Digital BW, The Print

Hi all, hope everyone had a great & photogenic Thankgiving!

On my Epson 2200, I'm having a problem printing a 12x18 
image on 13x19 Hahn. Photo Rag 308, which has a slight 
"ski-tip" curl along the edges of the long axis.

The first 17 inches of the print come out perfectly, but
as the printer reaches the last inch, the print head begins 
to catch on the far edge of the paper as it returns to the 
start position for the next pass. Of course, this ruins 
the print, and it can't be good for the print head.

I'm sure the cause is that edge curl, springing up
as the paper nears the end of the feed path--this doesn't
happen on EEM proofs, because the EEM is (a) thin and (b) flat. 
(I'm printing with the paper thickness lever set at the 
"envelope" setting, by the way, to accomodate the thick paper.)

Has anyone else faced a similar problem? Would it help if I
lifted the ejected end of paper for those last couple of 
inches? I could try decurling the paper somehow, I suppose,
though I worry about damaging the coating.

Thanks,
David

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "David
Wroblewski" <dawroblewski@y...> wrote:
>
> Hi all, hope everyone had a great & photogenic Thankgiving!
> 
> On my Epson 2200, I'm having a problem printing a 12x18 
> image on 13x19 Hahn. Photo Rag 308, which has a slight 
> "ski-tip" curl along the edges of the long axis.
> 
> The first 17 inches of the print come out perfectly, but
> as the printer reaches the last inch, the print head begins 
> to catch on the far edge of the paper as it returns to the 
> start position for the next pass. Of course, this ruins 
> the print, and it can't be good for the print head.
> 
> I'm sure the cause is that edge curl, springing up
> as the paper nears the end of the feed path--this doesn't
> happen on EEM proofs, because the EEM is (a) thin and (b) flat. 
> (I'm printing with the paper thickness lever set at the 
> "envelope" setting, by the way, to accomodate the thick paper.)
> 
> Has anyone else faced a similar problem? Would it help if I
> lifted the ejected end of paper for those last couple of 
> inches? I could try decurling the paper somehow, I suppose,
> though I worry about damaging the coating.

Never touch the paper while it's in the last inch. Your problem
happens when the end of the paper disengages from the rear feed and is
free to curl up. Being out from under the rear feed rollers means only
the front feed us there to keep the paper straight, and it's not
adaquate when the machine is pushing a long piece of paper. If you
disturb the paper at this point, you're liable to skew it, resulting
in dark lines (lines of overlapped dots) or light lines (missing dots).

To "decurl" the paper without damaging the finish, take something big
and round (like a 2 foor length of 6 inch PVC drainpipe, the local
hardware or plumbing store will cut you one, cheap, tape a piece of
EEM to it, then place that EEM over your HPR and roll up, so that the
only thing touching the front face of the HPR is the EEM, not the
tube, not your hands.

Thanks Koloshor, you just saved me a boatload of aggravation.

I just ran down to the hardware store and got me a 10 inch
diameter concrete tube form, which should do nicely. :-)

-d

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "koloshor"
<koloshor@y...> wrote:

> 
> Never touch the paper while it's in the last inch. Your problem
> happens when the end of the paper disengages from the rear feed and is
> free to curl up. Being out from under the rear feed rollers means only
> the front feed us there to keep the paper straight, and it's not
> adaquate when the machine is pushing a long piece of paper. If you
> disturb the paper at this point, you're liable to skew it, resulting
> in dark lines (lines of overlapped dots) or light lines (missing dots).
> 
> To "decurl" the paper without damaging the finish, take something big
> and round (like a 2 foor length of 6 inch PVC drainpipe, the local
> hardware or plumbing store will cut you one, cheap, tape a piece of
> EEM to it, then place that EEM over your HPR and roll up, so that the
> only thing touching the front face of the HPR is the EEM, not the
> tube, not your hands.
>