Digital BW, The Print

Hi, 

Perhaps this issue has been addressed in the past, but I'm hoping 
that someone can help me.  I bought a used Epson 1160 a while back.  
I have put MIS Quad VS carts into it.  I would like to install a CIS 
but I need to see if I can solve this problem before investing the 
time and money.  

The printer makes great prints and has perfect nozzel checks.  The 
only problem seems to be that ink keeps getting on the small rollers 
closest to the print head.  I can clean them, but then while making a 
print, more will splatter onto them and they will leave smeared ink 
trails across the paper.  Sometimes this is worse than others, but I 
have never had a perfectly clean print.  Is this symptom indicative 
of a solvable problem?  Any help will be much appreciated.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "jekphoto1" <jim@j...> 
wrote:
> Hi, 
> 

> 
> The printer makes great prints and has perfect nozzel checks.  The 
> only problem seems to be that ink keeps getting on the small rollers 
> closest to the print head.  I can clean them, but then while making 
a 
> print, more will splatter onto them and they will leave smeared ink 
> trails across the paper.  Sometimes this is worse than others, but I 
> have never had a perfectly clean print.  Is this symptom indicative 
> of a solvable problem?  Any help will be much appreciated.

This happened to me on the 1160 and the 1280. On the 1160 it was 
usually due to lint, cat hairs, Q-Tip lint, etc under the head. I 
think Cone details this in his tech FAq's quite well if I remember. 
What I did was to put a green photo-wipe (less lint and stronger then 
paper towel) under the head (send printhead to left and unplug first). 
 Then after it's under head put some drops of cleaner (Fantastik, 
maybe windex although this latter seems to be falling into disfavor 
these days) on the photo-wipe and move head across towel or wipe 
towel back and forth under head. May have to repeat.

You will have ink left in the black plastic tray and on rollers after 
this possibly. I NEVER use Q-tips anymore...they cause lint problems. 
I use foam swabs from Radio shack, $3 for ten part #44-1094. There are 
other swabs out there like for makeup, tape drives, etc.

I guess you should also check the Parking pad to be sure the rim is 
clean and no gobs of old ink are gumming it. Adding a few drop of 
Fantastik to the pad may help with clogs in general. When I got 
blotting though, the paper towel trick was needed. Worth a try, 
anyway...

I've seen some HORrible 1160 refurbs, ones that could never had had 
more than the covers dusted off with a rag. I suspect cleaning the 
heads  in any manner is an option only used rarely by Epson when they 
get ready to sell one of these(?).

On my new 1280, I get localized ink blotting at the end of the 8 1/2 
sheet of paper when I switch from MIS inks to Epson ink carts or back 
without first running two or three cleaning cycles. Why this would be 
I don't know, but I've been able to repeat the problem once, I'm not 
going to try for two. Maybe the Epson ink and MIS ink aren't entirely 
miscible, and a little diluting or "spitting" occurs?
Jim H.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "jekphoto1" <jim@j...> 
wrote:
  The 
> only problem seems to be that ink keeps getting on the small rollers 
> closest to the print head.  



Okay, pardon my last post I may not be reading closely enough this 
morning. It could still need the paper towel trick, but with the ink 
being put down only on those two rollers, I'm going to ask you before 
you go through all those sheninagans to make sure you never do more 
than 2 or 3 max cleanings before you print something. Blobbing up 
those two rollers can happen a lot if you do too many cleaning cycles. 
 Sorry for the double post.
Jim H.

Switching carts back and forth is somewhat suspect...quite easy to 
see how the ink could leak from that...


One thing to ask... do you always turn off the printers with the 
switch on the printer itself? This is important and if you are not, I 
suspect that to be your problem. 

Tom O'Connell


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "jekphoto1" <jim@j...> 
wrote:
> Hi, 
> 
> Perhaps this issue has been addressed in the past, but I'm hoping 
> that someone can help me.  I bought a used Epson 1160 a while 
back.  
> I have put MIS Quad VS carts into it.  I would like to install a 
CIS 
> but I need to see if I can solve this problem before investing the 
> time and money.  
> 
> The printer makes great prints and has perfect nozzel checks.  The 
> only problem seems to be that ink keeps getting on the small 
rollers 
> closest to the print head.  I can clean them, but then while making 
a 
> print, more will splatter onto them and they will leave smeared ink 
> trails across the paper.  Sometimes this is worse than others, but 
I 
> have never had a perfectly clean print.  Is this symptom indicative 
> of a solvable problem?  Any help will be much appreciated.