Digital BW, The Print

Duane,

>What was wrong with your 7500?

The light ink head was not cleaning well, probably due to too a combination
of factors.  The parking station may not have been sealing adequately, and
the tube from there to the pump may have been clogged.  As a result, for
some time one jet would not clear at all.  Finally the entire head would not
stay clean and the printer was ruining every print by spitting blobs of ink
on it.  Luckily I found a service person I've used before with good results
who would allow me to drop the printer off at his shop (as opposed to the
Epson referrals who make house calls and charge for their travel time from
L.A. -- a fortune I'm not willing to pay).

> My 7000 is putting ink in the wrong places, lots of it. 

I'm not sure if this is the same as your problem, but as noted above, one of
the symptoms I had was "spitting" lots of ink blobs on and by the side of
the print image.  In the past cleaning the wiper blade, etc. cured the
problem, but this time I could not get the job done.  So, it was time to
turn it over to someone with the right skills (I hope).

I'm suspicious that one of my long term problems with large format printers
is that I just don't use them regularly.   I didn't have that problem with
the old 3000, probably because I kept plain paper in the tray and sometimes
just used it for smaller and non-photo work.  The 7500 and the like don't
lend themselves to that kind of use.  I suspect farming out the largest
images and having a 4800 may be the best way for me to go.  (Just by
coincidence, that is the direction my ink efforts are headed.)

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com