Digital BW, The Print

First let me say that I'm delighted to have my first post on this
group answered by two of my B&W heros, Paul Roark and Clayton Jones. 
 Secondly, as Clayton suggest, the answers were a bit depressing.  

Trying to consolidate the feedback from you both:

One:  I bought the wrong printer.  

Paul and Clayton both suggest the 1280 is out-of-date and difficult to
use.  You each suggest a different one   - Paul the R220, $100 from
Epson and Clayton the 2400, $849.99 - as the 1280 is a bit "long in
the tooth".   

My first reaction is that the 1280 produced great prints before, I see
no reason this one won't.  Besides, I'm a bit long in the tooth
myself...seems like a good match. 

Two:  Both of you were kind enough to also suggest some alternative
strategies.  

From Paul: Test files to trouble shoot the system.  Paul thanks. I
will, of course try the alternative purge pattern (I run a standard
nozzle check before each new file run) as well as see if I can run the
21-step file correctly.   I look forward to trying your more
sophisticated approach and reporting back.  I'm betting on "operator
error" as the root cause.

From Clayton:  Black Only is hard to beat…unless you have $800 to
spare for a 2400. 

I looked at my early BO prints under a loupe and was surprised to see
the prominent dots. At normal viewing range, they were crisp, smooth
and had good contrast.  However, I was looking to expand both the size
of my "in studio" printing (hence the 1280) and add subtlety(tonal
range?) to my prints.  I read your write ups on BO previously but will
now go back and rethink what I'm doing.  Maybe I can get there on with
the BO route, too.

Gentlemen, thanks for your help.  It's obvious to me is that I do not
understand how these workflows work but I am determined to learn it. 
Please bear with me.

Dan