Realigning Epson heads requires a bit of factory-only software (possibly available online, let's not talk about that here) and is a real pain.
I have rescued a -lot- of Epson printers. The only time I removed the heads for cleaning, it was a nightmare.
I don't buy any fancy cleaning things, I don't use a syringe to force liquid through the heads (bad news!). I wrote this up:
http://www.polyphoto.com/tutorials/PrintHeadCleaning/EpsonCleaning.htmlThe Epson 3000 is still going for a lot of money because of the dense ink, the built-in bulk ink system, and because it can print on 17x22 paper or 17 inch wide rolls.
I just cleaned one up that had badly clogged heads, had sat for years. I filled halfway empty cartridges with the cleaning solution as described on the link above, then follow those instructions. The most important part is patience.
Steve Greenfield AE7HD
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, <beefyzee@...> wrote:
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> Thanks Dave,
>
> I agree about non-functional inkjets being just about a throw out item. Thing with this particular model of printer is it seems to get good reports for it's ability to print high density, which is what I want for single sheet photo positives. Just read on a forum yesterday that these old "workhorse" printers print more densly than their newer successors. So I'm mainly wondering if anyone here has had the actual experience too.
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> The guy has two of them and said he'll sell them for $40 each. I might see if he'll do the two for $60.
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> Refurbished models of these seem to be about the $700+ mark, and just general working ones about $250-$300. They still seem to be in demand by people doing silkscreening and photo positive stuff.
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> Keith.
>