Why you should always rule out consumables first

[theengel]

Re: Why you should always rule out consumables first

That's the same thing I do, though I use a damp paper towel and strike it into my palm.. that's what HP taught me back in the day. HP also says to use a coffee filter.. but I just use the shop towels that come in a box. Whatever works!

I've also seen this on ebay http://tinyurl.com/j2xad7o I guess if you were desperate you could try something like that.

Kiran

I normally scoff at these things, but this made me a little curious, so I went ahead and ordered one. I have a z2100 in the shop that I rebuilt. I run a page off it every two weeks to keep the printheads from drying. What I didn't think of was the fact that I had photo paper loaded--which means the matt black printhead won't be used at all. So this is what I was getting:

scan1.jpg

After trying this goofy little contraption:

scan2.jpg

A few notes:

1 - Most printheads have two colors for them, and the funnel only fits over one ink input. So one of those colors are going to get air, if you suck out too much ink. I took a chance because I figure I'm going to replace this printhead anyway.

2 - The funnel was just about useless anyway. Ink leaked out all over the floor--the seal just isn't tight enough. DON'T try this thing at a customer's place of business.

3 - A day later, those same matt black nozzles disappeared again anyway.

[Kiran Otter]

Re: Why you should always rule out consumables first

Interesting! Well thanks for trying and letting us know!

Kiran

[fixthecopier]

Re: Why you should always rule out consumables first

Kind of along the same lines, remember the basics. I recently caught myself almost making a simple issue into a major issue. The color ricoh had a print quality issue. The lady showed me samples with a cyan blob in a repetitive pattern on the papers edge. I came back with a cyan drum. I installed the drum and her prints were fine. I was then cleaning and testing the machine when I put a color page on the glass and made a copy. The copy was terrible. There were hundreds of color lines all across the page, all kinds of colors. Prints were fine, copies were awful. My brain said ccd. I started to leave and get one when I remembered that I had not cleaned the mirrors. The dust was so thick that it was deflecting light and the ccd was seeing the dust as colors. Whew, close one. The lines would not show up in B/W.