39 Days

I've not made a print in some time. I've done little photographing lately, and it's a slow time for client jobs. Here is western Montana we're in the middle of what is, so far, the third-coldest winter on record (more about our recent weather, and some photos, in my latest article). We've also had lots of snow, on par, I think, with the snowiest winter I've seen in my fourteen winters here. That's not a complaint, as I love the snow and getting outside in winter. It's just that I've not been doing much of that this year.

Two days ago I wanted to make a couple of small prints. I had MK loaded from the last client job I'd done back in December. Because the 7900 had been idle for some time, I knew it would punish me, as they do, for that lack of use. And it did: the first nozzle check showed about half of LLK missing, and a couple of blank spots in VLM. The LLK cartridge is fairly new, while VLM has been at 1% for a long time; I temporarily installed a new VLM. Rather than try to clear these I did a MK to PK swap, which does an auto-clean. When the swap finished I made another nozzle check print. This showed ALL of LLK missing, a large section of VLM missing, and a couple of blank nits in PK.

I then performed a powerful cleaning of the Y/LLK pair. With Y at 2%, I replaced that, temporarily, with a new Y cartridge.  When the cleaning finished LLK was perfect, but PK and VLM had not improved.

Finally, I did a powerful cleaning of the C/VLM pair. After that cleaning there was a long delay, and then the printer did an auto-clean (this is displayed on the LCD). When finished, a nozzle check showed a tiny gap in LC (which had been perfect before), and several small gaps in VLM, in different locations than the larger blank area after the previous cleaning.

I don't know how much ink all of this consumed, but the waste cartridge went from 20% after the first nozzle check, to 14% after the last one.

At this point I just wanted to get on with the job, stop wasting time and ink. I set up to make my prints, which would be two copies of the same photo, on letter-size sheets. I sent the job, and the printer did its "calibration thing", in which is moves the head verrrrry slooooowly the full length of the carriage, and back, a number of times. I didn't count, but I'd guess it made half a dozen passes. Then the LCD flashed "Auto Nozzle-Check" for half a second, and finally it printed. The print, and the second copy, looked fine.

I write the date, the relative humidity, and the room temperature on every nozzle check print. Looking at the last one I did back in December, I found it had been 39 days since I'd last printed. That is, by far, the longest idle period my 7900 has ever had in the five-plus years I've owned it. Also, because it's been so cold this winter, the room heat is running more than has been typical in recent winters. As a result, humidity in the print studio has been quite low, typically under 35%.

Today I set up to make two more small prints, same format as before, different photos. The first nozzle check, and the two prints, are perfect. Two days ago, getting this job done took most of an hour. Today it took no more than ten minutes.

  --Jay