Digital BW, The Print

Jan,

> I do have the latest Cone plug-in and the
>banding does occur in the Epson driver, but not as noticeably \ufffd I
>assume because of the difference in dpi.

It may be the same thing, but I think it is the dither pattern difference.
I think Epson is ahead on the issue of a dither that hides the defects yet
preserves the sharpness.  However, Piezo has the advantage of smaller dots.

>I'm relieved that no one thinks it is because of the loss of all the
>pizza-cutter wheels.

I've actually not taken mine off yet.  I've noticed the marks on only one
print so far.  I may yet remove them.

>... what can be done about crummy transport?

The archives of the Piezo group leave one with the impression that if you
get a bad machine there is little that can be done by the user.  On the
other hand, a good machine may stay that way for years.

Of course, the most objective test is to see whether a 20 inch long print is
actually that length.  If not, the stepper motor may need replacing.

I concluded that front feeding paper that was within the machine's
paper-thickness design tolerances was the safe thing to do.  So, I use EAM,
and I front feed the paper to have the maximum contact between the paper and
the roller.  Many users, however, say thick paper is fine and back feeding
is fine.  There are clearly a lot of factors.

I also cut my paper from a roll to be 24" long instead of 22".  I noticed
that the last couple of inches were prone to banding with 22" EAM (and 20"
image).  The extra 2" gives the transport mechanism that much more paper to
get a grip on.  It works and is evidence that having as much contact with
the roller as possible is one of the factors.

I also always pre-feed the paper with the button on the front of the 3000,
so that when I go to print it will be properly fed.  With the "Load/eject"
button and a mark I've put on the feed tray where the back end of the paper
is supposed to be, I can eject the paper and start over if it is not
perfectly started.  I even seem to be able to get rid of any skew by
physically straightening the paper as it just starts to feed.  And if its
not perfect -- eject and do it again.  This saves a lot of frustration and
wasted printing time.

Good luck.  The old 3000 is a bit of a clunker, but I love the results I get
with the Epson driver and the MIS VM inks.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com