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At my wit's end with my 1280

At my wit's end with my 1280

2004-04-16 by Peter A. Klein

I regret to report that I'm still having clog troubles with my 1280. 
I've tried the Windex tricks via both the printhead's resting pad and 
flushing through the head with a syringe.  I ran a color cartridge 
through the printer, printing both color, B&W with color ink, and 
black only.  That worked OK with the usual cast and metamerism 
problems when using color ink for B&W.

I bought MIS cleaning fluid, soaked the pad, let it sit overnight.  
Didn't help.  I put in MIS cleaning cartridges, printed several purge 
patterns, left it sitting turned off for a day. Repeated the next 
day.  Put fresh MIS Ultratone and Eboni carts back in.  Got a few 
beautiful prints.  

Two days later, I have clogs again.  In several of the color 
positions.  Most of these clogs seem to move around from nozzle check 
to nozzle check, but the "yellow" position clog that started this 
whole saga is still there, as always.

I'm about ready to give up on this printer.  It seems to do OK with 
Epson color inks, although a couple of the yellow nozzles never show 
up in the nozzle checks.  With the MIS VM and Ultratone inks, clogs 
keep happenning.  When it works, the results are exquisite.  But I 
have wasted countless weekends and several cartridges of expensive 
ink, to no avail.

My next question is this:  Is it worth it to get the 1280 fixed, or 
should I just cut my losses and get another printer?  If the latter, 
I'm open to advice on which printer to get.  I want to be able to do 
good, smooth, consistent B&W printing.  I don't want to spend all my 
time screwing around with clogs.  I love the results I get from UT 
inks, but it's starting to seem like it's not worth all the trouble.  

Thanks for any advice,
--Peter

QuadTone on a Epson 1520?

2004-04-16 by Arthur Fink

I've an old Epson 1520 that's beginning to gather dust.  It could become a 
boat anchor (for a tiny rowboat), or a dedicated quadtone printer.

Are any of you doing quadtone printing on a 1520?  Are you getting 
acceptable results?  With what ink set?  I'd be interested in hearing from 
you, and, if possible, even getting a sample print.

Thanks much,


Arthur Fink

  A r t h u r    F i n k      P h o t o g r a p h y
  .................................................
  Ten New Island Avenue     · 207.766.5722
  Peaks Island, Maine 04108 · arthur@...

Re: [Digital BW] At my wit's end with my 1280

2004-04-16 by D. Hill

Peter,

Epson's, while excellent printers, let quite a few
dogs slip through the cracks.

If you're spending more time on cleaning cycles than
printing it isn't worth your time.  That and the fancy
ink is just collecting on the waste pad.

Two things that always (mostly) work:

Install original epson inks.  That will cure pretty
much any clog.

If your printer is under the one year warranty, have
them send you a new one.

If neither of those options work, outsource your
printing and concentrate on getting the image right.

It is pretty easy to set up your printer to work
perfectly as a Black Only machine.  With my 1280 I can
match the tonality of a piezo print for proofing using
BO - but with the "dotty" appearance in the 5%
highlights.  I can make any corrections and send the
file to a print house for final printing.  This is an
excellent method - maybe a little more expensive but
you have no ink/printer costs.  It is pretty expensive
to purchase and run these printers - and if you aren't
happy with the maintenance, let someone else deal with
it.

Another inexpensive and fairly easy method for
printing is to outsource to a lightjet or fuji
frontier.  Some can't get a good black and white print
from these and some can.  At less than .25 for a 4x6
it is easy to test and calibrate to the frontier.

don

--- "Peter A. Klein" <pklein@...> wrote:

> My next question is this:  Is it worth it to get the
> 1280 fixed, or 
> should I just cut my losses and get another printer?
>  If the latter, 
> I'm open to advice on which printer to get.  I want
> to be able to do 
> good, smooth, consistent B&W printing.  I don't want
> to spend all my 
> time screwing around with clogs.  I love the results
> I get from UT 
> inks, but it's starting to seem like it's not worth
> all the trouble.  
> 
> Thanks for any advice,
> --Peter
> 



	
		
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Re: At my wit's end with my 1280

2004-04-16 by Clayton Jones

Hello Peter,

Sorry to hear about all the troubles.

>My next question is this:  Is it worth it to get the 1280 fixed, or 
>should I just cut my losses and get another printer?  If the latter, 
>I'm open to advice on which printer to get.  I want to be able to do 
>good, smooth, consistent B&W printing.  I don't want to spend all my 
>time screwing around with clogs.  I love the results I get from UT 
>inks, but it's starting to seem like it's not worth all the trouble.
 

My conclusion from reading posts in this forum over a long time is
that the 1280 has more clog problems than the 2200.  The 2200 was made
to run with pigment inks, so maybe there's something different about
it (I've seen both 'yes' and 'no' arguments on that).  Whatever, there
seem to be very few 'clog' complaints for it.  With the 1280 it's a
regular occurrance.

I use a 2200 with Eboni for BO printing and it almost NEVER clogs,
even after sitting for 3 weeks.  I often go long spells between
marathon printing sessions.  I always run a nozzle check after a long
sitting and it almost always come outs perfect first time (maybe once
in the past year it required a cleaning cycle).

So my recommendation is retire the 1280 and get a 2200.  MIS says the
UT7 will be ready soon, so you'll be back in business before too long.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm

QuadTone on a Epson 1520?

2004-04-17 by Arthur Fink

[Posting this again ... since I saw no responses the first time]

I've an old Epson 1520 that's beginning to gather dust.  It could become a 
boat anchor (for a tiny rowboat), or a dedicated quadtone printer.

Are any of you doing quadtone printing on a 1520?  Are you getting 
acceptable results?  With what ink set?  I'd be interested in hearing from 
you, and, if possible, even getting a sample print.

Thanks much,


Arthur Fink

  A r t h u r    F i n k      P h o t o g r a p h y
  .................................................
  Ten New Island Avenue     · 207.766.5722
  Peaks Island, Maine 04108 · arthur@...

RE: [Digital BW] QuadTone on a Epson 1520?

2004-04-17 by Paul Roark

Arthur,

>I've an old Epson 1520 that's beginning to gather dust.  It could become a 
>boat anchor (for a tiny rowboat), or a dedicated quadtone printer.

>Are any of you doing quadtone printing on a 1520?  Are you getting 
>acceptable results?  With what ink set?  ...

I don't have a 1520.  However, I believe that it is a 3000 with a narrower
image area and different (1160) carts.

I believe the 3000 curves work on it.

I have 3000 curves for various inksets.  I think the best results are with
the new UT-FS (warm) or UT-FSN (neutral/selenium) monotone inksets.  

The results with the curves are reasonably good on matte paper, but not as
good as a modern printer.  (I would not try to use the 1520 with glossy
paper.)  The dot size of the 3000/1520 is such that upon very close
inspection in featureless areas (like test strips), critical viewers might
see evidence of dots.  Most will never see them in actual photos.

The best thing to do is to just buy some UT-FSN 1160 carts and give it a
try.  See http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/qn.html 

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

RE: [Digital BW] QuadTone on a Epson 1520?

2004-04-19 by Arthur Fink

At 11:10 AM 4/17/2004, Paul Roark wrote:
>Arthur,
>
> >I've an old Epson 1520 that's beginning to gather dust.  It could become a
> >boat anchor (for a tiny rowboat), or a dedicated quadtone printer.
>
> >Are any of you doing quadtone printing on a 1520?  Are you getting
> >acceptable results?  With what ink set?  ...
>
>I don't have a 1520.  However, I believe that it is a 3000 with a narrower
>image area and different (1160) carts.
>
>I believe the 3000 curves work on it.
>
>I have 3000 curves for various inksets.  I think the best results are with
>the new UT-FS (warm) or UT-FSN (neutral/selenium) monotone inksets.
>
>The results with the curves are reasonably good on matte paper, but not as
>good as a modern printer.  (I would not try to use the 1520 with glossy
>paper.)  The dot size of the 3000/1520 is such that upon very close
>inspection in featureless areas (like test strips), critical viewers might
>see evidence of dots.  Most will never see them in actual photos.
>
>The best thing to do is to just buy some UT-FSN 1160 carts and give it a
>try.  See 
><http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/qn.html>http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/qn.html 
>

MIS told me to get 'Original ultra tone' cartridges, and use the curves for 
the 1160.

What's the real difference between those inks, and the UT-FS or UT-FSN 
insets that you are suggesting?

Arthur Fink

  A r t h u r    F i n k      P h o t o g r a p h y
  .................................................
  Ten New Island Avenue     · 207.766.5722
  Peaks Island, Maine 04108 · arthur@... 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

RE: [Digital BW] QuadTone on a Epson 1520?

2004-04-19 by Paul Roark

Arthur,

If you want a variable-tone inkset for the 1520, the UT1 inks would be the
most lightfast.  However, I'd use the 3000 UT curves, not the 1160 curves.
I don't think the 1160 curves work well on the 1520. 

My recommendation for the old 3000-class printers, which would include the
1520, is to use a monotone inkset.  The reason for this is that these
printers have rather large dots and benefit from the full quad inksets.  The
variable-tone inksets have to cut out one gray ink to make room for the
toner.  On modern variable-dot printers this is not a problem.  On the
3000/1500 the dots start to become visible.  

The two monotone inksets I recommend are the UT-FS (medium warm) and UT-FSN
(neutral or "selenium" -- what would have been called a cool-tone silver
print).

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com 

_________________________________
Show quoted textHide quoted text
-----Original Message-----
From: Arthur Fink [mailto:arthur@...] 
Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2004 6:17 PM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com;
DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Digital BW] QuadTone on a Epson 1520?

At 11:10 AM 4/17/2004, Paul Roark wrote:
>Arthur,
>
> >I've an old Epson 1520 that's beginning to gather dust.  It could become
a
> >boat anchor (for a tiny rowboat), or a dedicated quadtone printer.
>
> >Are any of you doing quadtone printing on a 1520?  Are you getting
> >acceptable results?  With what ink set?  ...
>
>I don't have a 1520.  However, I believe that it is a 3000 with a narrower
>image area and different (1160) carts.
>
>I believe the 3000 curves work on it.
>
>I have 3000 curves for various inksets.  I think the best results are with
>the new UT-FS (warm) or UT-FSN (neutral/selenium) monotone inksets.
>
>The results with the curves are reasonably good on matte paper, but not as
>good as a modern printer.  (I would not try to use the 1520 with glossy
>paper.)  The dot size of the 3000/1520 is such that upon very close
>inspection in featureless areas (like test strips), critical viewers might
>see evidence of dots.  Most will never see them in actual photos.
>
>The best thing to do is to just buy some UT-FSN 1160 carts and give it a
>try.  See 
><http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/qn.html>http://www.inksuppl
y.com/index.cfm?source=html/qn.html 
>

MIS told me to get 'Original ultra tone' cartridges, and use the curves for 
the 1160.

What's the real difference between those inks, and the UT-FS or UT-FSN 
insets that you are suggesting?

Arthur Fink

  A r t h u r    F i n k      P h o t o g r a p h y
  .................................................
  Ten New Island Avenue     . 207.766.5722
  Peaks Island, Maine 04108 . arthur@... 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]




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RE: [Digital BW] QuadTone on a Epson 1520?

2004-04-19 by Arthur Fink

At 01:41 AM 4/19/2004, Paul Roark wrote:

>The two monotone inksets I recommend are the UT-FS (medium warm) and UT-FSN
>(neutral or "selenium" -- what would have been called a cool-tone silver
>print).

And would you use any special driver (like R9), or just the straight Epson 
program?

  A r t h u r    F i n k      P h o t o g r a p h y
  .................................................
  Ten New Island Avenue     · 207.766.5722
  Peaks Island, Maine 04108 · arthur@...

RE: [Digital BW] QuadTone on a Epson 1520?

2004-04-19 by Paul Roark

Arthur,


>At 01:41 AM 4/19/2004, Paul Roark wrote:

>>The two monotone inksets I recommend are the UT-FS (medium warm) and 
>>UT-FSN (neutral or "selenium" -- what would have been called a cool-tone
>>silver print).

>And would you use any special driver (like R9), or just the straight Epson 
>program?

I'd just use the Epson driver and image adjustment curves to control the
ink.  The Piezo/R9 driver dmax is too weak for me.  Also, the version of the
Piezo driver I have is either too slow or bands.  It also stops me from
using my computer while it is printing.   All these negatives far outweigh
the slightly better smoothness it can achieve in its slowest mode.  I gave
up on the Piezo driver well before I even started to consider new inksets.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

Re: [Digital BW] At my wit's end with my 1280

2004-04-21 by Harry Saddler

I have a theory that the ink clumps up (congeals, flocculates, or some 
such thing) and then the clumps hang around in the system, occasionally 
lodging in the jets. I once unwisely let my 1280 sit for too long 
without printing, then discovered that ink had totally congealed in one 
of the tubes. I tried roto-rootering it out, then replaced the 
carts+tubes+ink; eventually I got it working again, but for quite a 
long time afterward would get the occasional clog. So if the ink-supply 
system is new, and head is clean, and it's printing well and then 
suddenly it clogs, it stands to reason that there are clumps floating 
around, perhaps behind the head or in the cart-feed nozzles, that find 
their way to the nozzles.

Harry
Show quoted textHide quoted text
On Apr 15, 2004, at 11:26 PM, Peter A. Klein wrote:

> I regret to report that I'm still having clog troubles with my 1280.
> I've tried the Windex tricks via both the printhead's resting pad and
> flushing through the head with a syringe.  I ran a color cartridge
> through the printer, printing both color, B&W with color ink, and
> black only.  That worked OK with the usual cast and metamerism
> problems when using color ink for B&W.
>
> I bought MIS cleaning fluid, soaked the pad, let it sit overnight.
> Didn't help.  I put in MIS cleaning cartridges, printed several purge
> patterns, left it sitting turned off for a day. Repeated the next
> day.  Put fresh MIS Ultratone and Eboni carts back in.  Got a few
> beautiful prints.
>
> Two days later, I have clogs again.  In several of the color
> positions.  Most of these clogs seem to move around from nozzle check
> to nozzle check, but the "yellow" position clog that started this
> whole saga is still there, as always.
>
> I'm about ready to give up on this printer.  It seems to do OK with
> Epson color inks, although a couple of the yellow nozzles never show
> up in the nozzle checks.  With the MIS VM and Ultratone inks, clogs
> keep happenning.  When it works, the results are exquisite.  But I
> have wasted countless weekends and several cartridges of expensive
> ink, to no avail.
>
> My next question is this:  Is it worth it to get the 1280 fixed, or
> should I just cut my losses and get another printer?  If the latter,
> I'm open to advice on which printer to get.  I want to be able to do
> good, smooth, consistent B&W printing.  I don't want to spend all my
> time screwing around with clogs.  I love the results I get from UT
> inks, but it's starting to seem like it's not worth all the trouble.
>
> Thanks for any advice,
> --Peter
>
>
>
> Please visit the Group Homepage to check the Files, and other 
> resources as they are often being updated.
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint
>
> If you wish to receive no emails or just a daily digest, or you wish 
> to unsubscribe, please edit your Membership preferences by visiting 
> this same page.
>
> Please follow these basic guidelines:
> - As threads develop, trim off excess portions of earlier messages to 
> keep them short.
> - Good manners are required at all time. No personal attacks or 
> flames. Hostile, aggressive or argumentative users may be removed from 
> the membership without notice.
> - Keep your posts and threads related to the group topic of digital 
> B&W printing. Users who persistently make off-topic posts may be 
> removed from the membership.
> - By posting on this forum you agree to abide by the group rules and 
> guidelines, and to abide by the actions and decisions of the group 
> Owner and Moderators. See “Group Topic, Rules and Guidelines” in the 
> Files section:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/files/
>
> BY PARTICIPATING IN AND/OR POSTING MESSAGES TO THE DIGITAL BW, THE 
> PRINT YAHOO! GROUP YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT THE “OWNER” 
> AND “MODERATORS” OF DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP SHALL NOT BE 
> LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, 
> CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, 
> DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE 
> LOSSES (EVEN IF THE  “OWNER” AND “MODERATORS” OF DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT 
> YAHOO GROUP HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), 
> RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE DIGITAL BW, 
> THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP; (ii) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF 
> YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (iii) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD 
> PARTY ON THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP; OR (iv) ANY OTHER 
> MATTER RELATING TO THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP.
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

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