Digital BW, The Print

And the winner is ... dirty/oily feed roller! The confusing part was that the paper sometimes fed ok but thicker paper generated a "paper out"/"double feed" error. This made me think that the problem was a paper thickness sensor and hence a problem in the Linux driver. Turns out that the thicker paper just caused a slight skip at the start of the feed because the roller was slipping. The printer translated the skip into a "double feed" error. My guess is that the roller was contaminated with oil (this was a new/refurbished printer) because once cleaned with ALCOHOL (see below) the errors stopped.

I found an Epson 1400 service manual that recommended an industrial strength method for cleaning the feed roller. They suggest attaching a piece of cloth to an index card (I used staples), dampen the card with alcohol (I used 80% ethanol but 70% rubbing alcohol would probably work), hold the cloth/card in front of the feed roller and press the paper button (hold on tight!). I did this several times. The windex-dampened paper method might have worked as well but I think alcohol has a better chance of dissolving oil/grease.

Thanks again for everyone's help, I'm back in business.


Jack DeAngelis

  
--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Jack DeAngelis <livingwithbugs@...> wrote:
>
> *Sounds like these feed issues are hit or miss to some extent. Thanks to
> all that responded and I'll certainly post a follow up if I learn anything
> new. At this point the culprits are (1) dirty feed roller; (2) Linux/Wine
> issues - no access to the "envelope" setting from Linux; and (3)
> differences in paper thickness/surface texture. Can someone confirm that
> there's an "envelope" setting in the Mac Epson driver? I'm considering
> setting up a dedicated Mac printer station to eliminate Linux/Wine from the
> equation. Thanks.
> 
> *
> *Jack
> 
> *
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>