Digital BW, The Print

I am using an Epson 1410 (an Aussie 1400) with a glossy inkset similar to UT14. My paper of choice is Ilford Gold Silk and it prints beautifully.

Except; there is a half-inch vertical strip near the left hand side of the page where the ink has a ripple pattern in it. It's faint, but now I have seen it I can't ignore it! Where the paper feeds into the printer there is a big rubber wheel that has a matching ripple pattern across it's surface. The printer is brand new and the roller only touches the paper before the ink. While there is no visible damage to the paper surface, it is enough to disturb the MIS inks.

I was wondering if anyone else has had this trouble using this printer/paper/ink combination and how I might go about eliminating it. I tried rubbing the roller gently with a damp cloth and feeding some thick paper through to try and clean it, but have not had any luck.

Cheers,
Nigel.

"nigglefish" <nigglefish@...> wrote:
>
> ... Epson 1410 (an Aussie 1400) with a glossy inkset similar to UT14. My paper of choice is Ilford Gold Silk ...
> 
> ... there is a half-inch vertical strip near the left hand side of the page where the ink has a ripple pattern in it. ... Where the paper feeds into the printer there is a big rubber wheel that has a matching ripple pattern across it's surface. ...

I don't have a good answer for you.  The various rollers that touch the paper are a problem on all Epson desktop printers (and wide format to a lesser extent), as far as I know.  

In addition to the paper and ink variables, the nature of the image in the critical spots affects the visibility of the artifacts.  Where it's a visible problem on a particular print try rotating the image 180 degrees to see if that helps hide it.

(Of course, my general view is that pigments on glossy paper are prone to way too many artifacts, thus the work with dyes.)

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

Thanks for the advice Paul; I might follow your lead (again) in my next setup. 

I know all about those rollers. I have fought with them for years on my A4 printer (you're probably sick of hearing about it). I'm happy avoid that big rubber roller by not printing on the far left at all. I should be able to print a clean A3 with a small border on an A3+ sheet. I've already sacrificed the bottom of the page by removing most of the ejection rollers. But if I could clean, remove or otherwise disable it I'd be even happeir.