When Things "Just Work"

Some years ago Honda spent hundreds of hours, and a great deal of money, producing a fascinating commercial. It uses the component parts of a Honda Accord in a complex "Mousetrap" game-like sequence of events. At the end, Garrison Keillor says, in the commercial's only spoken words, "Isn't it nice when things just work?"

Yea, it is. Many of my postings over the last few months have been about starting a print job, and dealing with clearing clogs (or whatever ink delivery problems appear as clogs) before any printing can be done. Most of the clogs my 7900 has suffered have been easy enough to clear. Usually a simple cleaning of the affected pair of channels has resolved the problem. Occasionally a standard cleaning fails, forcing me to do a "powerful" clean. OK, not a big deal.

Still, dealing with clogs seems to be normal, so much so that any time I set up for a print job, I assume clearing one or more clogged channels will be part of the work. It's a hassle; in a few cases I've put off a print job simply because I knew I didn't have time to deal with the inevitable clogs. I'd come back to it, run the nozzle check, and then do the necessary cleanings when I had time for it.

What a pleasure it is to set up a job and have no clogs! One of my popular images of snowy owls sold to a gallery customer a few days ago. Another customer had queued up behind the first, hoping to get the same print. These are small, matted prints, which I sell in at a fairly low price, and in fairly high volumes. As there was only one copy in the bin, I received a call asking if I could provide another right away. Naturally I agreed, but had none on-hand. I set up right away to print multiple copies on a 24 inch roll of luster.

I ran a nozzle check as usual, found no clogs. I loaded the roll paper, sent the print job from Photoshop, and got a series of perfect prints. Quick, simple, and hassle-free! I'd forgotten that on these rare occasions, the 7900 truly is a joy to use.

Isn't it nice when things just work?

  --Jay

Very Fresh Ink!

When printing a job recently I noticed my LK ink had dropped below 10%. I've learned I can print for months using cartridges that report a fairly low capacity. But the printer may refuse to run cleaning cycles when the ink for any channel to be cleaned drops below 10%. It was time to place an ink order. I also needed a roll of the paper I use for most client jobs, so the timing was good.

A week ago I ordered, from IT Supplies (itsupplies.com)* a roll of Epson Luster and a 150ml LK ink cartridge. The paper arrived Thursday, the ink the next day.

Of interest is the expiration date on that ink. I have received inks with widely varying expiration dates. In one case, the marked date was the very next month, which in fact was only a week away. Needless to say, I returned that for a replacement. More typical are expiration dates eight to twelve months away.

The expiration date on the new LK is November, 2014. That's the longest period I've seen, making this a very fresh ink!

  --Jay

*I have no affiliation with IT Supplies other than as a frequently-satisfied customer. I find their prices to be slightly better than the lowest I can find elsewhere, they have the ink and papers I want, and they offer free shipping for orders over $99.00. It's very easy to spend more than that on any given order, so it's always free shipping (in the U.S.—sorry, I've not checked this for other countries). I have had problems with damaged shipments due to poor packaging. And that "expires next week" ink did come from IT Supplies. Still, my good experiences with this vendor have outweighed the bad, orders arrive very quickly, and their prices are good. Returns of damaged items, while they shouldn't be necessary, have been painless.

VLM and LC Clogs, Again

In my previous posting (4 April), I described dealing with some nozzle issues after the printer had been idle for several weeks. The problems were with the VLM and LC channels. Today, a little over a week since I last printed, I set up to make a pair of prints across the width of a 24-inch roll of Luster. The "pair" is two of the same photo, in the same size.

I set up as usual, starting with a nozzle check print on plain paper. I found the central third of the patterns of both VLM and LC missing. Note that these are paired channels. The cartridges for these inks are at 80% and 62%, respectively. I  ran a standard cleaning of the VLM/LC pair, resolving the problem.

As the cleaning cycle completed I received a phone call, which kept me away from the machine for perhaps 15 minutes. After the call I printed a nozzle check, confirmed all channels were clear, and then fed the roll paper and made my prints. No problems found, the prints look great.

Of interest, though, is that the same channels had ink delivery problems today as did on 3 April, the last time the printer was used. Looking back through my nozzle check prints for the last several months, I found problems with either VLM, LC, or both on six of the thirteen check prints run over that period. No other channels had nearly as many problems.

This may or may not indicate a problem with the head or ink delivery system for the VLM/LC channel. Something to keep an eye on.

  --Jay

Printing After a Five-week Idle Period

As mentioned in my last posting, it's been some time since I've made a print. The print job history the Mac keeps shows it's been five weeks; that's a record for me, the longest time between prints since I've owned the 7900.

Yesterday I made prints of two of my photos, along with four panoramic prints for a client. I started as usual, running a nozzle-check print. This was perfect. I then made a small print on a sheet of Epson luster. This was cut from the 24-inch roll the last time I nested several prints into one job and had some reasonable sized "scrap" pieces left after cutting the pictures apart. The print was unacceptable; clearly too magenta. Below is a photo of the area where ink delivery (LC, as it turns out) failed. At the top of the print, all's well.

But you can see clearly when banding starts, and you can see the white feathers of the snowy owl are anything but white (the print's better than it looks, but I bumped up the contrast in the jpeg at left so the banding would be clearly seen).

I printed another nozzle check, and sure enough, LC was completely gone. I then did a standard cleaning of the VLM/LC pair. This returned only about half the LC nozzles, so I did a powerful cleaning of the same pair.

That cleared the LC nozzles, but the check print showed a few missing dots in the patterns of several other colors. As it was no more than a couple of dots in three colors, I made a second print of the owl photo. This time, the print looked perfect, with no banding, and accurate color.

My next print was a larger B&W print on a sheet of EEF. You can see the image in a recent article on my site. The bottom (final) photo is the one I printed. It too looks great, with neutral grays and white whites.

I then made the client's panorama prints using the roll of luster. They too are very nice.

I've read numerous reports of situations like that described above; it's happened to others. A nozzle check is perfect, but the next "real" print is not. There are endless opinions about why, but as usual, few (or no) facts. It seems reasonable to conclude that, especially when the printer's been idle for some time, it's best to make a "junk" print, something that pumps more ink through the delivery system than a nozzle-check print, allow the printer to "rest" a few minutes, and then run a nozzle check. That junk print might best be one of the handful of test files available on the Web, created by people attempting to find a pattern that fires all nozzles. This preamble to printing is a big time-sink, and as usual with these printers, guarantees nothing. But perhaps it improves the chances of not wasting a sheet of good paper.

  --Jay

Ink Bay Door Opens Itself?

I haven't run a print job since late February, surely my 7900's longest idle period to date. Gallery sales of my prints dribble in, always nice during this slow time of year. I had that print job in February, doing another batch of repro-prints for a local watercolor painter (she insists on calling these giclées, about which I've no complaint since she pays her bills promptly). I've been out shooting a little, but it's an odd time of year here in northwestern Montana. Winter's pretty much over, but spring has only just appeared in the form of warm and sunny days. Until a week ago it was still quite cold, with cloudy skies and generally lousy light and "blah" color. Fortunately, that's beginning to change.

But to my point for this posting: I've just completed the installation of a laminate floor in my print studio. As you'd expect, a job like this requires removing as much as possible from the room. For the most part that was no trouble, just a lot of leg-work. I left one large (and heavy!) desk in the room, and I left the 7900. When I completed laying the flooring in one half of the room, I moved the desk and the printer to the completed side, and then finished the rest. I wrapped up the job yesterday, removed all the tools, trash, and remaining materials from the room, and then moved furniture, my framed print inventory, all my printing supplies, and a few other odds-and-ends back into place. That included rolling the printer across the room and restoring it to its customary location. Given the smooth flooring and the casters on the 7900's stand, that was quite easy. During all of this the printer remained in standby mode. It's powered through a small UPS, so even when I had to unplug the machine from the mains it remained in sleep mode—LCD dark, the usual LEDs on or blinking. That's the normal "off" state for my printer.

The 7900 and a few printing supplies on the new floor.

After moving the printer I continued working in the room. Perhaps 30 minutes after moving the printer I noticed the LCD was lit; it displayed a message indicating the left ink bay door was open. Huh? I hadn't open it. I hadn't touched the printer's controls—hadn't, in fact, for a month.

But sure enough, the left bay door was unlatched, as if I'd instructed the machine to open it. I pushed to latch it closed. The printer then made its usual noises, and the carriage made several very slow, full-width passes. After the expected time-out period, the machine went into sleep mode.

I don't know how or why the door came ajar. The floor is very smooth, so there were no bumps or impacts as I rolled the printer across the room. I didn't lift or drop the machine. Odd. Clearly the door came ajar during the move, but I can't explain how it happened.

I'm awaiting receipt of some Photoshop files from my Michigan panorama client. I also have a couple of prints I want to make for a show that will hang next week. In the next day or two I'll start up the printer and (I hope!) verify there are no other anomalies.

  --Jay