Digital BW, The Print

Dear All

I have a bit of a tale here about clogs, and the conclusions I have come to.
I would be interested to hear peoples' comments on whether these conclusions
make sense, or if they are total garbage!

I have an Epson 1290 printer with MIS UT2 in it, and it produced top quality
pics. One day in mid May (I think) I didn't use it for about a week and it
developed a clog on the Lm colour. The symptoms were: not being able to get
a good nozzle check on the Lm most of the time, but then I could, but a
print of the purge6 would result in the Lm colour starting fine but then
fading and banding horribly.

I tried (in this order): 

1) repeated Epson head cleaning interspersed with purge 6 printing every 3
cleaning cycles (I probably did about 10 in one day)

2) putting Epson T007 & T009 cartridges in and trying 1)

3) purging the MIS cartridges of foamy ink by drawing the ink through the
exit ports with a syringe and the bottom fill adaptor. Trying 1) with the
MIS cartridges in again.

4) I tried 2) but with increasingly long waiting times.

5) MIS cleaning fluid on the parking pad.

6) MIS Direct inject trick.

None seemed to make any noticeable improvement.

All this was until this week, and I was trying a clean with the T007 and
T009 (now cheap versions as I was spending a fortune on Epson ones). The
clogging was getting worse it seemed and I could not get much of the Lm
colour to print in a nozzle check, and if it did it was fuzzy and faint.

I finally gave up hope on Saturday and had what I thought was a brainwave. I
had all the parts to build a new CIS, so what if I got rid of the Lm colour
completely and put the Lm ink in the yellow position?

I looked at the sepia curves, and the yellow did indeed kick in when the Lm
did in the more neutral curves, so I thought I could use the sepia curves
and get the more neutral effects. I didn't use the sepia ink much anyway,
and having a printer that did more than occupy desk space and gather dust
seemed attractive - so I didn't think I had much to lose by trying it. 

I spent most of Sunday building the CIS cartridges, but while I was waiting
for the glue to dry, I was reading around and found a page that recommended
the MIS direct inject solution of forcing MIS cleaning fluid into the
printer head "spike" to hopefully clear a clog. This page went a bit further
in that it recommended pushing some fluid in, then drawing it out. Since I
had a plan to do away with the Lm position anyway I thought it wouldn't
hurt. I tried this and a lot of colour came out, together with a LOT of air
bubbles. The page said to finish on a push, which I did. 

I put the T007 & T009 cartridges in and the improvement was dramatic. Not
perfect, but a quantum leap from what I had been experiencing. I printed a
purge 6, and got a perfect start, but it tailed off again. I tried some more
cleaning cycles (using the SSC service utility on powerful clean) and could
nearly always get back to a good nozzle check, and it was a long time since
that happened. Heartened by these improvements, I tried the same direct
inject procedure again last night, and the nozzle checks seemed to get
better quicker. Still no perfect purge 6 though.

Tonight I came in and tried a nozzle check (fine) and a purge6. Also fine. I
then tried another purge6. Again fine! Its been ages since this happened. I
tried an A3 colour print with the aftermarket T007 & T009 cartridges. This
was also fine.

I don't think I am out of the woods yet, as I have not put the UT2 CIS back
in, but the improvement using the direct inject push pull trick was
dramatic.

From this I conclude that I will not leave the CIS in the printer, but put
it in when I need it. I will put a T007 and T009 in when the printer is not
used - given this experience, this seems to avoid clogging as they are dye
inks, which were what the printer was designed for. I have an 1160 with
Lyson SG dye based inks in, which spends long periods not being used, but it
has never clogged.

So anyway I never tried my idea of putting the Lm ink in the yellow position
and using the sepia curves to get neutral prints. However I reckon it would
have a reasonable chance of working, and would be a lot better than having a
printer that didn't do anything. What do people think?

Hope this helps someone - I am merely posting my experience and what
(hopefully) worked for me. Anyone that tries anything here does so at their
own risk. I had nothing to lose though!

Sorry this was long, and hope it helps someone. I thought my printer would
end up on the rubbish tip. But it seems to have risen from the dead!

Steve Taylor