Digital BW, The Print

Hello Folks,

This message is cross posted, so I regret you may find a couple of copies in your mailbox if you are on all three lists.

I have a new 1200 with newly installed PiezoColor CIS.  Unfortunately, after installing the inks and letting them sit overnight and the next day, the nozzle checks revealed 4 ink colors not printing at all.  

I tried several head cleanings with little to no results.  I tried a few drops of Windex on the sponge and let is sit for a little while turned off.  Fired it up and tried nozzle checks again.  Still no printing from 4 inks out of six.  I tried Fantastik on the sponge and several more head cleanings.  Here there was a little improvement.  A few heads printed a few segments, but still 2 colors completely blocked.  

Losing patience...I decided to try something radical. 

I pulled out the carts and took a Q-tip cotton swab and dipped it into isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol).  I carefully swabbed the tip of the "nipple" that stick up into the ink carts. This nipple is in the head unit, not the CIS.  Then I inserted the carts, put a few drops of alcohol on the sponge and did a head cleaning cycle. 

 A minute  later, I got a perfect nozzle check across all six inks!

Now, I don't know if there are any detrimental effects of doing this or using alcohol, so I write this with a warning that this was my experiment that I resorted to when out of patience.  Perhaps others will know of reasons why this should not be done. But I am printing once again and happy.  

Perhaps alcohol is even better than Fantastik?

Regards and Clean Nozzles to all, 

Steadman


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

Steadman,

The alcohol sounds good. I believe from the odor that the solvent in 
the Piezo inks is a glycol or heavy weight alcohol. These tend to get 
sticky as they dry. So a lighter weight alcohol like IPA (or 
Absolut ;-) would make a good cleaner. If you are worried about the 
strength, you could just dilute it with distilled water.

Thanks for the great tip! (Hope I don't need it!)

Martin

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Steadman Uhlich" 
<steadmanuhlich@k...> wrote:

(snip)
> 
> I pulled out the carts and took a Q-tip cotton swab and dipped it 
into isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol).  I carefully swabbed the 
tip of the "nipple" that stick up into the ink carts. This nipple is 
in the head unit, not the CIS.  Then I inserted the carts, put a few 
drops of alcohol on the sponge and did a head cleaning cycle. 
> 
>  A minute  later, I got a perfect nozzle check across all six inks!
> 
> Now, I don't know if there are any detrimental effects of doing 
this or using alcohol, so I write this with a warning that this was 
my experiment that I resorted to when out of patience.  Perhaps 
others will know of reasons why this should not be done. But I am 
printing once again and happy.  

> 
> Perhaps alcohol is even better than Fantastik?
> 
> Regards and Clean Nozzles to all, 
> 
> Steadman
>