Digital BW, The Print

Several months ago, when Roy Harrington's QTR first became available 
for Windows XP users, I converted my Epson 1280 to B&W only using 
QTR with Steve Billard's QTRgui and the MIS UT-2 inkset carts. I 
couldn't have been more pleased with the results. The only drawback 
was the relatively high cost of the ink carts which I was willing to 
put up with because I don't do the kind of volume printing needed to 
justify a CIS set up. But then I began to run into problems with the 
UT-2 carts. At first I thought I was having clogging problems 
because I couldn't get a decent nozzle pattern no matter what I did. 
It didn't occur to me that I was out of ink after printing only 2 or 
3 A3 prints, especially since the Epson ink monitor indicated there 
was plenty of ink remaining in the carts. Nevertheless, when I 
changed carts everything worked fine again. Perfect nozzle patterns 
and perfect prints, but only for 2 or 3 A3's again. When I 
telephoned MIS about my problem they were very cooperative and 
accomodating and admitted they had a quality control problem with 
their supplier of UT-2 carts. Then without my asking they offered to 
send 2 sets of replacement carts at no cost to me. I thought that 
was quite fair of them, and after a brief wait I was off and 
printing again, However, I'm sorry to have to say that it was only a 
short time before I was having the same problem again only worse in 
that I developed a real clogging problem this time in the yellow ink 
position. Using flushing carts and many head cleaning cycles I 
finally have the 1280 working perfectly again, but I had to return 
it to a color printer using Epson OEM ink to reach that point. My 
next move for B&W printing is going to be to an Epson 2200 using 
QTR, QTRgui and Epson UC ink. I'm really sorry to have to give up on 
the 1280 and the UT-2 inks because when that combination with QTR  
works, it can't be beat for B&W printing. Has anyone else had 
similar QC problems with the UT-2 inkset?

Donald Johnson