Digital BW, The Print

At work we have a 2200 with Cone neutral K7 inks.  We'd like to replace 
the Cone inks with a good but less expensive option, and we're 
considering Paul's Eboni-6. Would we have to flush the K7 inks from the 
printer, including the parking pad? If so, how do we do this?  In 
addition, we have a large stock of Photo Rag and German Etching.  How 
well does Eboni-6 work with these papers?

Thanks,
Peter

Peter,


> At work we have a 2200 with Cone neutral K7 inks.  
> We'd like to replace the Cone inks with a good but 
> less expensive option, and we're considering Paul's Eboni-6. 

> Would we have to flush the K7 inks from the 
> printer, including the parking pad?

I would recommend flushing.

> If so, how do we do this? 

Basically water will do it.  Windex on the pads is even more effective.

Some wetting agent that is compatible with the inks is good, but who 
really knows what is in these things and what is compatible? 
MIS has a cleaning fluid that they think is compatible with most, but I 
don't really know if they've tested it with Jon's inks.

That's why I mixed the water + glycerol base.  It's the most 
universally compatible fluid with the most or what is needed besides 
the wetting agent.

I actually inject a bit of Windex straight into the head to clean it 
out.  It's great for clogs and probably also for just changing inks.

The 1280 dyes were the only serious incompatibility issue we had, and 
there once the pads were clean there was sufficiently little ink in the 
head to cause much of a problem -- at least so the dogma went.  I 
usually just plugged in the MIS inks and rinsed the pads.  It seemed to 
work.  I'd probably inject a little Windex today. 

> ... we have a large stock of Photo Rag and German Etching.  
> How well does Eboni-6 work with these papers?

See page 8 of http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/Eboni-6.pdf 

Photo Rag (like it's sibllings), has a large warm split tone that is 
not unlike that favored by some very good printers.  Whether you like 
it is subjective.  I personally like the warmth for my people shots 
and "southwestern" types of images.  I prefer a more neutral or cooler 
look for my landscape images, where I think clouds look best cooler.  
For landscapes I prefer Premier Art Smooth BW, Condor BW, Moab Entrada 
BW, and even old Brightcube Eclipse Satine (which is the paper I used 
yesterday to make a 16 x 20" landscape print).

Hope this helps.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

pr_roark wrote:
>
> hope this helps.
>


Absolutely. Thanks!  Regarding injecting windex into the heads, do you 
so this with the needleless plastic syringes using very little 
pressure?  How much Windex, roughly, do you put through?

Thanks again,
Peter

>... Regarding injecting windex into the heads, do you 
> so this with the needleless plastic syringes using very little 
> pressure?  How much Windex, roughly, do you put through?

I have a few syringes with short tubes on the ends of them.  This 
tubing fits -- somewhat -- over the head inlet.  I just use a very 
little and only moderate pressure.

I would have been reluctant to do this at all, but an Epson repair 
person once demonstrated with a head that was not installed, how one 
could simply rinse out the heads in this manner -- though he did not 
use Windex.  It seemed a lot simpler and cheaper than buying a set of 
carts with cleaning fluid. 

Paul  
www.PaulRoark.com