Digital BW, The Print

Hi folks,

I've been using UT14 in my 1400 printer for a little while now and the
results are promising. But I have a problem.

I loaded the inks and printed a purge pattern on a scratch sheet of
Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster. That was the first print I did
with them (except for a nozzle check and maybe head alignment, I think -
I don't quite remember). All the bands look great, except for light
magenta: That one started out nice and smooth, and then after a quarter
inch of printing, developed some horizonal banding, which has persisted
in every print since, despited repeated head cleanings.

To illustrate, I took a picture:

http://waspfactory.org/~mike/pics/lines-in-purge.jpg

(Yeah, there are a couple specks on the sensor.)

The squiggly white line there concerns me a bit: I wonder if the print
head scraped something off the paper, and that's what's causing my
problems. But nozzle checks print without any gaps, and head alignments
work fine.

Yesterday I tried the Windex cleaning solution described here:

http://www.digitsmith.com/epson-1400-horizontal-lines-print-11502.html

but that hasn't helped.

Anybody have any suggestions?

-- 
  | Mike Acar |                                | mike at waspfactory dot org |

mike-theprint@... wrote:

> I've been using UT14 in my 1400 printer ... have a problem.
> 
> ... a purge pattern on a ... Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster. >... light magenta: ... started out nice and smooth, and then 
> after a quarter inch of printing, developed some horizonal 
> banding, which has persisted
> in every print since, despited repeated head cleanings.
 
> http://waspfactory.org/~mike/pics/lines-in-purge.jpg  ...

> The squiggly white line there concerns me a bit: ...

Do you have a dog?  That looks like the Retriever hair that wrecks havoc on my printers (though usually not a clog).  Try some bias tape soaked in Windex pulled back and forth under the head.  Also, try to wipe off the wiper blade.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

Isn't bias tape too rough, acts like sandpaper, could damage head,  
leaves fibers?

Mark
http://www.stillrivereditions.com

On Apr 13, 2010, at 11:22 AM, pr_roark wrote:

> Do you have a dog?  That looks like the Retriever hair that wrecks  
> havoc on my printers (though usually not a clog).  Try some bias  
> tape soaked in Windex pulled back and forth under the head.  Also,  
> try to wipe off the wiper blade.
>
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Mark Savoia <mark@...> wrote:
>
> Isn't bias tape too rough, acts like sandpaper, could damage head,  
> leaves fibers?

Good question.  I don't know.  I have not had any problem with fibers.  I probably have not had to do this enough to have damaged a head.  I switched away from paper towels, thinking they had wood fibers in them and would leave debris.  I suppose 100% cotton strips would be the best bet -- not sure if there are any pre-made ones that would work.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com 

> 
> On Apr 13, 2010, at 11:22 AM, pr_roark wrote:
> 
> > Do you have a dog?  That looks like the Retriever hair that wrecks  
> > havoc on my printers (though usually not a clog).  Try some bias  
> > tape soaked in Windex pulled back and forth under the head.  Also,  
> > try to wipe off the wiper blade.
> >
> > Paul
> > www.PaulRoark.com
>

Scanner wipes work great. Lintless.

Mark
http://www.stillrivereditions.com

On Apr 13, 2010, at 1:24 PM, pr_roark wrote:

> Mark Savoia <mark@...> wrote:
>>
>> Isn't bias tape too rough, acts like sandpaper, could damage head,
>> leaves fibers?
>
> Good question.  I don't know.  I have not had any problem with  
> fibers.  I probably have not had to do this enough to have damaged a  
> head.  I switched away from paper towels, thinking they had wood  
> fibers in them and would leave debris.  I suppose 100% cotton strips  
> would be the best bet -- not sure if there are any pre-made ones  
> that would work.
>
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com

On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 03:22:55PM -0000, pr_roark wrote:
> Do you have a dog?  That looks like the Retriever hair that wrecks
> havoc on my printers (though usually not a clog).

Heh, no, I don't. Maybe time for you to set up a clean room? :)

But, point taken.

> Try some bias tape soaked in Windex pulled back and forth under the
> head.  Also, try to wipe off the wiper blade.

Ok. I haven't done any surgery on the printer yet, so I'm not sure how
to identify the wiper blade. Got a reference to a diagram or maybe
video? I did a little Googling but didn't find anything obviously
relevant.

Mark Savoia suggested scanner wipes, which I think I'll try instead.

-- 
  | Mike Acar |                                | mike at waspfactory dot org |