Digital BW, The Print

Larry,

When I called Compas Micro to order all my parts we had this dampers discussion.
The sales guy told me that he thought the dampers of the 7500 and 7000 were different, 
and would not recommend me using different dampers in the 7000. He said I could 
"experiment", but with all else I have to replace, I wasn't in the mood for anymore 
experimenting. In the mean time Jon Cone wrote me a long email and told me about all 
the 7000's loaded with carbon pigment that he has used for years. They all have original 
dampers. That was good enough for me, but I will keep an eye on them. They are very 
easy to replace. He also mentioned that the Lyson to Pigment changeover is the most 
problematic. 

My Lyson inkset totally gummed up this machine when converting so I am replacing both 
heads, all dampers, the capping station assembly, and the ink pump. All together these 
parts will cost me about $270.00. Epson wanted $1,300.00 just for the heads,  and that 
didn't include any of the other parts I just listed or their travel and labor time which would 
have doubled that cost. As much of a pain as it is to stop your work and learn how to work 
on these things, it is well worth it in the long run. It isn't brain surgery and these skills can 
be applied to other machines as well.

My big lesson is: if you are chaning a 7000 to carbon pigments form an Epson dye set or 
an Epson pigment set you probably have little to worry about and a set of cleaning carts 
should do the trick. However if you are changing from any Lyson inkset you might want to 
do a thorough clean out of the whole system before wasting expensive inks. 

The two things that are mandatory in my opinion, having gone through all this, is to be 
sure to replace the dampers at about $11.00 each, and replace the head capping station 
assembly at about $20.00. Some people replace the "mantanence kit" that is these parts 
plus the pump every 2 years or so. That might not be a bad idea. 

John