> >cyan. I just 
> >used the ratios for the sepia toner ink on Paul's info page and 
> >replaced the yellow and magenta with cyan.

I've noticed a _very_ slight increase in highlight dots with the new
toner. Nothing you'd see unless you had your nose to the print, and even
then it's hard to tell, but someone gravely concerned with dots in the
highlight might get a slight panic attack over this. 

I'm wondering whether it would be better to use LC instead of C. I only
use the toner at about 5-10% anyway, so I definitely don't need the full
strength of the cyan ink.

--
Daniel Staver
http://daniel.staver.no