Digital BW, The Print

Alan,

I have been using a 1280 for a little over a year.  I switch one 
printer between two different ink sets, UT2 and MISPRO.  I am using 
MIS's spongeless carts.  All I do is switch carts and run one 
cleaning cycle.  There is no trace of the previous ink after one 
cleaning cycle.  I occasionally will have a clogged jet, but if it 
is not cleared by a second cleaning cycle, I let the printer sit 
overnight.  The clog is gone the next morning, indicating that it 
was air in the print head that caused the problem.  This is not 
uncommon when switching carts, although it does not happen that 
often.

The only rule you must remember is that you can't let the printer 
sit unused too long or you will have clogged jets.  My rule is that 
I print at least once a week and I never turn the printer off.  
There was one period of time where the printer sat for about two 
months with no use.  I had a couple of clogged jets that were more 
stubborn to clear, but they eventually did clear.  For those clogs, 
I used a set of carts filled with non-foaming Windex.  I suppose 
head cleaner from MIS or other suppliers would probably be a better 
cleaning agent, but that is what I had on hand at the time and it 
did the job.

I have a custom profile from Cathy's Profiles for the MISPRO 
inks, Roy Harrington's QTR with Paul Roark's UT2, and Clayton Jones 
BO approach for BO experimenting.  I could not be happier.  The test 
prints I have done using test images off the web totally blow away 
prints I've had done by a professional lab.  The test print images 
are razor sharp and the B&W tonality and color accuracy is 
fantastic.  A graphic artist friend of mine agrees.  I should also 
mention that I have also gone through the head alignment procedure 
in the Epson driver utilities to make sure the individual color jets 
are optimally alligned, which may be the best kept secret.  I don't 
think I've ever seen it mentioned on the forum, but I'd recommend 
doing it if you're not satisfied with your printer's output.

The bottom line is that clogged jets are not a problem, only a 
easily managed occasional nuisance.  It not the printer that limits 
me, but this amateur's scanning and software tool skills!

That's my experience.


Bob


> > I've gone through two 1280s now using MIS inks and it 
> > seems I've used most of my ink on cleaning and related test
> prints...  I get beautiful prints 
> > when it all works, but there must be a more MIS-friendly printer 
out
> there.
> 
> This is worrying - are MIS inks prone to clogging? If so, I'd like 
to
> know, because I'm thinking about putting MIS UT7 inks in my 2100.
> 
> Does anybody have other experience with MIS inks clogging in Epson
> printers? Is it worse than the OEM inks in this respect? Are the 
clogs
> harder to deal with?
> 
> TIA
> 
> Alan
>