Digital BW, The Print

Paul wrote:

>Is this lubrication something Epson recommends or something you've just
>found to be a good practice.  I have always wondered if there are things we
>ought to be doing to keep the printers working properly, but I've seen
>little or nothing in the Epson materials.
>
>Have you seen any symptoms people ought to be looking for that indicate when
>the bar should be lubricated?




First, a brief history

My 1160 began unpredictably stalling in mid print.  The flashing front 
panel lights indicated "paper jam", but no such jam existed.  It was really 
annoying, especially in the middle of a 13X19.  I swapped everything: 
driver, cable, spooling, you name it.  Nothing fixed the problem, which 
appeared anywhere from once a month to several times a day.

I finally took it to Epson, who advised me that the printer was 
experiencing tiny amounts of "sticktion" between the head carriage and the 
platen bar.  (that's the silver guide bar that the heads travel 
on).  Firmware would shut down printing to avoid damage from what it 
thought was a jammed mechanism.

He further informed me that 1160's are for some reason especially 
susceptible to this and that the factory lubrication was 
insufficient.  "It's the most frequent repair we do on 1160's", he 
said.  He then instructed me to keep an eye on the bar and to lube it with 
fine oil whenever it got dry.

I've been using sewing machine oil, but petroleum jelly sounds like a good 
idea to me.  The oil is difficult to apply in small quantities without it 
dripping everywhere.

As Paul mentioned, Epson says nothing about this in the manual or anywhere 
else.

Peter McLennan