The small one is the Sony photo printer I wrote about a couple months ago.
The medium one is my faithful HP LaserJet 1200.
And the big one is the Epson Stylus Pro 4800. It's a monster, and built to professional specifications, so it takes a large man to even lift it.
It makes wonderful prints, and in pigment inks, archival quality.
The only problem I have with it is that sometimes I don't use it for a couple of months, and then it starts putting black smudges on the prints. Cleaning the heads is only partially helpful. I hear it's often a problem with Epson printers, they don't handle idle time well. I'm trying to find a solution for it.
Here are the prints from yesterday:
(I put the Nikon F2 in the pictures for scale.)
19 comments:
Wow! That's about as perfect of an answer to a casual question anyone could hope for. If only our whole society worked this way. :-)
I have used an Epson Stylus Pro 9600 (same technology but for even bigger prints) and absolutely love the print quality!
I am aware of the clogging problem. Some 9600 owners install the printer in a special room with a humidifier. This supposedly helps. Another suggestion: Batch your printings as much as possible, and clean the heads immediately after use.
*After* use?
I'd think they would be cleanest just after use. But maybe I don't understand how print heads work.
I have an Epson Stylus Photo R1800 or some such. It is big enough to create posters but I'm always running out of ink. I've never had a clogging problem and I go months without printing on this baby. I usually use my wife's printer because she uses it almost daily and it is always ready. Ah, the joys of a networked house. :o)
The clots happen when ink dries at the head of the nozzle. Basically in those parts that are in contact with air. When you clean the heads it supposedly removes extra residue ink so there's nothing to dry up.
My friend's 9600's print head clogged up so badly that not even an Epson maintenance engineer could open it up. They had to change the whole print head assembly. Luckily the printer was still under warranty. Else that would have been a very expense exercise.
One more tip: Make sure your printer is nowhere near direct sunlight.
Thank you very much.
Four A2 prints? Man, you were not kidding, that IS a big table you have.
"But maybe I don't understand how print heads work."
I wish I understood how a woman's head works.
They work largely the same way.
"Four A2 prints? Man, you were not kidding, that IS a big table you have."
I think he must be tricking us with some miniature Nikon F2 to make his prints look more impressive. I almost fell for that one. l-)
Damn, and here I whittled the small table and the tiny camera and hand-painted it, all for nothing. Anybody want to buy them?
I've had a similar and very stubborn problem with my printer, after a long idle period. Herer are, by order of priority, the tricks that DO work:
1- A small test print is the first and simplest way to lightly clean your printing heads. The "clean print heads" on your computer does this automatically. A good habit to take.
2- Cleaning the print head by wiping it with a kleen cleanex. The aim is to remove the dried ink, and any excess non-dry ink, eventually amalgamated with dust fibers that smudge the printing.
You'll know you're rid of dried ink if by gently dabbing the printing head, ink appears to come out from the hole line of wholes (or the other way round).
Don't do like my blonde cousin, who kept wiping the tip of her fountain pen "because there was still ink coming out"! Only excess or dried ink is a problem.
While you're with your printer dissected on the operating table, check and clean any visible dirt'dust bunnies in the other parts. I once cleaned my cartridge perfectly, and a minute later it looked like a beatnik's head from going near the wrong place.
3- Pharmacy alcohol. On a piece of cotton or paper tissue again. It can displace deep dried ink that won't wipe off.
4- Getting desperate? I can relate, been there. If all else fails, and like me it seems that only 5 to 10% of the required ink is reaching the paper, try this. (Note: dried ink may also cause it to accumulate in blobs over the printing head. So smudges are compatible with died ink just like faded prints.)
Boiling water. Yes, really. I'm not mad, use it adequately and it'll work miracles on desperately stubborn cartridges that still contain liquid ink inside. Here's how you do it:
Boil some water. Pour it in, say, a clean empty ashtray (not glass, or it'll instantly pop) or a tea saucer. Hold the removed ink cartridge, being careful not to put your fingerprints on the golden contacts (otherwise you'll have to wipe them clean too, see section 3), and dip the part with the printing head in the hot water. Dip again and again, and shake it a little in the water. This displaces the toughest clogs. After a while, you'll probably see a tiny cloud of liquid ink coming out from the printing head, telling you it's really-really working. Oh frabjous day!
Then dry the wet bit of the cartridge on a tissue. Do the dabbing test to czech that ink is coming out okay (see 2nd section). Then reassemble and do a test print. In case of only partial results, return to your hot water. I've never had to do it more than three times in a row.
I've used method #4 several times on a cartridge that was getting old, and it seems to have absolutely zero adverse effect on the material. However, if you're reckless enough to dip while the water's still on the fire, I don't know you and we've never met.
Good luck, Jim. Unlike the typical message, this one won't self-destruct anytime soon.
It's one of the reasons why I stopped using ink based printers years ago. I don't print photos all that often, which is another reason why I haven't bought one. I don't necessarily care for having photos printed at a store, however, as I have seen them crop and mess up a couple of my photos.
Ahh printers.
I had an Epson inkjet because it was one of the few with AppleTalk AND centronics, so it would talk to our Mac and our PC.
Trouble is, the Epson stopped cleaning its heads. I finally replaced it with a HP inkjet, now USB and centronics.
On trash amnesty day I cleaned out the garage and racked up all the batteries and flourescent tubes and old PCs, CRTs etc that they don't take in the garbage. I decided to strip the Epson down - never know when some stepper motors will come in handy...
What did I find when I finally got to the bottom? The foam pad for soaking up the ink from the cleaning process, and the pump that sucked the ink down from the heads - this is where the blockage was. The printer could not create low pressure because the drain was blocked.
HP's have heads built into the cartridges. Epson have fixed heads. So just refill the HP cartridge 2-4 times, then when it gets too bad, just toss the unit.
Out of my printers, my favourite was my Kodak "Easyshare Dock", it's a die sublimation printer, and makes the most wonderful glossy 4*6's you could wish for. trouble is, the paper tray got messed up, and now you basically have to hand tractor the paper to the bite point.
As for A sized paper? What's so great about a paper size which is half or double that of its neighbout? A4 is two A5's, A2 is 1/4 an A0. Moving to America I found the sizes of Letter, Ledger, Legal, Notecard, Post Card etc to be so much easier, especially for enlarging and scaling. And if I run out of A4, instead of having to fold a sheet of A3, I just grab a sheet of Ledger and trim it on the paper cutter!
You can tell I like Americans ;-) Bless their fluffy little heads. At least their coinage was always decimal.
This is what Epson tells me after a bit of dialogue:
"Because when you print a nozzle check, the gaps move around, it suggests contamination of the capping assembly, probably with paper dust. This would require a service to resolve. A popular option with our customers is a fixed price for repair, this is one price you pay with no hidden costs for an engineer to attend site and repair your unit. This repair is covered under warranty for three months. This service would exclude the replacement of any consumables. The price today is £293.99 ex VAT."
$500. I bet it is not *that* popular an option...
My mum committed to a washing machine maintenance contract, the annual fee is about the same as 2 callouts, no parts no labour. For the price of the contract you get 5 callouts and all parts.
That one actually paid for itself over the 10 years we had the machine.
Hmm, consumer grade printers cost about $80-$120. Two ink cartridges cost about $50. Repair cost $200. Printers in the US are a mechanism for selling ink, and have no inherent value. Like a cheap retractable that you can buy refills for, but why bother.
Eolake, I read that Epson statement several times but can't understand what it says.
I studied the device (the 9600 model) back in 2003 when I was hoping to buy one for myself. When it became clear that I couldn't afford it (price was around €8,000 at the time) I lost interest.
If you still have problems with your 4800, I recommend visiting the Epson user forum(s). It's been years now since the device was introduced so there must be a lot of collective wisdom available.
"Bless their fluffy little heads. At least their coinage was always decimal."
Bah, you Muggles just like decimal money because you can't be bothered to convert knuts and sickles. The truth is, you're weak at maths. Now me, in all modesty, I'm a true wizard.
And I'm not too keen on Fluffy heads either. Not after the tree heads of Hagrid's monster dog! (shivers) Believe me, they were NOT little at all!
Allright, Hermione, now how do I send this in your Alec Tranick network? Where's the "Floo" key to press?
Actually, Mr Weasley, it is not my network. Al Gore clearly stated 7 years ago that the Internet was HIS invention.
A lot of photographers wonder why they might want to spring for a Stylus Pro printer rather than a Stylus Photo; the 4800 rather than the 2400, for example. The reasons are many. Firstly, they are capable of handling paper up to 17" in width rather than 13". Secondly, they are able to take 110ML and 220ML ink cartridges, which are vastly larger than the ones that can be used in the Photo series of printers, thus reducing ink costs and also the frequency of cartridge changes.
But, one aspect that one doesn't see mentioned often, is that the Pro series, such as the new 4800, 7800 and 9800 printers, are made in a very different manner than the 2400 and other Photo series printers. The difference is that the Photo printers are mass produced on an assembly line basis. Manufacturing tolerances are high, and consistency is quite good, but that's all that one can hope for.
In the case of the 4800 and other Pro series Epson printers I am told that each printer is essentially built and tested by hand, by one individual. Each printer is then linearized, and this data is burned into a ROM for that printer. This produces a printer with a much higher degree of consistency and linearity. So, as with most things in life, you get what you pay for.
Post a Comment