Digital BW, The Print

Hello everyone,
 I just posted this under the subject Idle Printer Syndrom but as 
that is somewhat obscure I renamed it. I see a lot of posts about 
having trouble reinitializing a printer 
after it's been idle for awhile so I thought I would add my two cents 
worth in hopes that it will help. Anyone new to this art should be 
FYI'd. 
All the inks currently made and used for the Epson printers 
contain anywhere from 50% to 85% water, a cosolvent, and of course 
the a pigment and/or dye (they contain a lot of other stuff to but 
they aren't relevant to this topic). A good ink jet ink is designed 
to behave very differently at different stages of its life cycle. 
THIS IS WHERE MOST STARTUP ISSUES ARE COMING FROM: When the ink exits 
the print head and makes contact with a paper it's designed to 
rapidly alter it's behavior from a stable suspension of extremly fine 
particles (<1 micron) to a thick gooey film in the space of 
microseconds to several seconds. It does this by allowing the 
water/cosolvent system to rapidly soak into the paper leaving the 
pigment behind. When this happens on the paper it's great. If it 
happens in your print head it's not so great. It causes the dreaded 
clogs, and some other issues that would make you turn green just 
thinking about.The more pigment in the ink the faster the ink/pigment 
sysem reaches saturation and clogs.
Avoiding the problem is simple. Keep the ink from drying out in 
the printhead. This can be accomplished several ways. Most of which 
people here have discovered and suggested. DO this BEFORE you leave 
your printer idle.
1. Remove the ink from the heads and replace with flush or OEM 
cartridges. The oem are dye based and carry a lot of glycerine/deg in 
them so they stay liquid much longer.
2. Store your printer in a humidity controlled room-not really 
feasable and I don't have a recommeded min/max humidity, sorry.
3. Prime or print often. It can't dry out in the head if it's on 
the paper.
4. Some CIS users have also run into this problem. Especially in 
the two darkest inks. The problem here is that water will evaporate 
right through the tubing leaving the cosolvents and pigments behind 
to start the film cascade that's supposed to happen on the paper. The 
dryer climate the CIS/printer system is in the faster this will 
happen. If your going to store your printer for long time remove the 
inks from the tubing.
I hope this helps and if anyone would like to add something 
please let me know.

Jeff

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "iwasnvrhere" 
<iwasnvrhere@y...> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
<snip>

Excellent post, you're reading my mind. I'll add a couple of 
thoughts...


> 2. Store your printer in a humidity controlled room-not really 
> feasable and I don't have a recommeded min/max humidity, sorry.


The humidity where I am is about 20%-25% in winter and about 35%-50% 
in summer. I added a warm mist humidifier, made by Slant/Fin. This is 
one of the few models that has a UV germicidal light to kill bacteria. 
I set it so the two hygrometers in the room average 38-44%RH and I run 
a draft quick 20 second purge print twice a day. If the humidity goes 
below 40%, it tends to have more bad nozzle checks. If below 35%RH, it 
gets much worse. Now that spring is here, my clogging issues are 
dissapearing, and my printer works much better. It seems to prefer 
"natural" humidity to humidifier generated RH.

> 3. Prime or print often. It can't dry out in the head if it's on 
> the paper.

I find I actually SAVE ink by running my two purge prints/day, as I 
don't have to do nearly as many cleaning cycles.

> 4. Some CIS users have also run into this problem. Especially in 
> the two darkest inks. The problem here is that water will evaporate 
> right through the tubing leaving the cosolvents and pigments behind 
> to start the film cascade that's supposed to happen on the paper. 
The 
> dryer climate the CIS/printer system is in the faster this will 
> happen. If your going to store your printer for long time remove the 
> inks from the tubing.

This is why I'm leaning towards a MIS CFS system, after experiences 
with two nomorecarts systems. Not because the tubing is more or less 
permeable, but because it's so cheap, I can throw it away with every 
set of bottles I buy. It only costs $35 to replace the cart/tubing, 
$25 if you assemble it yourself from parts. So I'm figuring a four 
month duty for each CFS, then toss it all out.
Jim H.

> I hope this helps and if anyone would like to add something 
> please let me know.
> 
> Jeff

Anyone new or having idle printer clogs should read this! 
Thanks for the excellent input Jim. RH of 45+% sounds like it would 
keep most people printing without too many problems. I'm surprised 
suppliers aren't providing help tips along this line when they ship 
supplies. Or at least on the websites. But I guess that's one or the 
reasons why this group exists :) It would be nice to have an program 
that automatically ran a small maintenance print everyday. Maybe 
these Epson printers prefer "Organic" humidity :)

Thanks, 
Jeff     

> > Hello everyone,
> 
> Excellent post, you're reading my mind. I'll add a couple of 
> thoughts...
> 
> 
> > 2. Store your printer in a humidity controlled room-not really 
> > feasable and I don't have a recommeded min/max humidity, sorry.
> 
> 
> The humidity where I am is about 20%-25% in winter and about 35%-
50% 
> in summer. I added a warm mist humidifier, made by Slant/Fin. This 
is 
> one of the few models that has a UV germicidal light to kill 
bacteria. 
> I set it so the two hygrometers in the room average 38-44%RH and I 
run 
> a draft quick 20 second purge print twice a day. If the humidity 
goes 
> below 40%, it tends to have more bad nozzle checks. If below 35%RH, 
it 
> gets much worse. Now that spring is here, my clogging issues are 
> dissapearing, and my printer works much better. It seems to prefer 
> "natural" humidity to humidifier generated RH.
> 
> > 3. Prime or print often. It can't dry out in the head if it's on 
> > the paper.
> 
> I find I actually SAVE ink by running my two purge prints/day, as I 
> don't have to do nearly as many cleaning cycles.
> 
> > 4. Some CIS users have also run into this problem. Especially in 
> > the two darkest inks. The problem here is that water will 
evaporate 
> > right through the tubing leaving the cosolvents and pigments 
behind 
> > to start the film cascade that's supposed to happen on the paper. 
> The 
> > dryer climate the CIS/printer system is in the faster this will 
> > happen. If your going to store your printer for long time remove 
the 
> > inks from the tubing.
> 
> This is why I'm leaning towards a MIS CFS system, after experiences 
> with two nomorecarts systems. Not because the tubing is more or 
less 
> permeable, but because it's so cheap, I can throw it away with 
every 

> set of bottles I buy. It only costs $35 to replace the cart/tubing, 
> $25 if you assemble it yourself from parts. So I'm figuring a four 
> month duty for each CFS, then toss it all out.
> Jim H.
> 
> > I hope this helps and if anyone would like to add something 
> > please let me know.
> > 
> > Jeff

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "iwasnvrhere" 
<iwasnvrhere@y...> wrote:
>  Anyone new or having idle printer clogs should read this! 
> Thanks for the excellent input Jim. RH of 45+% sounds like it would 
> keep most people printing without too many problems. I'm surprised 
> suppliers aren't providing help tips along this line when they ship 
> supplies.

Actually, on the sales brochere for the 1160 (yes I kept one!) Epson 
states a minimum RH operating of 20%RH, but I think they are pushing 
it. Can't find the spec in the manual anywhere. I think I read 
somewhere that 1280 is similar.

Diana York was recomemnding at minimum 50% RH quite some time ago. I 
store film negs and gelatin photos in same room unfortunately, so I 
try to keep under 50%RH. But it really does get dramatically worse as 
you go from 40% down to 35%Rh, as near as I can tell running two 
prints a day for the last three months.

 Or at least on the websites. But I guess that's one or the 
> reasons why this group exists :) It would be nice to have an program 
> that automatically ran a small maintenance print everyday.

I would really like to see this!! For windows in my case. I'd just 
load up Epson carts, purge it a bit, make sure the UPS is charged up 
and leave the 'puter on for vacation. Have the printer run a selected 
file (MIS purge print) followed by a nozzle check and maybe date/time 
printed.

Can anyone out there write this? 


 Maybe 
> these Epson printers prefer "Organic" humidity :)


I don't understand what's happening at all. You'd think it would be 
the same as using a humidifier. Maybe I'm not observing it properly. 
Or maybe the water is more evenly dispersed in "natural" humidity, if 
there is such a thing<g>.
Jim H.

> 
> Thanks, 
> Jeff     
>

I'm not sure if anyone else noticed this, but I find that if I get a 
clog with my 1160, I run one cleaning cycle, one test (which is still 
bad) and then let it sit for several hours it comes back on its own 
while if I keep cleaning it never comes back...

may be worth trying.

mark

Hey Jim I didn't write one but I did manage to find one. It's 
called Macro Magic from Iolo. It's been running great but htis is day 
one, I'm going to let it run over the weekend and see what happens. 
You can download a free trial at Iolo's website. It's pretty easy to 
set up. I just followed the help intructions and made a recording of 
myself initiating a print in photoshop. A single user copy is $40-not 
bad. 

http://www.iolo.com/order/default.htm

Jeff

 It would be nice to have an program 
> > that automatically ran a small maintenance print everyday.
> 
> I would really like to see this!! For windows in my case. I'd just 
> load up Epson carts, purge it a bit, make sure the UPS is charged 
up 
> and leave the 'puter on for vacation. Have the printer run a 
selected 
> file (MIS purge print) followed by a nozzle check and maybe 
date/time 
> printed.
> 
> Can anyone out there write this? 
> 
> 
>  Maybe 
> > these Epson printers prefer "Organic" humidity :)
> 
> 
> I don't understand what's happening at all. You'd think it would be 
> the same as using a humidifier. Maybe I'm not observing it 
properly. 
> Or maybe the water is more evenly dispersed in "natural" humidity, 
if 

> there is such a thing<g>.
> Jim H.
> 
> > 
> > Thanks, 
> > Jeff     
> >