Digital BW, The Print

Oh dear, the thing i worried about the most has happened with my 1160 with
MIS CFS installed. Last time I printed was about 2 weeks ago, then when i
tried printing tonight, the black has stopped printing, i tried a few
cleaning cycles and nozzle checks to no avail, it seems that the black ink
simply isnt passing through the tube, what could be wrong? the vacuum has
been compromised??

What should I do next?

Kevin,

look up theFAQ pages at InkjetMall for very useful tips. 

The vacuum may have been compromised _if_  you moved the CIS head, 
otherwise the most likely thing is the head needs a good cleaning, including 
from underneath (wet lintless towel soaked in Windex or Fantastic, raise the 
lever to +, release and roll the head over, lower lever, run back and forth 
manually, change towel, repeat as needed).

You may also be "passing" a bubble. A few clening cycles and let it sit 
overnight might help.

Good luck.



Antonis


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Kevin" <imaginaryapple@i...> 
wrote:

> Oh dear, the thing i worried about the most has happened with my 1160 with
> MIS CFS installed. Last time I printed was about 2 weeks ago, then when i
> tried printing tonight, the black has stopped printing, i tried a few
> cleaning cycles and nozzle checks to no avail, it seems that the black ink
> simply isnt passing through the tube, what could be wrong? the vacuum has
> been compromised??
> 
> What should I do next?

Kevin,

look up theFAQ pages at InkjetMall for very useful tips. 

The vacuum may have been compromised _if_  you moved the CIS head, 
otherwise the most likely thing is the head needs a good cleaning, including 
from underneath (wet lintless towel soaked in Windex or Fantastic, raise the 
lever to +, release and roll the head over, lower lever, run back and forth 
manually, change towel, repeat as needed).

You may also be "passing" a bubble. A few clening cycles and let it sit 
overnight might help.

Good luck.



Antonis


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Kevin" <imaginaryapple@i...> 
wrote:

> Oh dear, the thing i worried about the most has happened with my 1160 with
> MIS CFS installed. Last time I printed was about 2 weeks ago, then when i
> tried printing tonight, the black has stopped printing, i tried a few
> cleaning cycles and nozzle checks to no avail, it seems that the black ink
> simply isnt passing through the tube, what could be wrong? the vacuum has
> been compromised??
> 
> What should I do next?

At 09:54 AM 10/19/2002, you wrote:
>Oh dear, the thing i worried about the most has happened with my 1160 with
>MIS CFS installed. Last time I printed was about 2 weeks ago, then when i
>tried printing tonight, the black has stopped printing, i tried a few
>cleaning cycles and nozzle checks to no avail, it seems that the black ink
>simply isnt passing through the tube, what could be wrong? the vacuum has
>been compromised??
>
>What should I do next?

I had this happen once. Try following the recovery procedure on the MIS 
website. Basically, you remove the cartridge and use a syringe to suck ink 
through the bottom of the cartridge, then empty the syringe back into the 
bottle. After I did this for a few syringe's worth of ink, I started 
getting flow on my nozzle checks. Then a few cleaning cycles later I was 
printing perfectly.

I just recently returned from a 2.5 week trip to find that my 1280 with Gen 
5 inks and Niagara CIS printed a perfect nozzle check the first time and 
the 1270 with the MIS-VM inks and CFS required one cleaning cycle to print 
a perfect nozzle check. I live in Orem, Utah, and we're in the midst of a 
four-year drought, so I'm not sure that low humidity has much to do with 
failures in continuous inking systems. Or, then again, maybe I'm just lucky.

Stan

================================
Photography by Stan McQueen
http://www.smcqueen.com

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., Stan McQueen <stan@s...> 
wrote:
> At 09:54 AM 10/19/2002, you wrote:
> >Oh dear, the thing i worried about the most has happened with my 
1160 with
> >MIS CFS installed. Last time I printed was about 2 weeks ago, then 
when i

 Basically, you remove the cartridge and use a syringe to 
suck ink 
> through the bottom of the cartridge, then empty the syringe back 
into the 
> bottle. After I did this for a few syringe's worth of ink, I started 
> getting flow on my nozzle checks. Then a few cleaning cycles later I 
was 
> printing perfectly.

I wouldn't do this first though it is a nice trick. You need to 
rescue the head first. Put OEM Epson carts in and try to clear the 
pattern by running purge patterns. If after a couple days of this it 
doesn't clear, you can try direct injecting something into the head, I 
try to avoid it myself. Only then can you think of reinstalling CFS. 
If I were you, since it only costs $40, I would just buy a new set of 
tubing/carts and start over rather than risk skipping the nozzles 
again once you've cleared the head with Epson ink. 

> 
> I just recently returned from a 2.5 week trip to find that my 1280 
with Gen 
> 5 inks and Niagara CIS printed a perfect nozzle check the first time 
and 
> the 1270 with the MIS-VM inks and CFS required one cleaning cycle to 
print 
> a perfect nozzle check. I live in Orem, Utah, and we're in the midst 
of a 
> four-year drought, so I'm not sure that low humidity has much to do 
with 
> failures in continuous inking systems. Or, then again, maybe I'm 
just lucky.

No, can't be, can't be...can't be. And I live in Colorado, just one 
state over. I've been tracking humidity/temperature EVERY 12 hours for 
almost ten months now and correlating it with how well the nozzle 
clears EACH and every 12 hours. Anything below 35% is risky. Of course 
I wouldn't panic at 34%, I would just tweak the humidifier up a notch. 
I once left a printer off for three weeks with MIS inks at 20%RH and 
it killed it. Nada. No more..

40%RH is better as a minimum. And below 72 degrees f is good too. 
above 77 degrees f is hard to clear.

And now when I check a step wedge printed using a CFS for only 2 1/2 
months it no longer matches a "control" I printed before CFS install, 
but you have to view it under a nice sharp Ott-lite. More mottling at 
100%k.

If I leave my 1280 off for more than a day or two, clogs are harder to 
clear. I used to leave my 1160's off for weeks, but I already told you 
the fate of one of them.

Or perhaps there is more to individual printer head discrepancies as 
Martin believes...
Jim H.

> 
> Stan
> 
> ================================
> Photography by Stan McQueen
> http://www.smcqueen.com