Digital BW, The Print

I am quite new to inkjet printing and I am not sure whether my
problem is what you would call banding. 

Anyway, on all my prints, in the same position, I get a "white"
hair-thin line running virtical from top to bottom. Its position 
is the same regardless of the print (ie the same distance from 
the left edge of the paper) which leads me to  believe that 
something in the printer is scratching my prints as they move 
through the printer. I say scratch because there doesn't seem 
to be any ink on  this very fine line. It can only be seen if the 
light hits the print at a certain angle.

I did an alignment check, nozzle check and cleaning, cleaned the
rollers with  windex and air brushed them afterwards. This has 
had no effect. I have tried several adjustments of the paper 
thickness lever, no results either.

Is this a form of banding? I  would very much appreciate any help or
advice you could give me. I forgot to mention that I am printing on 
a 1290 with generation 4 color inks.

Thanks

Jeff Hargrove

Hi Jeff;

What we refer to as 'banding'is gapping in the ink spray due to 
clogged nozzles, air bubbles in the head, or sometimes a very badly 
misaligned head. It is always in the direction of travel of the 
head. A vertical scratch like you describe is likely a rough edge 
somewhere, or something stuck to the bottom of the roller arm 
assembly, or perhaps a 'pizza wheel' that isn't turning. Run a piece 
of paper through and watch the star-shaped wheels in the area of the 
scratch to verify that they are rotating. One question: you aren't 
by chance feeding the paper in horizontally, so that the 'left edge' 
actually is the last strip to get printed before exiting the 
printer? Dumb question, but often if there is not enough margin on 
that last strip to hold it down while being printed, it pops up when 
it leaves the last set of rear rollers, and the head itself can 
scratch it. Happens mostly with small pieces of stiff paper.

Hope some of this helps.

Steve Karafyllakis

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Jeff Hargrove 
<jeff@j...>" <jeff@j...> wrote:
> I am quite new to inkjet printing and I am not sure whether my
> problem is what you would call banding. 
> 
> Anyway, on all my prints, in the same position, I get a "white"
> hair-thin line running virtical from top to bottom. Its position 
> is the same regardless of the print (ie the same distance from 
> the left edge of the paper) which leads me to  believe that 
> something in the printer is scratching my prints as they move 
> through the printer. I say scratch because there doesn't seem 
> to be any ink on  this very fine line. It can only be seen if the 
> light hits the print at a certain angle.
> 
> I did an alignment check, nozzle check and cleaning, cleaned the
> rollers with  windex and air brushed them afterwards. This has 
> had no effect. I have tried several adjustments of the paper 
> thickness lever, no results either.
> 
> Is this a form of banding? I  would very much appreciate any help 
or
> advice you could give me. I forgot to mention that I am printing 
on 

> a 1290 with generation 4 color inks.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Jeff Hargrove

Thanks for all your help Steve, David and Jerry. I didn't get back to 
you right away as I was under the weather yesterday.

I checked the pizza wheels, and they all are turing fine. I am 
inserting the paper vertically. And just before doing the other tests 
you recommended, an email from jnhugo stated that Legion Photo Matte 
8.5x11 has fine lines running through its printing side. It is in fact 
the paper I am using to do a lot of experimenting. I checked the 
surface and indeed there are fine lines running through the surface and 
even some kind of scrapping, it seems. This is a production problem, 
not a printer problem. I did a check on some photo rag and there are no 
lines at all. I am relieved to know that I don't have to return my 
printer to epson! And I also learned something: I was assuming the 
paper out of the box was good and didn't even think to check the 
surface. If I had I would have saved myself a lot time and frustration!

Thanks again!

Jeff


jeff hargrove
photography
http://www.jeffhargrove.net


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

You know, it never occurred to me that the paper itself might be
defective.  Glad to learn this, it 
could come in real handy someday.

Jerry

Jeff Hargrove wrote:

> 
> Thanks for all your help Steve, David and Jerry. I didn't get back to
> you right away as I was under the weather yesterday.
> 
> I checked the pizza wheels, and they all are turing fine. I am
> inserting the paper vertically. And just before doing the other tests
> you recommended, an email from jnhugo stated that Legion Photo Matte
> 8.5x11 has fine lines running through its printing side. It is in fact
> the paper I am using to do a lot of experimenting. I checked the
> surface and indeed there are fine lines running through the surface and
> even some kind of scrapping, it seems. This is a production problem,
> not a printer problem. I did a check on some photo rag and there are no
> lines at all. I am relieved to know that I don't have to return my
> printer to epson! And I also learned something: I was assuming the
> paper out of the box was good and didn't even think to check the
> surface. If I had I would have saved myself a lot time and frustration!
> 
> Thanks again!
> 
> Jeff
> 
> jeff hargrove
> photography
> http://www.jeffhargrove.net
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> 
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